Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.
Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle
Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.
Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism
Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.
When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.
What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
A Graphic example
For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.
In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.
Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.
Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are simply losing water in the sort term.
The dangers of crash dieting
Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.
This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.
They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.
Your goal should be long term weight loss
Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.
If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.
The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.
The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.
Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy
Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of starvation.
Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.
In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.
This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.
If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.
This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.
Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly
In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us
Appearance of Loose Skin
If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.
The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.
Gallstones
Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.
Lack of energy and illness
Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.
Lose weight slowly
Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.
You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.
How to do
Losing more than a pound or two a week is not healthy. Fast weight loss is bad for two main reasons.
Lose weight fast and you will lose muscle
Firstly, if you lose weight quickly you lose muscle along with fat. This is bad when it comes to weight loss.
Muscle burns more calories than fat. The more muscle you have the more calories you burn and this applies to when you’re not doing anything strenuous. Losing muscle is therefore not a good idea.
Lose weight fast and you slow your metabolism
Secondly, if you lose weight too quickly your body will slow down your metabolism.
When we skip meals or crash diet, our body is programmed to think it’s starving and slows down our metabolism to conserve energy.
What is conserved is our fat stores; our weight loss comes from water and muscle.
A Graphic example
For example, studies show that when dieting, the weight we lose is approximately 75 percent fat and 25 percent muscle.
In addition, a relatively high percentage of this weight loss is likely to be water.
Keep in mind, water accounts for about 70 percent of the total body weight of an average person, with muscle tissue containing approximately 75 percent water and body fat containing about 50 percent water.
Losing weight quickly is therefore very difficult as we are simply losing water in the sort term.
The dangers of crash dieting
Crash dieting refers is a method in which we lose weight simply by restricting the number of calories consumed.
This method of losing weight fast is considered unhealthy, and it is rare that people who do it keep weight off.
They cannot adjust to these new unhealthy eating habits and then put the weight straight back on.
Your goal should be long term weight loss
Consider this, if you only lost a pound a week that would be 52 pounds a year and that is a lot of weight.
If you lose weight slowly you will remain healthy and also stand a good chance of keeping it off.
The maximum amount of body fat a healthy person can lose is about 1 or 2 pounds per week.
The human body is simply not designed to lose weight quickly and this is a healthy amount of weight loss to aim for.
Reasons why losing weight fast is difficult and unhealthy
Our bodies are programmed to help us survive in times of starvation.
Our basic body reactions have been set since man first walked the earth and in those days food was not just a phone call, or short walk away.
In times gone by, famine was the biggest threat to mans survival and your body is programmed to protect you.
This is why it won’t ever lose excessive amounts of fat in a short period of time; your body is programmed to conserve fat.
If you drastically reduce your calorie intake, you slow down your metabolism, in order to conserve calories, as we discussed earlier.
This is one reason why we encounter a weight loss quickly is, so difficult as your body actively fights to conserve weight, it’s a survival reflex.
Side Effects of Losing Weight quickly
In addition losing weight quickly has serious side affects that can harm us
Appearance of Loose Skin
If you shed weight too quickly, your skin does not have time to shrink to your new body dimensions.
The only effective treatment for this is to fix the lose skin with surgery.
Gallstones
Studies have shown that people who lose weight quickly, have a greater risk of developing gallstones.
Lack of energy and illness
Depending on the diet there are a host of other complications including lack of energy and nausea for those who cut out carbs and a general feeling of ill health and lack of energy as you deprive your body of food.
Lose weight slowly
Don’t be taken in by quick fix weight loss, its not possible aim for longer term weight loss.
You will lose weight, keep it off and feel both healthier and happier.
How to do
You finally decide to lose those excess pounds of body fat. You open your favorite search engine and start looking for the “best weight loss program” or some “magic” pill that will make things much easier for you. You find tons of ads that offer you fast and effortless weight loss in few weeks or even days, and you think, “Wow, that’s exactly what I am looking for.”
Unfortunately, the chances of finding something that really works are minimal. Why? Because 99% of the weight loss systems or drugs you will find are either potentially dangerous for your health or pure marketing hype. Everybody likes to hear that losing weight is fast and easy, and nobody wants to hear it is a gradual process that requires some effort and discipline. So the self-claimed weight loss “experts” are giving to you exactly what you are looking for – a fast and easy solution for your problem. Unfortunately the easy way is not the way that will lead you to healthy and long-term results. If you want to learn how to detect the hype and the gimmicks you have to understand the basics of weight loss first. So let’s start!
Weight loss vs. fat loss
First of all, let’s consider the differences between both things: There are many ways to lose weight -losing water weight, losing muscle and bone weight, and losing body fat. In fact, it is very easy to lose “weight.” Just start exercising and reduce your water intake and you will lose several pounds in the first few days. When exercising, your body loses a lot of water and because you have stopped drinking liquids, you easily become dehydrated and you will weigh several pounds less. But is this is a long-term and healthy weight loss? Of course not. You will gain back the weight as soon as you restore your normal water intake.
Here is another example: When you go on a diet and cut your calorie intake too much, your body detects the severe calorie deficit and slows down your metabolism. As a result, you stop losing fat (your reserve fuel), and start getting the energy you need from the muscle tissue. The result is decreased body weight, but unfortunately you have lost muscle instead of losing body fat.
As you see, to achieve long-term, natural weight loss you need to burn as much fat as possible with the minimum lean body mass loss.
How exactly fat is burned?
If you are a healthy person, to successfully lose fat you only need to burn more calories than you eat (or drink) while maintaining your metabolism fast. Isn’t it simple? In order to achieve this, your calories must come from the proper food sources, such as lean protein (chicken breast, egg whites, seafood, extra-lean red meat), complex carbs (oatmeal, brown rice, whole grains, vegetables, etc.) and “good” fats (olive oil, flaxseeds, fatty fish and cod liver oil). You should also add some kind of cardio exercise to your program, such as walking, jogging or cycling. Keep in mind that cardio is considered the best way to directly burn the fat.
Let’s look at an example:
If you burn 2500 kCal and eat about 2000 kCal every day, that is a deficit of 500 kCal. There are 3500 kCal in 1 pound of fat. This means you will be burning 1 pound per week of pure body fat. Surprised? Yes, only 1 pound per week. I know “10 pounds in two days!” sounds much better, but that is far from realistic goal.
Keep in mind that if you cut your calorie intake too much, you will slow down your metabolism, and this is not desirable if your goal is fat loss. This means that “Eat 500 kCal – Burn 2500 kCal – Lose 4 pounds per week” won’t work for you.
It’s definitely possible to burn fat at faster rates (with proper nutrition and exercise program), even without supplements, but keep in mind that the maximum rate that is considered healthy is 2 pounds per week (if you are extremely overweight, up to 3 pounds per week is fine). Achieving healthy long-term weight loss faster is practically impossible. If you find products or nutrition plans that promise fast weight loss, they probably base their claims on dehydration. You can lose water weight really fast but this is not a real fat loss and can lead to serious health conditions.
Summary
You don’t need a pill to lose weight. You don’t need to starve yourself, to restrict the intake of any macronutrient, or to buy any “miracle” product. You just need to consume fewer calories than you burn, and those should come from good natural food sources. The best way to increase the amount of calories you burn and to create such calorie deficit is to exercise. Mild calorie restriction plus 30 to 40 minutes of intensive cardio exercise every day is the “magic formula” you are looking for and that will make you lose fat like never before.
How to do
The following article presents the very latest information on Losing Weight. If you have a particular interest in Losing Weight, then this informative article is required reading.
See how much you can learn about Losing Weight when you take a little time to read a well-researched article? Don’t miss out on the rest of this great information.
You’ve made the decision to lose weight as quickly as possible. You have your diet in place and you expect to follow it religiously. At this point, you may be wondering how much weight you can lose in a given week and whether fast weight loss can be dangerous for your body.
There are a number of things that can affect your weight loss. For instance, family history, or genetics, can play a significant role. Also, your weight loss may depend upon how much exercise you’re engaging in, as well as how much stress you are under. Your metabolism, or how quickly you burn calories, can also have a major effect.
Theoretically, you could lose as much as 20 pounds a week. However, much of that weight could be water weight. That means that, once you go off your diet, you are likely to gain much of that weight back. Also, unless you engage in strength training, you will be losing muscle as well as fat, since about ¼ of the body’s weight consists of muscle. It is interesting to note that, at most, you can probably lose four pounds of fat in a given week.
Nature has a way of protecting the body against excessive weight loss. If, for instance, your calorie count suddenly drops, your body will compensate for the fact by reducing your metabolic rate. As a result, you’ll need fewer calories to maintain your weight. This explains why some people lose weight up to a point and then cannot lose any additional weight, no matter how hard they try.
If you lose weight quickly, there’s a good chance that your health will be jeopardized. For instance, fast weight loss has been linked to the appearance of gall stones. Also, you may experience loose skin as your weight goes into free fall. Perhaps most distressing of all, if you experience rapid weight loss, there’s a good chance that you will gain the weight back again. This is because it is very difficult to maintain a healthy diet regimen. You may find yourself falling back into your bad eating habits after a period of deprivation.
Fast weight loss also places you at greater risk for an eating disorder. You may be tempted to starve yourself, leading to anorexia. Or, because your food cravings are so great, you may want to binge and purge, leading to a case of bulimia. This is why it is so critically important to lose weight under a physician’s care. Otherwise, you could be doing more harm to your body than good.
Although the body has the capability of shedding a great deal of weight over a period of time, most medical experts agree that one should not expect to lose more than one or two pounds a week in order to remain healthy. This can be disappointing to a dieter, especially one that needs to lose about 50 pounds. However, doctors believe that the go-slow approach is best for long-term weight loss. Otherwise, you could end up with a number of health problems you weren’t anticipating.
There are a number of approaches you can use to lose weight. For instance, you might follow the Atkins plan, the Zone, or the diabetic diet. You might try Sugar Busters or the Carb Addict’s prescription for losing weight. However, it is vitally important that you accompany your diet plan with an effective exercise routine. One of the best exercises you can do, in fact, is the easiest—walking. It has been said that you can lose as many as two pounds a week, just by walking alone.
As has been demonstrated here, rapid weight loss should be approached with caution. It is far better to lose a few pounds each week and maintain that weight loss over the long term. In essence, all good things take time, and that is particularly true when it comes to weight loss. Perhaps the best advice is to be patient. Follow a reasonable diet, get plenty of exercise, and drink a good amount of water. That way, you should be able to slowly lose weight—without jeopardizing your health in the process.
Take time to consider the points presented above. What you learn may help you overcome your hesitation to take action.
How to do
