What are the negative health effects of rapid weight loss?
Very low-calorie diets undertaken for rapid weight loss often lead to deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and many other nutrients. In cases of malnutrition, the body reduces energy expenditure to sustain life. It's very likely you'll revert to your old eating habits once you end this diet. Rapid weight loss can have negative effects on many areas, from our quality of life to our metabolism and immune system. We examine the health effects of rapid weight loss.
It negatively affects your quality of life.
Very low-calorie diets undertaken for rapid weight loss often lead to deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and many other nutrients. In cases of malnutrition, the body reduces energy expenditure to sustain life. It's very likely you'll revert to your old eating habits once you end this diet. Rapid weight loss can have negative effects on many areas, from our quality of life to our metabolism and immune system. We examine the health effects of rapid weight loss.
Nutrient deficiencies are common.
Low-calorie diets often lead to deficiencies in vitamins, minerals, and many other nutrients. We need more than 50 nutrients a day for a healthy life. A varied and adequate diet ensures we obtain these necessary nutrients.
You may experience problems focusing.
Each nutrient deficiency can manifest with different symptoms, but common symptoms include fatigue, lack of energy, weakness, hair loss, brittle nails, low blood sugar leading to increased cravings for sweets, and difficulty concentrating.
It causes your metabolism to slow down.
In cases of malnutrition, our bodies reduce energy expenditure to sustain life. When you end this diet, it's very likely you'll revert to your old eating habits. You might even experience a craving for excessive amounts of the foods you restricted. Therefore, you end up consuming more energy than you did during the diet. Unfortunately, however, our bodies are in a period of reduced energy expenditure at that time and will store the ingested energy. This results in weight gain.
It can change your relationship with food.
Restricted, inadequate, and forbidden eating, along with the suppression or elimination of food cravings, can, like anything suppressed, reappear with even greater intensity later on. For example, have you ever experienced returning to your old habits, even more strongly than before, after losing weight through restricted eating during a diet? If you've tried such a diet before, it's helpful to remember your experiences. Did living this way truly benefit you?
The risk of contracting diseases increases.
Malnutrition is often accompanied by inflammation. Chronic inflammation can increase the risk of developing health problems such as cardiovascular disease and can indirectly trigger insulin resistance.
Instead of losing weight quickly, you should lose weight in a healthy way.
The rate of weight loss depends on many factors, including age, gender, stress level, physical activity level, and health status. Some of these factors are beyond our control, so instead of fighting our bodies, we recommend approaching them with compassion, giving them their needs, and thus achieving healthy weight loss rather than rapid weight loss.