Why Rapid Weight Loss is Bad
It is little more than a natural desire to lose weight as fast as you possibly can, especially when there is an event on the horizon that you want to look your best for. That is why, despite experts warning of the dangers associated with rapid weight loss, so many people ignore the warnings and do some foolish things to try and lose the weight as fast as they possibly can.
There are some serious health risks associated with losing weight too quickly, especially when it involves what are known as starvation diets. By depriving yourself of essential nutrients over a prolonged period of time, you can create a condition of malnutrition which can be damaging to your body in the long term. Some people even resort to withholding liquids in the hope of reducing body weight, which is equally dangerous as it can result in highly serious conditions and can even bring about kidney and other organ failure. Dehydration can affect the nervous system too with intermittent loss of motor control, never mind the negative effects on the brain and the ability to think cohesively.
Apart from the potential health hazards associated with trying to lose weight too fast, there are other long term issues that can make this action a foolish one. It is well known that weight lost too fast will soon return as soon as the person reverts back to their normal eating and lifestyle patterns. By trying to shed too much weight too quickly, the body is forced to place itself in starvation mode, whereby it slows down metabolism of food and suppresses the digestive process, while taking the nutrients it does get from the small amount of food it is getting and storing much more of it as fat to help it cope with the period of little or no food. As soon as more food is consumed, much more is stored as fat which cases rapid weight gain, exacerbated by a sluggish metabolism that will not resume its normal function until enough fat is stored to cope with the next expected period of starvation, even if the person has no intention of doing it again.
This is basic survival tactics and is a basic part of human programming and instinct that cannot be overridden by simply wanting or expectation.
These issues need to be considered very carefully before you make any attempt to lose weight simply by restricting the food and liquids that you normally consume. Rapid weight loss may well result in the short term, but the associated dangers plus the longer term consequences of such actions make them potentially dangerous and are not recommended by any medical or nutritional experts. If you need to lose weight for any reason, it should be planned well in advance of the target date you expect to have lost it, so that it can be reduced naturally and safely with better long term potential to preserve the level of weight lost and to then continue with measures designed to maintain a healthy body weight for a long time to come.
