Fast Weight Loss

The need to lose weight, and fast, is one of the main reasons why the weight loss industry is so rich and powerful. There are millions of products out there to “help” people lose weight quickly and also techniques people adopt to shed the pounds as fast as they can. Actually, shedding pounds is one of the key problems with losing weight quickly.

What Are You Really Losing?

People may want to shed pounds and lose weight, but the problem is there's often little concern with what that weight is actually composed of. Ideally, we want to be losing fat, but weight loss can instead be a result of muscle or fluid loss. 

The worst part is there's the tendency for people to be indifferent as to what their weight loss is composed of, as long as

• They see a smaller number on the scales
• It alters their appearance
• Helps them fit into clothing

This can not only be dangerous for your health, but place you in the far worse position of being more overweight and fat then you were to begin with.

Fast Weight Loss Diets

Many popular diets these days are focused on rapid weight loss. They fall under the umbrella of starvation diets where the change in daily calorie intake is extreme, often falling below peoples minimum requirements. 

Starvation diets are notorious for rapid fluid and muscle loss including the likes of the “Cabbage Soup Diet”, the “Lemon Detox Diet” and the actual “Starvation diet” with its claims of losing 10 pounds in several days.

Dangers of Fast Weight Loss Diets

Starvation Mode – Holds onto Fat

Significant reduction of calories in diets will often lead to your body going into starvation mode. This is our body's defense mechanism, reacting to a reduction of calories by slowing the metabolism in attempt to make more efficient use of stored energy (holding onto fat stores).

This adds to the overall difficulty of losing fat.

Gaining More Fat

In order to lose weight rapidly, dieters are engaging in a short term regime. Once these regimes end, dieters often end up having more fat and/or weight then they did to begin with for the following reasons

• An increase in calorie to previous levels, perhaps even exceeding previous calorie levels after a period of deprivation
• A decrease in physical activity, after increasing it for rapid weight loss
• A metabolism that is now slower
• Less muscle and therefore a higher fat percentage
• Fluid levels returning

Saggy Skin

The faster your weight loss the more chances of your skin not shrinking to your body’s new shape. This can be extremely disappointing to dieters who have lost weight and now have unsightly excess loose skin that may only be removed by expensive surgery that scars. Slower weight loss allows the skin to adapt and shrink slowly to the body’s shape.

Body Struggling to Function

Fast weight loss involving an extreme reduction in calories and exercise could send the body into a state of shock, affecting your ability to concentrate, think logically and your attention span. Physically there's a likelihood of headaches, stomach pains and a range of other side effects.

Some detox diets may explain this as sign of toxin elimination but at the end of the day, it is your body’s inability to function correctly.

Adopting Bad Habits

One of the best points of a good weight loss regime is the ability to develop healthy habits. Healthy habits make it much easier to, not just lose weight, but to maintain a goal weight with far less struggle and avoiding the dreaded yo-yo effect experienced by so many dieters.

Rapid weight loss not only steers way from developing healthy habits but may encourage a cycle of bad habits in order to achieve rapid weight loss again and again.

So How Fast Should You Lose Weight?

The healthy rate at which to lose weight will differ from person to person but the general recommendation is to lose a maximum of 1 pound (.45 kilograms) per week. Weight loss is not supposed to be fast and easy. If you take the time to lose weight there is a much bigger chance of a healthy success and maintenance of weight in the future.