Want to lose 7 pounds in 7 days? This article will tell you why not to do it (in most cases). We want to be slim and beautiful as fast as possible. However, when someone looks better, that’s not all they want. They also want to feel better. After all, what’s the point of losing weight if you actually feel worse?

In this article, you will learn:

• The dangers of rapid weight loss
• How to minimize the risks of rapid weight loss
• When rapid weight loss makes sense

Basically, when someone loses weight, the effects aren’t just on the fat tissue, and muscle tissue. Weight loss has far-reaching effects on your skin, your heart, your liver/gallbladder, and other organs. If you’re overweight, yes, you want to lose weight, but you want to do it in a safe way.

Below, I’ll share how to do that. But if you want help that is more tailored to you specifically, fill out this form to see if you qualify to work with us.

Original source: here.

The Dangers of Rapid Weight Loss

First, let’s start with a definition of “rapid” weight loss. How rapid is rapid? Well, the recommendation for someone losing body fat is an average of 1-2 pounds per week. So anything over approximately 2 pounds per week would be considered rapid. Certainly much slower than the magazines would have you believe.

And by the way, that’s more than 2 pounds per week for several months in a row. If you have just a few weeks of rapid weight loss, that’s not a big deal.

Risk of Weight Re-Gain

The most obvious danger of rapid weight loss is the risk for weight regain. If you’re losing weight very quickly, you’re likely making some changes in your diet that are unsustainable. So some people go “on” a diet to get to their ideal weight. But they don’t really have a maintenance plan of what happens when they do get to their ideal plan. And so, as the saying goes “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” So of course, just like you go “on” a diet, once you reach your ideal weight, you go “off” the diet. And your weight returns. Usually more than you lost. And usually, you go “off” the diet before you reach your ideal weight.

You see, your body is wired for the environment we had 40,000 years ago. It’s wired for survival, not aesthetics. So when you lose weight very quickly, your body believes there’s a famine. That’s why the body fights very hard to prevent drastic losses in weight. Here’s what it does:

• Lowers your body temperature. This slows down your metabolism. Healthy body temperature should be around the 36.5-36.8 range, first thing in the morning, as measured in the armpit. For every degree that you’re under that, you’re burning 20% fewer calories.
• Your energy levels decline. So you feel like moving less. You don’t move as much, you don’t burn as many calories.
• You lose muscle. Muscle is high-maintenance tissue. Fat isn’t. To maintain a pound of muscle, your body must burn 13 calories per day. To maintain a pound of fat, your body only needs to burn 2 calories per day.
• You increase the amount of calories that you absorb from food. Under normal conditions, if you eat 500 calories, not all of those calories are absorbed. Some of those are just lost. But when you’re losing weight fast, a higher percentage of those 500 will be absorbed.
• You start to get cravings. Your body wants to maintain your weight as much as possible. So you start to crave food. Usually the fattening kind.
• Food stops making you full. A quantity of food that might have made you satisfied when your weight is stable is now no longer enough to satisfy you. That same amount of food will still make you hungry. You have a hormone called “leptin”, which is released by both the fat cells, as well as the small intestinal cells to tell you that you’re full. Under severe caloric restriction, your brain starts ignoring the message of leptin, and you get “leptin resistance.”

…and more.

This only happens with rapid weight loss. This doesn’t happen with slower weight loss.

Basically, your body doesn’t want to lose weight. And if you force it to do so very quickly, it will fight back. And it will win. And you will lose. Eventually, you’ll reach for a bowl of ice cream or a bag of cookies, while watching reruns of Friends.

Muscle Loss

As mentioned earlier, muscle is high-maintenance tissue. And in the interest of short-term survival, the body loses muscle. Doesn’t do much good for your long-term health, but hey, the body isn’t concerned with what will happen in 20 years. It’s concerned with tomorrow.

The best way to prevent muscle losses when losing weight is to send the body a very strong signal that you need to maintain muscle. How do you send that signal? Strength training. Ideally, using heavier weights, and lower repetitions (in the 5-8 range). Cardio doesn’t do it, and neither does stretching. Strength training is where it’s at.

Gallstones

Gallstones are stones in the gallbladder, made from bile. What is the bile and what is the gallbladder? Bile is your body’s natural emulsifier. It helps you break down dietary fat (not body fat). You know how when you’re washing dishes, if you have grease or oil on your plate, you can’t wash it off with water alone? You need soap. The same thing happens in the body. Bile is your body’s internal “soap.” The liver makes it, and the gallbladder stores it. Some of the bile is made from cholesterol.

In circumstances of rapid weight loss, the body increases the amount of cholesterol in bile, and you can get crystals in your gallbladder. It’s incredibly painful, and can result in a need for surgery, to get your gallbladder removed.

Is this worth the risk of rapid weight loss?

Malnutrition

When you eat food, you don’t just get calories, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. You also get vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients.

Well, when you eat less food, you get less vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. This can cause malnutrition. You might experience things like:

• Diminished memory, and ability to concentrate. Often, due to vitamin B12 and folic acid deficiencies.
• Lower energy, due to iron deficiencies
• More sugar cravings, due to chromium deficiency
• Worse sleep, due to magnesium deficiency
• Dry skin, due to changes in the fatty acid profile of your food

…and more.

So at the very least, take a high-potency multivitamin to prevent nutritional deficiencies. My two favourites are Multigenics, by Metagenics, and the Platinum Activ-X Multi. And no, I have no financial affiliation with these companies.

Loose Skin

This one is a big concern for many people. Nobody wants to lose fat, while their skin feels like a coat. And yet, if you lose weight quickly, the skin doesn’t have enough of a chance to catch up to the changing body size. Whereas fat and muscle can shrink fairly fast, skin can’t.

There’s no health consequences to loose skin, so the only downside is really cosmetic. The best thing you can do to avoid loose skin is don’t lose weight faster than about 2 pounds per week.

Heart Problems

If you already have heart issues (arrhythmias, high blood pressure, heart valve problems, cardiomyopathy, etc.), rapid weight loss is going to be very stressful on the heart. Due to fast changes in fat and muscle mass, the heart has a hard time keeping up, and it can result in arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat).

When Rapid Weight Loss Makes Sense

Just like you can’t say that something is always good, or always bad, you can’t say that rapid weight loss does not have its applications. There are certain cases when it is desirable to go through a period of rapid weight loss.

Extreme Obesity

In people whose obesity is so severe that they are experiencing health problems caused primarily by the excess weight. In these people, the benefits of rapid weight loss outweigh the risks mentioned above. Will they get loose skin? Yes, that’s a small downside. Will they make their joints feel better? Yes, that’s a strong upside. Will they lose muscle in the process? Yes, that’s also a small downside. Will it have a good effect on their blood pressure, and circulatory system in general? Yes, that’s a strong upside.

However, for the average overweight person whose joints are not hurting severely, and their weight isn’t yet causing circulatory issues, the upsides are smaller, and the downsides are greater.

Initiation Phase

When a weight loss program starts, in the first 2-6 weeks a phase of rapid weight loss may actually be more beneficial. This phase of rapid weight loss is then followed by a phase of slower weight loss (1-2 pounds per week), before ultimately shifting to a maintenance phase.

Initial rapid weight loss may increase motivation in many people, and give them the momentum to stick with it once weight loss slows down.

Eventually, you reach your ideal weight and body composition, and you shift into maintenance. That’s when your weight will naturally fluctuate 2-4 pounds, but you’ll be more or less ideal. That’s the desirable place to be.

Ultimately, you want to lose weight to enhance your health, not detract from it. And as you read earlier, the effects of weight loss go beyond muscle and fat, and into other organs. So if you want to lose weight safely, and not just look better, but feel better, too, you can fill out this form to see if you qualify to work with us.