Don't Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!

And Here’s Why…

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“Lose 6 inches in 90 days!” “Lose 10 Kgs in 10 days!” “How to lose weight in 3 days!”

Although we may be drawn to the allure of rapid weight loss advertising, health experts, nutritionists and medical doctors have traditionally recommended a slow-and-steady method.

Once you tell yourself that you’re going to make important changes to your life, that excitement can almost be overwhelming. After all, you want to see results as fast as you can — who wouldn’t?

In the case of weight loss, unfortunately, losing too much weight too quickly can cause a bunch of problems you may not have seen coming.

Most studies show that people who lose weight slowly are more likely to keep it off long-term. Losing weight slowly also comes with far fewer health risks.

The most common ways that people try to lose weight fast are by exercising a lot, and by following a “crash diet” or a very low-calorie diet of fewer than 800 calories per day.

Losing weight too quickly, especially through starvation techniques, can result in a number of side effects, some more downright dangerous than others.

What Is Considered A Fast Weight-Loss?

According to experts, losing 1–2 pounds (0.45–0.9 kg) per week is a healthy and safe rate, while losing more than this is considered too fast. However, you may lose more than that during your first week of an exercise or diet plan.

“Half a pound to two pounds per week is what’s universally considered safe and sustainable” says Jessica Crandall Snyder, registered dietitian and spokeswoman for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

So is it actually bad for you to lose weight fast? At FITrebel.in we dig into the research to uncover the truth.

Also Read: How Gratitude Can Change Your Life!

Losing Weight Is Only Half The Battle:

The real challenge is keeping it off for good.

When people lose weight too quickly, they’re often not able to successfully keep it off.

Healthy weight loss is only achieved through sustainable lifestyle changes. That means taking into account your nutritional needs and getting regular exercise. This is what we coach in our blogs and all our articles.

Without those measures, you will be setting yourself up for failure as well as possible health risks.

Most people who follow a diet regain half the weight they’ve lost after only a year. Even worse, nearly everyone who follows a diet regains all the weight they’ve lost after 3–5 years.

For a weight loss programme to be successful it needs to be sustainable in the long run.

Here are the most major reasons you may want to take it at a more reasonable pace.

You End Up Losing Muscle Instead Of Fat.

When we lose weight, we want to get rid of true adipose tissue. Not muscle mass. No one complains about having a higher percentage of body muscle.

But if you cut calories too quickly, muscle tone will seriously suffer.

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!
How to Lose Fat Not Muscle:

“Calorie restrictive diets may cause your body to break down the muscle for energy and fuel"

Conventional wisdom holds that to, burn fat, you must burn more calories than you take in. So you do the math, and figure out that maybe you should reduce a specific number of calories per day based on your goals.

That sounds like it would make sense — but everybody is different, and requires different care to work at its optimal level. Not only that, but your body can only burn so many fat calories in a day. If you reduce your caloric intake too much, your body will have no choice but to turn to other sources of fuel beyond fat — such as the muscle you probably don’t want to lose.

FIX IT: Make Protein A Part of Your Diet Plan

Eating a high-protein diet and participating in regular strength training while dieting can help preserve your lean mass and help you build more muscle to rev up your metabolism.

You Miss Out On Important Nutrients.

Many [quick] diets and eating plans cut out whole food groups, which means you could be missing out on key nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that you need to stay healthy.

Not every quick weight loss case will get this far — but a serious danger of taking your crash diet to an extreme is malnutrition.

When you reduce your caloric intake significantly, getting enough iron, folate, vitamin D, and vitamin B12 are incredibly difficult according to medical experts. This can have serious health consequences for you both in the immediate and distant future.

In more extreme cases, malnutrition can result in a host of symptoms like decreased energy, generalized fatigue, anaemia, brittle hair, and constipation.

‘CRASH DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS FOR CHILDREN’

FIX IT: Choose The Right Plan, Not The Fast One.

When in doubt, pick an eating plan that includes all of the key macronutrients — fat, carbohydrates, protein.

“The goal is to think about your plan as a lifestyle, not a diet.”

You Slow Down Your Metabolism.

Rapid weight loss usually occurs from extreme calorie deprivation, for example, people who go from eating 3,000 to 1,200 calories a day.

Trouble is, our body recognizes this as a sign of limited food supply and goes into starvation mode. When your body goes into starvation mode, your metabolism will slow down to help you conserve energy and your body will hang onto more fat.

You probably already know that your metabolism regulates how many calories you need to eat per day. Unfortunately, if you seriously slow it down by crash dieting — that slow-down could last longer than your diet.

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!
Fast Weight-Loss Slows Metabolism

A slower metabolism burns fewer calories per day, which in turn makes it easier for you to gain weight on a lesser amount of food.

Not only that, but your sleep cycle could also suffer as a result of your decreased metabolism. As your hormones work to adjust your metabolism, those fluctuations can result in seriously disturbed sleep.

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!

FIX IT: Don’t Cut More Than 500 Calories In A Day.

Don’t cut your calories in an extreme way.

Most people will lose at least a pound a week if they consume 500 calories less a day through a combination of diet and exercise. “This approach may not offer the same instant gratification, but you’ll actually transform your body in the long run.”

Fast Weight Loss Can Dehydrate You.

Any time you make radical changes to your eating habits that involve restricting caloric intake, the first thing to go is water weight. As long as you’re making the effort to stay hydrated, that’s not a major issue —

-but if you're not taking care of your hydration needs in the name of keeping your weight down, that could be a big problem.

If you aren’t aware that water weight is the first thing to go, you might be falsely encouraged by the abnormally large amount of weight you might lose in the first couple of weeks of a new diet plan. That, in turn, could lead you to think that when weight loss slows down, something’s wrong — even though it’s perfectly normal.

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!

FIX IT: Drink At Least 2 Litres Of Water A Day.

This can include teas and coffees. A simple way to do this is to carry a bottle with you. Research has shown those of us who carry around a water bottle are 70% more likely to keep hydrated.

Other Side Effects:

Losing weight fast on a “crash diet” or very low-calorie diet is linked to several other side effects, including:

Hunger
Fatigue
Irritability
Feeling cold
Muscle cramps
Dizziness And Brain Fog
Constipation or Diarrhoea
Hair Loss
Poor Immunity
Weak And Brittle Bones
Hormonal Imbalance

In Conclusion, You Really Shouldn’t Lose Weight Too Fast.

You won’t keep it off, and you’ll get side effects such as nutritional deficiencies, muscle loss, and gallstones. What you should do instead is aim for a slow and steady weight loss, focusing on creating a healthier, sustainable lifestyle.

Chose nutritious, whole foods, eat mindfully, care for your body, and change your perspective regarding weight loss. It might take a little more time, but it will certainly last.

Don’t Lose 10 Kgs in 10 Days!

YOU’RE NOT CONSIDERING WHAT’S MORE IMPORTANT…

And that is getting healthier and gaining nutrition knowledge in the long run.

This is perhaps the most important point. If you want to lose weight just because you want to “look better”, stop.

If your goal is just to drop some weight as quickly as possible, not caring about the effect it could have on your health, you need to take a step back and realize that the only reason why your weight matters is because of its potential link to your health.

And if you’re eating healthy foods and not enjoying them, or pushing yourself to exercise and hating it, it’s all going to come crashing down pretty quickly. You have to change your perspective and get in the mindset of someone who truly wants to become healthier in the long run.

Get into the right health and weight loss mindset for all of this to work. This has to become an entire lifestyle change in order to be successful.