Health Hackers

The 7 Sins of Rapid Weight Loss

Posted on October 13th, 2008 in Health Articles

Rapid weight loss may seem easy enough. Mind over matter right, wrong! losing weight fast is not just a bad idea, it can be very dangerous and cause permanent long term damage, to both your body and mind.

Some of the damaging side effects include the following:
- Dehydration, constipation from diarrhea, caused by fasting or detox
- Poor energy levels, stamina and fatigue
- Malnutrition – from not getting enough vitamins and minerals
- Cramping and illness from reduced sodium and potassium
- Mental scares and low self-esteam from a fad diet, and pills that don’t work
- Long term eating disorder from poor diets, resulting in cravings and food binging

If you are toying with some of the methods of fast weight loss, you need to read through our expert article on the typical ways people try to loose weight fast.
Get knowledgeable so you can avoid the pitfalls.

There are smart ways to lose weight in a short amount of time, but there are no short cuts to eating well, working out and sticking to a plan.

Sad but true, it takes real blood, sweat and tears to get real lasting healthy results.

Here are the 7 Deadly Sins

1. Fad Diets
Fad diets are just plain wrong, all the experts will tell you so, What fad diets don’t tell you is that they leave our large sections of food groups out of the food pyramid.

More food experts have studied the food pyramid than any other method of eating. It is proven that this is the best diet your body can have.

You need to stick to this advice and forget about fad diets, that just cause food cravings and set unrealistic expectations that will damage your self-esteem when you eventually put the weight back on, as is always the case with fad diets.

2. Being Un-realistic
You cannot safely lose weight in a matter of weeks, even a few months is unrealistic, it will cause long term physical and mental problems that will be far worse then the extra weight you’ve put on.

You need a lifestyle change, not just a diet change or increasing your exercise.

If you want to lose weight fast for an event, like a wedding, birthday or vacation then plan ahead, start as soon as you can, but don’t rush it, you will just pay for it later.

3. Water Loss
Going on diets and trying to lose weight fast through exercise means increased water loss, so you will think you’ve lost weight but really you’ve just lost water which weighs a lot.

If you don’t work out often then you are not used to the amount of water your body requires after a work out, this will cause dehydration, giving you dry skin and a gaunt look.

4. Diet Pills
There is no silver bullet to losing weight via way of taking a diet pill. They are a total rip off, yes, you will lose weight, but it’s a short cut, you cannot keep it up, as soon as you don’t buy the pills you will put back the weight and even more then your original pre-pill weight.

They are also dangerous and could have long term health problems to your liver and even your heart. They mainly work by increasing your metabolism. Taking a pill to fix your weight problem is just a band-aid solution short term gain with long term side effects, you will put back on more weight in the future when your body stops getting the benefits of the pill.

5. Meal Skipping
Skipping meals, going on fad diets equates to cutting out food groups that should be part of a well, rounded, balanced diet. Meal skipping will lead to dangerous habits and problems that will be worse then just being over weight.

Missing out on food you need and want will came back with vengeance in other ways. You will tend to binge on food and have cravings for things you should not be eating, that means eating way too much of an unhealthy food. This will make you then feel guilty and damage your self esteem, these can be deep lasting problems that may never go away.

Your body requires you to consume at least 1,200 calories per day, other wise your body will enter starvation mode – lowering metabolism – preventing weight loss.

6. Over Exercising
Broken bones, torn ligaments, deep muscle bruising, strained body parts and other serious injuries could result in over exercising.

Your disgust at how you reached your over weight state will light a bonfire of motivation in you but you need to stagger your drive and motivation.

7. Changing lifestyle
You need to alter your lifestyle, there’s no denying it, you are over weight or you need to tone up but a radical change is just not our bodies are designed for.

You need to take it slowly, have realistic goals and strike a balance between a health diet and a good amount of exercise, overdoing it in either area will lead to undesirable and even dangerous long term damage.

Conclusion
There are no short cuts. Your body is designed to prevent it from losing weight fast. Your body will burn it’s own muscle for energy. Loss of muscle negates weight loss as muscle is what makes your body healthy. More muscle means better metabolism which burns more calories while resting.