"It's unhealthy to lose weight too fast." Why?

[pepperlandgirl]

I get that crash diets are unhealthy. If you’re eating nothing but grapefruit or cabbage soup for a week just so you can lose ten pounds before your frenemy’s wedding, you’re probably not doing your body any favors. But what if you could stand to lose a good deal of weight and you just eat sensible meals and up your activity level considerably? I’ve never seen “The Biggest Loser” but it looks like the whole point is to push the contestants into losing great deals of weight in a compressed amount of time? Are they taking a risk of negative side-effects–whatever they are?

I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t understand how losing five or seven pounds a week is somehow more unhealthy than losing two pounds in the same time frame. What are the specific negative consequences?

[si_blakely]

It is all about proportionality.

To lose weight, you have to expend more energy than you consume. And if you could do that simply by using fat stored in the body, you would be mostly fine. But you don’t. As you expend energy from fat stores, you also use up some of the finite stores of critical compounds in your body - proteins, vitamins, specific fatty acids, sodium, water. If you are not getting these things from ongoing food intake, your body will either do without and malfunction, or it will cannibalize existing sources within the body, causing damage to existing tissues. And the body is not selective when this happens - the heart muscles can be cannibalized as easily as any other muscle.

This is exacerbated when significant exercise is added to food restriction. The exercise breaks down and stresses muscle tissue, so additional protein is required to rebuild these. Also, exercise causes sweating, so dehydration/sodium deficiency can become a problem.

Finally, getting significant proportions of your energy from fat stores can cause ketosis - an increase of ketones in the blood due to the byproducts of fatty acid digestion. Although the Atkins proponents aim for this, it is not the bodies natural state and adds stress to the body dealing with the byproducts.

So the 2 pounds a week guideline is a good balance between preventing dehydration from water loss, damage from protein shortage, and excessive ketosis. It also allows the body to adjust to the new regime at a managed pace. Any more than that, and you are mostly losing water (I can lose a kg of water easy in a good gym workout) leaving yourself at risk of dehydration. And the 2 pounds a week is a deficit of about 1000 calories a day - if that is balanced between 500 calories of food restriction (easily manageable if you cut out high calorie drinks/snacks) and 500 calories of exercise (still significant, a 3-5 mile run/walk, say) it can be done easily and safely.

To do more exercise takes heaps more effort - the maximum most people could safely do in a day would be about 2000 calories (the normal human glycogen store, which would recover overnight). That is almost marathon distance for the average person. And you would need to increase your protein intake to match the effort, adding calories. So your return on additional effort is minimal. Superbly fit athletes that expend 5000-7000 calories a day (Michael Phelps ate 12000 calories a day) have larger glycogen stores and eat protein enhanced foods that are easy to digest for rapid glycogen recovery. I heard a yacht grinder on an Americas Cup boat complain that the worst thing about training/competing was the food - the only thing they could eat to give them enough energy was enhanced pasta, and he was sick of it every day.

Si

[sandra_nz]

From a somewhat less scientific point of view, I would suggest that loosing weight fast would indicate a lifestyle change that isn’t possible to maintain over time, thus increasing the likelihood of putting the weight back on once the extreme lifestyle can no longer be maintained.

[si_blakely]

Oh yes. I read of Boot Camp participants who go home 7-10 pounds lighter after a week, and I know that they have maybe lost 2 real pounds and lots of water. After dinner, a bottle of celebratory wine and a couple of Starbucks Caramel Venti the next day, blob and it’s back. With friends.

Si

[Candyman74]

Also, very rapid weight loss can result in loose, slack skin folds- which are just unpleasant.

[don_t_ask]

Rapid weight loss is associated with worsening of liver conditions. For example here:

***Weight loss **— Weight reduction can help to reduce levels of liver enzymes, insulin, and can improve quality of life. Weight loss should be gradual (no more than 3.5 lbs or 1.6 kg per week) since rapid weight loss has been associated with worsening of liver disease. *

[Philster]

Rapid weight loss taxes the organs, can reduce muscle mass and worsen the odds of long-term success.

While some contestants went on to do well – even running marathons, etc – when they brought back a bunch of contestants, the farther back in the series the contestant competed, the fatter they were (on the way back to their old weight). Some are back to the old weight or are worse off.

[scamartistry]

Id say just lose it, doesnt reallly matter how, I dont buy that it would be dangerous for your body to lose weight fast. The problem is, that someone mentioned, If you lose it too fast it will mostly be fluid. Which you of course gain back immediately when you replenish your fluid stores.

The main point is not how you lose the weight, it is if you are able to maintain your new weight over time. Lets say 5-10 years from now.

There have been people losing weight in pretty extreme measures. People eating fluids only for years. Extreme low calorie diets. Look we as humans are evolved to be able to handle periods with out any food at all. Not eating is not a huge problem, if you dont go crazy with it.

So as we all know calorie in and calorie out is what it comes down to, easy on paper more difficult in real life since habits are almost impossible to change for most people.

The concern with losing weigh quick is that most people gain it back again. This is were the health concern comes in. Yo-yo dieting can be very taxing on the body. Lots of free-fatty acids are released into the bloodstream, this together with increase in inflammatory elements makes a good recipe for peripheral or central vascular disease. There is also a fear of hormonal changes. Diabetes type 2 is of great concern. Androgens,estrogen, cortisone and other hormones can change their “setting” point, giving rise to future metabolic diseases.

My last word is: lose wait however you want do it, but make sure to keep it off for 5 plus years. This is an almost impossible feat. VERY few people can do this.

[Valgard]

@scamartistry

My last word is: lose wait however you want do it, but make sure to keep it off for 5 plus years. This is an almost impossible feat. VERY few people can do this.

IME that’s part of the problem - there’s all kinds of ways to drop weight (quickly and otherwise) but many of them are not sustainable in the long run, so you do need to put some thought into how you’re going about it. You need to make long-term changes in your eating and activity habits, things that you can keep doing for the rest of your life.

You might be able to go on a crash diet and exercise vigorously for hours a day and drop 25 pounds in a month but it’d be the rare human who could keep that sort of thing up for long - even assuming that you don’t do yourself some permanent damage as soon as you stop you’ll probably go back to your old habits and be back where you started.

By contrast, if you make gradual changes, eat healthier and less and ramp up your exercise then you won’t lose weight as fast but you will be able to get used to your new lifestyle and it is much more likely to be something that you can stick with and thus keep that weight off for 5 years (or however long). That’s what I did and it’s what I see others who are successful at “taking it off and keeping it off” long-term.

[Duckster]

@pepperlandgirl

I’ve never seen “The Biggest Loser” but it looks like the whole point is to push the contestants into losing great deals of weight in a compressed amount of time?

It’s television. Biggest Loser participants are grossly overweight. Their participation in their weight loss is closely monitored and managed by doctors and nutritionists, and the time frame you are viewing is greatly compressed, something on the order of 2:1 or even 3:1. So a 13 week this season episode may actually be nine months in the making.

From the second season of BL (2005):

I talked to Dr. Michael Dansinger, a consultant on “The Biggest Loser 2” and a physician at Tufts New England Medical Center, who explained that the “people in the show are in a fantasy, unrealistic environment where everything is optimized for weight loss.” He notes that everything from working with a trainer to having absolutely nothing else to do makes it possible for contestants to completely reconfigure their diet and exercise routine.

Dansinger says that “50 to 60 percent of [contestants’] weight-loss success comes from dietary change.” They’re used to consuming around 3000 calories a day, but on the show consume about 1500 calories a day. As he says, “few people are really in a position to cut their calories by 1500 a day, but that’s what these people are able to do.” He says there’s “nothing controversial” about the diet, nor are the contestants given pills or other shortcuts.

The other 40 to 50 percent of weight loss comes from the three hours of exercise the contestants do every day: an hour of strength training and two hours of cardio. That helps them burn an additional 1200 to 1500 calories, Dansinger says. “It’s hard to do by yourself, but on the show it’s easy to do,” he said. “When people allow themselves to be put in that kind of environment … when you pull out all the barriers to weight loss, that’s when the weight loss can come very quickly.”

While Dansinger consulted daily with the producers over the phone and via e.mail during production about diets, fitness, and other issues, there was another physician on set with the show who was responsible for patient care and monitoring contestants’ physical fitness. That doctor also had the ability to veto challenges or pull a contestant from a challenge if he felt that it was unsafe.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/9880085/ns/today-entertainment/

Losing weight takes real effort: time, exercise, calorie intake control and willpower. Anyone who says otherwise with lose weight fast(!), take this pill and do nothing but still lose weigh, etc., is lying to you. That so many people fall for these lies is a testament to the power of sales combined with deluded sense of self of those wanting to lose weight.

[pepperlandgirl]

Thanks for the answers everybody. I wasn’t asking because I plan to go on some crazy crash diet or anything. I mean, I am dieting, but in a reasonable way. But that phrase came up in conversation last night and I feel like I’ve heard it a million times before–any time anybody diets ever, it seems like. But nobody ever elaborates.

[DSeid]

@scamartistry

… My last word is: lose wait however you want do it, but make sure to keep it off for 5 plus years. This is an almost impossible feat. VERY few people can do this.

An excellent post. I would like to add only this, a bit that some here may be tired of hearing me make:

Don’t even lost that much of it - just 10%, even just 5%, of your body mass. But maintain the lifestyle changes, the exercising and the healthier eating habits, and you will dramatically decrease the medical risks of obesity. And that is not as near to impossible. Aim for the behavior patterns, not the reading on the scale.

[Duckster]

@pepperlandgirl

Thanks for the answers everybody. I wasn’t asking because I plan to go on some crazy crash diet or anything. I mean, I am dieting, but in a reasonable way. But that phrase came up in conversation last night and I feel like I’ve heard it a million times before–any time anybody diets ever, it seems like. But nobody ever elaborates.

@DSeid

Don’t even lost that much of it - just 10%, even just 5%, of your body mass. But maintain the lifestyle changes, the exercising and the healthier eating habits, and you will dramatically decrease the medical risks of obesity. And that is not as near to impossible. Aim for the behavior patterns, not the reading on the scale.

Diets don’t work. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. It’s the best kept secret the magazines, the diet pill popper companies and alleged “health food” businesses do not want you to know.

DSeid has it. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you must make a lifestyle change to your entire life.

[pepperlandgirl]

Well, I’m not using a magazine, diet pill, or the health food business. I ate a lot of junk food on a regular basis. I cut out all the junk food, the mindless snacking, and I’m getting help with my issues that lead to binge eating. I’m also getting in the habit of starting my day with a good walk.

[rhubarbarin]

If you increase your activity levels and eat reasonable meals, it’s almost impossible that you will lose more than a few pounds per week even if you are very fat indeed. Very fast weight loss is unhealthy because it’s only achievable by unhealthy methods. Unhealthy weight loss methods deplete your body of nutrients, put a strain on your organs, eat away at your bones and muscle mass, and imbalance your hormones and electrolytes. The best way to cut down your weight for a ‘weigh in’ situation like those shows is to deliberately dehydrate yourself to an extreme - this is also harmful and risky.

The Biggest Loser disgusts me. According to everything I’ve ever read (an example, part 1) it’s one big exercise-marathon crash diet, and the ‘medical supervision’ is trumped by the trainers and producers pushing for faster results and dramatic ‘reality’ tv. I can’t believe anyone hasn’t died doing it yet.

[scamartistry]

@rhubarbarin

) it’s one big exercise-marathon crash diet, and the ‘medical supervision’ is trumped by the trainers and producers pushing for faster results and dramatic ‘reality’ tv. I can’t believe anyone hasn’t died doing it yet.

If you are reasonable healthy (which I am sure the Dr have checked in detail), you can go weeks without food. No problem. Now if you are fat as a pregnant whale, you could probably go months. Understand how much energy that flabbery fat represent. They could survive solely on water and vitamin pills.

What would they die of according to you?

I think what you are missing is that we are evolved to be able to periods of starvation.

[Roderick_Femm]

One point that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that you don’t want to lose muscle mass, so you have to be sure to eat enough protein. This can be as little as 75 grams (less than 3 ounces) per day, depending on your height and bone density. But you can lose weight very quickly and still meet that requirement.

I lost 150 pounds in about 37 weeks, which averages to over 4 pounds a week. I have kept off 115 of those pounds now for 5 years (and it’s a constant struggle). This was done under a doctor’s care, with monthly blood tests for liver function and other potential problems, and weekly visits to a nurse practitioner who took vitals and did a brief interview. (And, don’t ask, 3.5 pounds a week is not gradual, in my opinion; there are a lot of folks in the program I was in who would be thrilled to lose at that rate).

If you are greatly reducing your junk calories, and gradually increasing your exercise, you will lose weight, although it will probably slow down after a few weeks. You pretty much need to keep ramping up your calorie-burning exercise, and changing it up as your body becomes more efficient doing one sort of exercise. Best would also be to include muscle-building exercise, both because muscles burn (a modest amount of) additional calories, and because everyone needs to reverse loss of muscle mass as they age.

I can testify from my experience that this is a lifestyle change. When I started, I could not walk the 1/2 mile from the train station to my house, which is very modestly uphill, without stopping 5 times to catch my breath. now I routinely walk 15-20 miles a week and go to the gym four times a week. I still need to work on my muscle-building, though, and it is something I don’t really like to do. By the way, I was almost 56 when I started, and I am now almost 62. It’s easier when you’re younger, and it’s easier for men than women (unfair, but true).

Good luck,

Roddy

[medstar]

@Roderick_Femm

One point that I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that you don’t want to lose muscle mass, so you have to be sure to eat enough protein. This can be as little as 75 grams (less than 3 ounces) per day, depending on your height and bone density. But you can lose weight very quickly and still meet that requirement.

I lost 150 pounds in about 37 weeks, which averages to over 4 pounds a week. I have kept off 115 of those pounds now for 5 years (and it’s a constant struggle). This was done under a doctor’s care, with monthly blood tests for liver function and other potential problems, and weekly visits to a nurse practitioner who took vitals and did a brief interview. (And, don’t ask, 3.5 pounds a week is not gradual, in my opinion; there are a lot of folks in the program I was in who would be thrilled to lose at that rate).

If you are greatly reducing your junk calories, and gradually increasing your exercise, you will lose weight, although it will probably slow down after a few weeks. You pretty much need to keep ramping up your calorie-burning exercise, and changing it up as your body becomes more efficient doing one sort of exercise. Best would also be to include muscle-building exercise, both because muscles burn (a modest amount of) additional calories, and because everyone needs to reverse loss of muscle mass as they age.

I can testify from my experience that this is a lifestyle change. When I started, I could not walk the 1/2 mile from the train station to my house, which is very modestly uphill, without stopping 5 times to catch my breath. now I routinely walk 15-20 miles a week and go to the gym four times a week. I still need to work on my muscle-building, though, and it is something I don’t really like to do. By the way, I was almost 56 when I started, and I am now almost 62. It’s easier when you’re younger, and it’s easier for men than women (unfair, but true).

Good luck,

Roddy

Congratulations on your success, Roddy, and your ongoing commitment to stay slim. I’d like to ask a personal question if I might? Do you have any issues with hanging skin? Did it shrink at all or will you need some cosmetic surgery to get rid of it? I’m asking being because I’m obese and I’d like some hope that as I lose weight, maybe my skin will shrink (at least a little).

[si_blakely]

@scamartistry

If you are reasonable healthy (which I am sure the Dr have checked in detail), you can go weeks without food. No problem. Now if you are fat as a pregnant whale, you could probably go months. Understand how much energy that flabbery fat represent. They could survive solely on water and vitamin pills.

What would they die of according to you?

You cannot survive and remain healthy on body fat alone for an extended period of time (over 1-2 months, but exercise could reduce this time scale), even if you take vitamins and drink water. Humans cannot synthesise the essential fatty acids (Omega-3s) or proteins from just stored fat. Eventually muscle breakdown occurs (Catabolysis) as protein supplies run out, and this can damage the heart. Bone mass loss also occurs. Other minerals and essential elements also run out, causing nutrition-related diseases.

And all credit to Roderick Femm - one hell of an achievement. But it was medically supervised to ensure that the rapid weight loss did not cause additional damage. If you are not being monitored carefully, a slower rate of weight loss is safer.
Si

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@rhubarbarin

Very fast weight loss is unhealthy because it’s only achievable by unhealthy methods.

Rapid weight loss through very low calorie consumption while under a doctor’s care is a common treatment for obesity.