Extreme Weight Loss Side Effects

Extreme weight loss can be highly appealing.  After all, who wants to spend eons losing weight?  We want to get to our goal and move on with our lives.  We want to love the way we look in a healthier body.  No one wants to have to live with restrictions over the long term.

Moreover, this is nothing rare. Everyone seems to be on a diet. They all want to lose a few pounds, or a lot, and look the best they can all of the time. Even our favorite forms of entertainment tend to tell us that dropping the pounds quickly, no matter what, is the way to go. There are a lot of shows that talk about extreme weight loss and the idea has caught on. Who hasn’t heard of “The Biggest Loser,” after all?

Extreme Weight Loss Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

While this might seem like a great way to lose a lot of weight, extreme weight loss is not always a healthy way to go with losing weight. Though there is the major advantage that it will be quick, there are some serious downsides you shouldn’t ignore.

Here are some of the side effects that can come from losing weight too quickly.

Tired

First off, you are going to feel really tired when you try to lose weight too quickly. When you are losing weight extremely fast, you will find that your body is not getting the energy that it needs to stay healthy. You are most likely restricting your calories too much as well as working out too much so the body gets tired.

Moreover, with this type of extreme weight loss, your body will start to slow down its major processes – its metabolism.  Because you’re using so much more energy than you’re consuming, it will automatically start conserving the energy it can.  Since the energy won’t be as readily available, you’ll start to feel more tired a lot of the time. It is best to take it slow, work out moderately, and see the weight come off slowly but steadily.

Stress

Trying to lose weight that fast can cause a lot of stress on your body. You are putting the body through a lot of work and effort when you attempt extreme weight loss. When your body is under consistent stress, it can start to make you feel emotionally stressed as well.  As a result, you may begin feeling far more tense and unhappy than you usually would.

This can make it a lot harder for you to see the weight loss that you want. After all, who finds it easy to keep up with food restrictions and demands for high activity levels when they’re stressed out? Very few people! It’s far more likely that you’ll crave fatty and sugary comfort foods.  Sometimes you need to take it slow in order to keep the stress levels down. Once you do, weight will come off at a nice healthy gradual rate.

Feeling Sick

While you might feel great for a bit, it is more likely that you are feeling sick after a few weeks after all this work. Your body undergoes so much stress that it can weaken your immune system.  This can place you at risk of catching whatever bug happens to be going around.  Moreover, even if you would have caught that illness regardless, you may find that you’re hit quite hard, instead of being able to recover from it quickly.

Similarly, when you’re pushing yourself too hard in the name of extreme weight loss, you place yourself at an increased risk of injury.  If you are always pushing yourself to the limit, you may end up getting hurt.  It’s far better for you to take it slow and ease into the diet and exercise strategy and discover your limits instead of risking pushing yourself too hard and getting hurt as a result.

Yo-Yo Weight Loss

Those who do extreme weight loss are more likely to go through yo-yo weight loss. This means that even if they are able to lose the weight, they are more likely to gain it all back within a year. In fact most people who lose the pounds in extreme ways find that the weight comes back far faster than it originally did.  This is typically because of the slowed metabolic rate that occurred as a result of this method of losing weight.

The struggle with weight gain due to metabolic changes can be a complex process that goes on for years. This means that a choice you made for a number of weeks could end up dictating your weight struggles for years to come! Those who take things slowly and lose the weight over a longer period of time, a pound or two a week on average, are more likely to meet their weight loss goals and keep most of, if not all, the weight off.

* This article is for informational purposes only and not to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with your doctor before making any changes to your medications, supplements, diet, or exercise routine.