Lose too fast - Does it hurt?

Lose weight or lose weight?

Lose weight is an intervention, or rather a dietary route, useful for reducing a certain amount of body fat; often the term weight loss is associated with weight reduction, but the two terms are NOT synonymous.

Weight loss occurs through reduction of the overall body mass, therefore in an indiscriminate manner, and by itself does NOT exercise a "direct" protective effect from the metabolic point of view; It is undeniable that a lower joint burden on the back and on the joints of the lower limbs can be beneficial to the health of the obese but, in metabolic terms, it is not weight loss (or better of indiscriminate MASS), but weight loss, to exercise a real preventive effect. On the other hand, in the excess weight, the indiscriminate loss of mass also includes a reduction in "body fat" (fat mass - FM) with consequent improvement in metabolic parameters; nevertheless, if the nutritional therapy is NOT balanced, the risk is that of excessively affecting the muscular portion, which falls within the compartment of the "fat-free mass" (free fat mass - FFM).

Ultimately, to restore the values of: blood glucose, cholesterol, triglyceridemia, blood pressure, ESR, uric acid, etc. it is ESSENTIAL to carry out a weight loss, which does not directly affect the loss of weight, or rather of indiscriminate body mass, but prefers the consumption of adipose tissue compared to the lean one.

Lose weight: how does it happen?

To lose weight it is first of all essential that the energy consumed by the body is greater than that introduced with food (energy IN <energy OUT); may seem trivial, but it represents a cardinal principle of weight loss that must be applied to the calculation of daily energy, both overall, and of distribution.

Knowing that a MAIN balanced meal allows to maintain glycemic homeostasis for about 4-7 hours (even if it requires the maintenance of the snack), in the diet to lose weight the distribution of the total energy in the single meals MUST allow the glycemic oscillation between the post-prandial (glycemic increase) and the subsequent pre-prandial (glycemic decline until normal levels are restored) favoring the latter phase; the glycemic descent indicates the use of the energy introduced with food, therefore, maintaining the glycaemia at MODERATE levels between the various meals and favoring its early normalization, it allows the mobilization of fat from adipose tissue thanks to the release of specific catabolic hormones (OPPOSITES) to insulin, which is the anabolic hormone secreted after the post-prandial glycemic increase).

To lose weight it is therefore necessary to introduce the right amount of energy (less than the cost) and distribute it in order to favor the catabolism of adipose tissue.

Slimming speed

To lose weight while staying healthy it is essential to limit the organism's STRESS; losing weight too quickly hurts! Which is why diet therapy should be organized so as to reduce the weight (or rather fat) of the body by about 3kg a month; obviously, this value is subject to fluctuations, so an interval between 2 and 4kg monthly is still considered acceptable.

Why does losing weight quickly hurt?

There are many reasons why it is inadvisable to lose weight quickly and they all depend on the fact that a rapid weight loss is obtained by too low a diet and / or an excessively high energy expenditure. Reasons:

Eating little to lose weight quickly is stressful for the body: the essential nutrients (AGE, AAE, vitamins, mineral salts) are not taken in the right rations and, in the long term, the physiological systems are significantly affected (including the immune system)
Eating little to lose weight quickly is stressful for the mind: a restrictive unbalanced diet induces a strong desire for "revenge", which is why (in the long term) the therapeutic outcome is almost always bankrupt, with an increase in dissatisfaction with one's own body and reduction of self-esteem
Eating little to lose weight quickly is debilitating for the muscles: catabolism systems (excessively stimulated) are NOT selective! This means that in addition to disposing of the storage fats, they also use amino acids deriving from muscle tissue, reducing their trophism and mass.
Eating little to lose weight quickly promotes dehydration: each person's water requirement is about 1ml / kcal of energy introduced, but not all the water is drunk! A part of it (500-700ml / day, about 1/4 or 1/3 of the total) enters the body through foods that, in short supply, do not meet the body's hydration requirements
Excessive energy expenditure obtained through physical activity to quickly lose weight LOSES all the 4 points mentioned above.

The subject is vast but it would be necessary to go into technical details of little importance to readers; ultimately, losing weight too fast (> 3kg / month on average) is WRONG!

I advise all overweight or obese subjects to rely on a food professional who, knowingly as described above, will implement a diet based on the caloric intake useful to lose weight with the right times (around 70%), keeping the state of health of the client and preventing any unjustified excessive psycho-physical stress.