Rapid Weight Loss

There’s no doubt that anyone who’s ever been judged by how they weigh would want to lose all those extra pounds the fastest way possible and avoid embarrassment. Snide remarks and unforgiving looks all add to one's insecurities.

Medical experts and nutritionists believe that there is no long-term benefit for fast weight loss programs that are popular amongst some dieters.

Those who go on crash diets may be happy with their fast weight loss in the first week or even days, though one must realise that this cannot be sustained and is not healthy to your body. Your metabolism will adjust to the number of calories you intake, thereby, simply slowing down. So the fewer calories you intake, the slower your metabolism becomes. The danger here is when you come off your diet, you gain weight faster and more of it than before. This is the yo-yo effect of dieting that should be avoided!

Dangers of Losing Fat Fast

Nutritionists and dieticians agree that losing or gaining weight is reliant on:

• food consumption
• emotional health
• genetics
• health problems
• metabolism
• physical activity

Companies promoting crash diets will tell you to go on a full cabbage soup diet or fruit diet, and whilst you are losing all the weight, your body is responding differently because you're depriving it of other important nutrients it needs to be able to function properly. In the end, you could find yourself getting weak, having gastrointestinal problems, increased heart rate, and so on.

You could also end up developing eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia because your mental health has been put at risk with the wrong belief about weight loss/gain, self-appreciation and confidence.

The Better Weight Loss Program

Before considering which weight loss program to adopt, you have to remember that each of us have our own bodily system that functions and runs on different levels of trigger factors. Some have a fast metabolic rate, and that’s why they lose fat more easily, whilst others have chemical or hormonal imbalances that greatly contribute to their rapid weight gain or loss.

If you have a medical condition, the best way to lose weight is to discuss it with your nutritionist and doctors. A nutrition program made especially for your body type will be very helpful in allowing you to shed off those extra pounds over a proper time frame.

In 2000, Oprah Winfrey showed on her TV program a fat laden cart being pulled by herself to illustrate how much weight she had lost on her liquid diet. This sparked intense interest in her rapid weight loss diet, but was only short lived after she gained it back and more within weeks.

Oprah's formula was five weight loss shakes a day. The orginator of this diet, James Anderson called it VLCD (very low calorie diet), and research showed that when 112 people tried this diet, they lost on average 65 pounds over five months.

John Foreyt, Ph.D., director of the Behavioral Medicine Research Center in Houston explains that rapid weight loss typically then leads to rapid weight gain. His research shows that short-term fixes to weight loss cannot be sustained. Low calorie diets are diets we cannot live on nor live with.

Final Notes

Remember, anything achieved rapidly means it's usually not foolproof and can backfire twice as hard. Stick with a balanced diet that promotes healthy living, undertake regular exercise and you can't go wrong. The best weight loss is a slow and healthy, sustained weight loss.

I cannot re-iterate how important it is to avoid rapid weight loss diets as it will only be causing you more harm than good.