ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Is Fast Weight Loss a Good Thing?

Updated on January 2, 2023
cygnetbrown profile image

Cygnet Brown is a high school and middle school substitute teacher. She is the author of fourteen books and a long-time gardener.

Slow weight loss is better than rapid weight loss for making permanent health improvements. Here is my before picture. I have since lost 30 pounds.
Slow weight loss is better than rapid weight loss for making permanent health improvements. Here is my before picture. I have since lost 30 pounds.

Everywhere we look we see advertisements that suggest rapid weight loss is wonderful. They say that if you take their product, limit calories, eat the right foods, and exercise, you'll look wonderful.

However, slow weight loss may be a better alternative for becoming a healthier individual.

Diet and Exercise Key to Weight Loss

Everywhere we look we see advertisements suggesting products that offer quick weight loss solutions. Just use these products, take these pills, drink this shake, or use this program and you will lose 20, 30, or more pounds. All of these ads are endorsed by individuals who have lost weight and yet, if you look at the fine print, every single one of these ads says that these results are not typical.

What is typical? Typically, people who use these products may lose a few pounds of water weight at the beginning, but when they do not find the lasting results they are looking for, they go in search of yet another weight loss quick fix.

The next thing that you discover in the fine print on these ads is that you will only get results if combined with a healthy diet and exercise. Usually, the reason a person has extra weight is that they did not have a healthy diet nor did they exercise. If they had been exercising and eating properly, to begin with, they would have not put on the pounds in the first place. Perhaps if they simply start eating right and exercising, they will shed pounds without the product!

Problems With Quick Weight Loss Products

Another issue concerning products and programs sold in ads is that when you stop using the product, the weight will come back on because you are no longer using the product.

Some weight loss products can even be dangerous. I remember a few years ago when there was an MLM product called Metabolife. It worked great. I used it for a while and I felt energetic and the pounds came off. The problem was that the main ingredient contained ephedra, the chief ingredient in methamphetamine. No wonder I lost weight. Of course, again, when the product was taken off the market, needless to say, I gained back the weight.

The Main Problem with Fad Diets

Fad weight loss diets also offer fast results but are detrimental to keeping that weight off. Usually, when we use a fad diet, we are starving our bodies of necessary nutrients. After a short time, our bodies go into starvation mode and we stop losing. In addition, the weight loss we do have on fad diets is NEVER fat. It is always water weight and muscle that we lose from this type of diet.

Muscle has a higher metabolic rate than fat so when we use a quick weight loss solution and it burns our muscle mass, it slows down our metabolism making it more difficult to lose weight in the future. The next time we use this or any other fad diet, weight loss cannot occur as quickly because we do not have the muscle mass that we had before the diet.

Our bodies will not let us sustain starvation fad diets long and soon we are eating everything in sight. We gain weight back much more quickly because we have slowed our metabolism.

Slow Weight Loss For Permanent Health

Slow Weight Loss is not a diet or exercise program. It simply makes habitual changes in your current diet and exercise. It is a lifestyle change plan. All you do is make small changes in habits that you can live with for the rest of your life. The plan is as individual as you are.

Here is an example of a small habit in substitution that has made a huge impact. I love ice cream. My parents' first date was going out for ice cream. Before I was a year old, I knew the location of every ice cream place within a fifty-mile radius of our house. Now, I could eat a whole gallon in one sitting if I let myself. That is how much I like it. However, I do pack on the pounds when I eat ice cream, so I have devised a substitute that works well for me. Every night before I go to bed I eat a small bowl of fruit, yogurt, and light whipped topping. Sometimes I will even throw in a little chocolate syrup. I now can eat ice cream once every couple of months without guilt, cravings, and binging on it.

The Ten How To's of Slow Weight Loss

  1. Change the way you think about weight loss. Weight loss should be about being healthy, not a specific weight.
  2. Eating should first be about nutrition and taste should be secondary.
  3. Eat for Health, and only when you are hungry.
  4. Learn your triggers for binge eating
  5. Begin doing exercise in small amounts every day, then increase over time and keep it consistent.
  6. Make lower calorie and lower fat substitutions in fattening foods that you love to eat.
  7. You can continue eating the fattening foods from time to time, just control portion sizes.
  8. Avoid artificial sweeteners. Your body needs food not fake.
  9. Never use the word "cheat" when you know you have eaten more than you should of a specific food. It is more important to understand why you over-indulge than to place blame on yourself.
  10. Make healthy changes into habits that last a lifetime.

So Far, I lost 30 pounds!

I began changing my diet and exercise habits last July and so far I have lost 30 pounds. I have gone from 216 pounds to 186 pounds, but I am not done yet. I still have more weight to lose and more healthy habits to gain.

Is this typical? I think that it can be if we disregard all of that hype on the television about rapid weight loss and focus on creating healthy habits, these results can be typical.

Slow weight loss is as individual as you are. Begin today by changing the way you think about weight loss. There is no quick fix. Weight loss requires permanent changes in the way we think, the way we eat, and the way we view exercise.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and does not substitute for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, prescription, and/or dietary advice from a licensed health professional. Drugs, supplements, and natural remedies may have dangerous side effects. If pregnant or nursing, consult with a qualified provider on an individual basis. Seek immediate help if you are experiencing a medical emergency.

© 2015 Cygnet Brown

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)