How Safe Is Quick Weight Loss?

ErinMarie25

Reading things like this, to me, is a great motivation booster, especially when you're on the last 10, 15 pounds. So I wanted to post this.

"You might want to drop extra weight as fast as possible, but the most long-lasting loss often comes at a slow, and safe, pace.
By Madeline Vann, MPH
http://www.everydayhealth.com/weight/weight-loss-safety.aspx

Tempted by the fad diet that promises 15 or even 30 pounds of weight loss in the first month? While it would be lovely if excess weight could safely melt away (ideally before bikini season), quick weight loss is unlikely, and prolonged extreme weight loss is not safe.

Weight Loss: Understanding That First Drop

"We usually recommend about a half a pound to two pounds a week, which is a lot less than what these fad diets promise," says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at the Houston Northwest Medical Center.

Banes acknowledges that some people may experience quick weight loss in the early stages of a new diet, but says it is important to be realistic about what to expect over the long haul. "If you have a lot to lose and you start on a diet and lose more than two pounds a week, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but know it's going to slow down," warns Banes, adding that some of the initial weight loss probably is water weight.

Even Banes' patients who have had lap-band or gastric bypass surgery and lose weight dramatically at first will eventually slow down to what feels like a crawl, but is actually a healthy rate of weight loss. Banes says she would worry about a person's rate of weight loss if they continued to lose five to 10 pounds (or more) a week.

Weight Loss: Safe Strategies, Best Strategies

While not everyone, including Banes, focuses on counting calories, doing the math can help guide you to a safer weight loss. Generally, experts recommend trimming 500 to 1,000 calories from your daily intake by eating less and exercising more.

A pound is the equivalent of 3,500 calories, so if you can cut 500 calories each day for a week, you should lose one pound. Researchers who analyzed data from 1,801 Minnesota dieters over a two-year period found that the more strategies dieters used, the more likely they were to be successful in losing weight at this pace. Strategies that lead to success include:

* Counting calories
* Increasing daily exercise (aim for 150 minutes a week or more)
* Cutting out sweets and snacks
* Reducing fat intake to less than 30 percent
* Increasing fruit and vegetables
* Decreasing portion sizes

The researchers noted that one crucial piece of information lacking from many diet strategies: persistence. Their conclusions support the fact that even though it will take a long time at the pound-per-week pace — longer than many people would like — with a slower approach you are more likely to develop the long-term healthy habits that will help keep the lost weight off.

Weight Loss: When the Rate Becomes Dangerous

If extreme weight loss means you are not getting enough nutrients — the fats, carbohydrates, and proteins needed for your body to function properly — you have entered the territory of unsafe weight loss. You may also be developing an eating disorder focused on your obsession with weight. Some of the warning signs that you may be losing too much weight are:

* Thinning hair
* Frequently becoming sick
* Feeling cold more often than usual
* Having fewer or no menstrual cycles

Disappointing though it may be, the reality is that slow and steady wins the weight-loss race. Take it easy and be patient — you will achieve your goal and, more importantly, maintain it.

Pollart77

Thank you for the post. This helps with the frustration of slowing down to only losing 1 pound a week.

cutmd

This article is the fly in the ointment, showing that faster weight loss is more likely to get you to your goals and that weight is just as likely to be maintained regardless of how fast it comes off. Not that I'm advocating it, but it's interesting:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/rapid-weight-loss-better-than-slow-studies-show-2027910.html

Losing a lot of weight at once is the best way to permanently slim down, studies presented at Stockholm's International Congress on Obesity showed, going against accepted wisdom even among doctors.

Katrina Purcell of the University of Melbourne in Australia, presented a study in which she compared a rapid diet to lose around 1.5 kilos (three pounds) a week over 12 weeks, to a gradual 36-week diet to lose 0.5 kilos per week.

"Surprisingly, and against current beliefs, this study shows rapid weight loss appears to be superior to gradual weight loss in achieving target weight," she said of the study conducted on subjects weighing around 100 kilos.

Her results showed that 78 percent of those on the rapid diet achieved the target of losing 15 percent of their body weight within the determined period, while only 48 percent of those on the gradual diet met the target.

One of the reasons, she said, is psychological and has to do with motivation.

On the rapid diet, "subjects lose 1.5 kg a week and that keeps them going. On the gradual diet, when you lose 0.5 kg now and then" motivation is harder to keep, she said.

In fact, four of the participants following the gradual diet gave up before the end of the experiment, against only one in the rapid diet group.

Purcell is however quick to warn against so-called crash diets, in which weight is lost very quickly by drastically slashing calories.

"Don't do it by yourself, do it with a dietician," she cautioned.

But her study carried a heavy handicap: it does not say what happened to participants after the initial weight loss, with many doctors and dieticians believing that more weight loss is related to more weight gain thereafter, and therefore less weight maintenance.

That is why the researcher is currently following the two groups to see who of the rapid or gradual dieters best keeps the weight off for good. Those results are expected in about three years.

But already, the Netherlands' National Institute for Public Health and the Environment has studied the link between the amount of weight lost during a weight loss programme and the maintenance of the weight loss afterwards.

According to the institute's study, also presented at the conference in Stockholm, 54 percent of those who went down in size during a weight loss programme kept the kilos off, regardless of the amount initially lost.

Furthermore, the study found that net weight loss one year after the intervention was higher for those with a higher initial weight loss.

That means "weight loss of 10 percent or more should be encouraged and favoured above lower weight losses," researcher Jeroen Barte said, adding that his team's findings "dispel a myth."

The researcher however warned "more research is need to determine optimal weight loss targets, and to establish best practices for optimal maintenance of weight losses."

And despite her findings, Katrina Purcell continues to advocate long-term diets because they imply a life-long change in eating habits.

In fact, researchers agree that eating and lifestyle habits are among the main culprits contributing to obesity.

At the congress, experts advocated controlling portion sizes, fighting against aggressive marketing from the food industry, product reformulation to lower salt and sugar contents, different fiscal measures and labelling menus for calorie content.

"We need a cultural change," summed up Bruce Silverglade of the International Association of Consumer food organisations (IACFO), an association of non-governmental organisations.

spitfire1962

Great information! I'm at a plateau right now, not losing but have been maintaining my weight. I need to see the weight loss. I struggle with not losing weigh quickly enough and don't feel happy unless I see a 3-5 pound weight loss. Thank you for posting this.

ErinMarie25

This article is the fly in the ointment, showing that faster weight loss is more likely to get you to your goals and that weight is just as likely to be maintained regardless of how fast it comes off. Not that I'm advocating it, but it's interesting:.

Lol, I guess not all experts think the same.

Pbchef

Interesting info, I am on a quick weight loss program that has worked great for me, I lost 40 pounds in 12 weeks and am now in the stabilization phase. To me the key motivator was seeing 3+ pounds a week coming off. They are now adding foods weekly to help me stay at the current weight.