The fastest way to lose weight may not be the way to keep weight off for very long. Quick weight loss usually occurs when the body goes into starvation mode. However, caloric deficiency can result in loss of precious muscle, and when that happens the metabolism slows even more. When you learn some basic physiological facts, it is easy to understand the principle of yo-yo dieting, in order to avoid it.
Malnutrition and Weight Loss
War camp prisoners never have an excess weight problem. Sounds ridiculous to bring this up in a weight loss article, but think about it. If you are not eating proper portions of protein, you are depriving your body of nutritional balance and therefore inducing weight loss through malnutrition.
Know What You Are Losing
When a desperate dieter learns of a new way to lose weight, the focus is all too often on how much and how fast. However, the quality of what is being lost needs to be the focus. If you are losing too fast, chances are that it is muscle and not stored fat. Be sure that the weight loss is a result of exercise and frequent nutrition so as to guarantee the actual loss of fat.
Muscle Value
Training the body to store fat more readily is what happens when you drastically reduce caloric intake. Nutrition is sacrificed and so is healthy muscle tissue. Your body will begin to cannibalize muscle as a means of preserving stored fat for reserve. This reserve will be important to the body's defenses in the event of illness.
Muscle and Metabolism
Loss of muscle decreases the metabolism and causes weight gain. In his article library, Tom Seabourne, Ph.D, states, "Muscle is the engine for your metabolism. If you gain one pound of muscle, you must consume an extra fifty calories per hour to support it." What this means is that you can consume an extra 50 calories per hour without gaining fat, due to the presence of a pound of muscle.
Fasting, Blood Sugar and Cortisol Levels
Extreme drops in blood sugar levels from fasting are detrimental to your health. When you are weight conscious, you often feel that you should deny yourself food. Modified fasting, whether short-term or mono-diet, deprives the body of the delicate balance needed. Therefore, even when you skip a meal or stress out, your blood sugar rises due to cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol and adrenaline will pull needed blood sugar from your stored muscle glycogen. When that happens you can lose muscle. When muscle is lost, fat is more readily gained.
Solution
Stress and malnutrition will raise your body cortisol level. Avoid sparing protein and you will spare muscle. Muscle raises the metabolism and strengthens the immune system. When you rapidly lose weight, you are losing too much muscle. Therefore the metabolism slows and the immune system weakens. Neither of these results is the goal of weight management. A healthy metabolism and strong immune system are important to keep you lean and on the go.
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