Safe weight loss involves working with a dietitian or medical professional to plan a sensible diet. A healthy weight-loss program also involves a safe and sane exercise program. Extreme dieting programs with unhealthy eating habits and manic exercise to produce weight loss can result in serious risks to health. The Mayo Clinic recommends that any weight loss program be discussed with your doctor before starting the activity.
Gallstones
The National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse describes gallstones as "small, pebble-like substances that develop in the gallbladder." The organ located in the abdomen assists the body in digesting fats by secreting bile into the small intestine. While gallstones develop in overweight people, they also develop as a result of rapid weight loss on high-fat and low-fiber dieting plans. A continual loss of more than three pounds a week increases the risk for gallstones, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. Gallstones can be treated by surgery or by dissolution therapy to dissolve the stones. If left untreated, the stones block bile flow, damaging the gallbladder, pancreas or liver and potentially resulting in permanent damage or even death.
Weakened Immune Systems
Rapid weight loss may cut food intake to the point the diet reduces the amount of nutrients to the body. This weakens the body's ability to use the immune system to fight infection and disease. The weakened system lacks the ability to effectively destroy viruses, including the common cold and influenza. Recurrent infections may result until the body restores the immune system to normal levels.
Heart Problems
Cardiac changes occur with rapid weight loss. While most organs can adapt to changes, the National Eating Disorders Association reports that dieters "often experience physical consequences," including, "fainting, weakness, and slowed heart rates." The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases warns that diets of less than 800 daily calories lead to a risk of heart rhythm abnormalities, with death as the most extreme possibility.
Dehydration
Dr. David Schlundt, health psychology instructor at Vanderbilt University, states that losing more than two pounds of weight per week involves either starvation or dehydration. Both are damaging to the body. The signs of dehydration include decreased urine output, dry skin, headaches, constipation, lack of tears when crying, dry and sticky mouth and a feeling of sleepiness.
Hair Loss
Healthy diets, above the survival levels of 1,400 calories per day for men and 1,000 for women, provide the body with the necessary nutrients for survival. Dieting that reduces the daily calorie intake below that level triggers the body to recognize the starvation situation and places the body into survival mode, according to health author Howard Murad, and this creates dry, brittle hair. In cases of extreme dieting, Murad notes, people may lose a full head of hair.
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