Weight loss tends to be healthiest, safest and most sustainable when you go about it gradually. If you're in a hurry to drop a lot of weight quickly, however, you may resort to drastically reducing your daily calorie intake. While that strategy can certainly help you slim down, it may also increase your risk of gaining the weight back and other negative health effects.
Fast Weight Loss
To lose 2 lb., you must burn or save 7,000 calories, which is equivalent to cutting 1,000 calories from your daily diet for a week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that you lose no more than 2 lb. per week because if you lose weight at a faster pace, you are less likely to keep it off over time. Preventive medicine specialist Donald Hensrud, M.D., also notes that the efforts inspiring fast weight loss are simply unsustainable. "Fast weight loss takes extraordinary efforts in diet and exercise --- efforts that could be unhealthy and that you probably can't maintain as permanent lifestyle changes," he states.
Nutrient Deficiencies
When you eat less food, you have fewer chances to get the vitamins, minerals and nutrients that your body needs to function at its best every day. For example, MayoClinic.com recommends that you eat 50 to 175 g of protein daily and that women have 22 to 28 g of fiber daily and men have 28 to 34 g. If you cut calories so severely that you don't meet those benchmarks, you could be subject to nutrient deficiencies, digestive difficulties, increased risk of osteoporosis or a weakened immune system.
Starvation Mode
When you don't eat at regular intervals throughout the day because you're cutting an extreme number of calories, you may be negatively affecting your metabolic rate. "If a person goes all day without eating, the body goes into starvation mode," state health and nutrition professionals at Columbia University's GoAskAlice.com. "This means her [or] his metabolic rate will slow down and her [or] his body will conserve energy and expend fewer calories." If your metabolic rate drops significantly, you may also have difficulty distinguishing hunger signals from full signals and could feel irritable, lightheaded or faint.
Considerations
There are some cases in which extreme calorie reduction can be safe and productive. For example, a doctor may suggest that you participate in a medically supervised, very low-calorie diet program if you are severely obese. Such problems typically offer only 800 or fewer daily calories, according to the Weight Control Information Network, and they may help you lose 3 to 5 lb. per week.
References
- CDC.gov; Healthy Weight - Losing Weight; January 4, 2011
- Weight-Control Information Network; Very Low-Calorie Diets; August 2008
- Columbia.edu; Go Ask Alice! Will Skipping Breakfast and Lunch Lead to Weight Loss?; December 6, 2002
- MayoClinic.com; Fast Weight Loss - What's Wrong with It?; Donald Hensrud, M.D.; November 20, 2009
- MayoClinic.com; Healthy Diet - End the Guesswork with These Nutrition Guidelines; February 22, 2011
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