Extreme Weight Loss

Extreme Weight Loss is the title of a television show in which contestants arrive morbidly obese and attempt to lose large amounts of weight through dieting and exercise. Each of the contestants is under the supervision of a physician, dietitian and fitness trainer to achieve their goals. And they have achieved some pretty phenomenal goals.

But, you should also remember that they have the added benefits of using a dietitian and personal fitness trainer to get to where they are going. Do you want the same achievement? Losing massive amounts of weight quickly and seemingly easily?

Unfortunately, although we’d all like things to go quickly and definitely easily, weight loss is best achieved in a slow, steady and permanent basis. If you think about the weight you are carrying that you’d rather not have, it didn’t get packed on in just a couple of weeks. And it won’t come off in just a couple of weeks either

You can achieve extreme weight loss, or greater than 15% of your overall weight, but it should be done using healthy options that will only support your efforts and be easy to maintain when you’ve reached your goal weight.

With extreme amounts of weight loss you’ll experience some impressive transformations. Too often you’ll achieve your weight and then revert back to old eating and exercise habits. Extreme weight loss is achieved and maintained only with health options and permanent lifestyle changes.

But extreme loss may have resulted from extreme dieting; and those are two different issues. Weight loss can result from a voluntary program, such as diet and exercise; or from an involuntary circumstance, such as illness. Unintentional extreme weight loss can be from metastasized cancer, metabolic disorders, overactive thyroid gland, drug use, rheumatoid arthritis or other extreme illnesses.

In the average diet and exercise program you will lose between 1 and 1.5 pounds per week. How long it takes you to achieve an extreme amount of weight will depend upon your motivation and desire and ability to maintain a lifestyle change.

But, losing more than 2 pounds per week over several weeks at a time increases your risk of several problems. Fast weight loss can increase your risk of infections and compromise your immune system. Experiencing extreme loss during pregnancy can result in children with behavioral disorders, and may suffer from gallbladder and liver dysfunction, renal failure, retinal hemorrhage and may include food aversions, muscle pain and nausea. (1)

Other risks include muscle wasting, nutritional deficits and growth deceleration in adolescents. Long term risks include osteopenia and osteoporosis; and in adolescents they can experience rebound weight gain.

References:

(1) Journal of Women’s Health: Symptoms and Pregnancy Outcomes Associated with Extreme Weight Loss Among Women with Hyperemesis Gravidarum

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2828197/

Resources:

Pediatric and Child Health: Dieting in Adolescence

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2720870/

Fitday: The Dangers of Extreme Dieting

http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/the-dangers-of-extreme-dieting.html#b

Examiner: The Most Successful Extreme Weight Loss Technique

http://www.examiner.com/article/the-most-successful-extreme-weight-loss-technique

Medscape: Involuntary Weight Loss and Protein-Energy Malnutrition

http://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/416589_2