Saturday, May 1, 2021

Losing Weight and Staying Healthy


Staying healthy while losing weight is the primary objective of any over weight, or worse obese people to achieve a healthier state of well being. Also, the dilemma of being able to balance the healthy state without compromising the rate of weight loss and vice versa is usually confused as to how it should be done.


Starvation Misconception
 
Chances are, some of weight losers become desperate and try drastic changes for losing weight that they expose themselves to a non nutritive state, leading to malnutrition, and complications arising from skipping meals such as ulcers and nausea. On the other hand, a consciously focused individual on staying healthy may forget that his primary goal is to shed the unwanted fat and exercise vigorously and would find himself not losing those pounds, all because of added muscle mass. Such confusion may eventually cause the individual to lose interest in maintaining and enduring the current healthy practice and resort back to unhealthy lifestyle with a less hassle maintenance.

Overworking The Body

Another misconception regarding staying healthy while losing weight is that it can be done faster with more exercise per day. Though this may hold true, our body can only take as much work before we tire out. Intensifying it abruptly, hoping that the added jolt in workload would hasten the shedding process, may trigger a rebound effect on the brain, for the brain has a survival mechanism that triggers a slow down of metabolism if the body is subjected to a high caloric consumption. Furthermore, complications like muscle injuries and joint sprains may occur as these are subjected to a load without having them adapt to it gradually.

Muscle Atrophy

In addition to the slow down of metabolism as a rebound effect, there is also another detrimental outcome for the body to preserve as m ch energy reserves [read: fat deposits], that instead of burning up the fatty deposits, muscle cells are rather used up instead. This is because protein is easier to synthesize into smaller components for energy sourcing than fat. Also, fat has larger energy content per unit than a protein, therefore allowing the body to efficiently store energy at a greater ratio. Such phenomenon is called muscle atrophy. With Muscle atrophy, a person is then subject to double time in gaining back the lost weight in muscles and at the same time keeping t he fat deposit levels low.

Couple With Exercise

Staying healthy while losing weight requires both a lessened caloric intake calculated and intended to the desired body weight requirement and coupled with adequate exercise. Usually, the first two weeks will have no significant results as the body will still have to adapt and change its metabolic paradigm with the new stressor. After which, significant weight drops would occur from the start of the third week of consistent losing weight. After which, the rate at which the mass sheds off gradually slows down until the desired weight is achieved.

Staying healthy while losing weight takes time to achieve. There are neither shortcuts nor easy way outs for this two to work harmoniously together. For a successful healthy status while losing weight, It is important to understand that the two should be well balanced so that not one of the aspects try to out hunger the other and cause a failure in the desired
objective,
 

 

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for this. Maintaining a healthy weight has been a challenge for me since the pandemic started. I was able to lose weight for a few months but gained it back soon. Hope to be able to do it again.

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    1. I know right! Hard to be that "healthy" when you are limited to do almost everything during the pandemic!

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  2. These are such important points to remember! Starvation never leads to weight loss. Your body will conserve every ounce of fat you have if you do that. People also routine forgo weight training which is a bad decision.

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  3. Almost four months ago, I completely changed the way I was eating. It's changed my life.

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  4. I have diabetes and my weight fluctuates easily, depending on the medication that I am taking. I should exercise more, to keep or maintain a steady weight and to tone my muscles too. Thank you for your advice.

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  5. Thanks for casting the light on these common misconceptions. Recently, I realised that overworking the body wasn't an appropriate way to lose weight and now I also try to eat more consciously.

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  6. I am working to get back to my persurgery weight. There is definitely more of a balance that I have ot ahcieve compared to when I was much younger. IT definitely takes time! Thanks for the post.

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  7. Muscle atrophy is huge and I'm glad you mentioned it. My daughter was sick and couldn't eat for 10 days. She lost 20 pounds!! She literally could not eat anything at all and keep it down. However, her muscles were very weak and it was alarming. Losing weight has to be done in the right way for it to stick. If not, other things happen that are as challenging as the extra weight.

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  8. Gosh! It's so difficult to lose weight. I added some few pounds during the pandemic. Great tips!

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  9. As a chronic dieter who developed a life threatening eating disorder, I have to agree with the first point. Starvation only puts you into starvation syndrome which, when you go back to eating normally (if you even can), the weight packs on quicker and ten fold!

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  10. Hhhmmmm...this explains a trend I'm noticing at home lately with my brother. He's slimming and it has more to do with lessening his calorie intake!

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  11. When working on weight management many people will concentrate on moving more but will forget about how important the kitchen is.

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  12. It can be hard keeping weight off, but as always it is all about moderation and balance with an active lifestyle x

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