Healthy Weight Loss: How Much Weight Is Safe to Lose in a Month?

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When our mindset is right and we are determined to lose weight–be it for health reasons or to look good, it is often then that we can get impatient. We want to see results immediately and get frustrated with waiting and the process.

It’s part of our world and DNA now. We’re bombarded daily with ads that say a pill will give you the results faster than following a healthy plan. I’ve tried a few of those and found that not focusing on the scale gave me much better results. When we step on that scale every day, it only leads to just giving up.

You’ve probably heard people say rather go slow and steady to keep the weight off long-term, right? Actually, studies show that when we lose weight slowly, there are fewer health risks. But in recent times, there have been studies that show that rapid weight loss could be just as good as slow weight loss. Look at the famed Dr. Now on My 600 lb. Life. Even though his clients are morbidly obese, in order to get the gastrostomy surgery, they need to drastically cut down on their calories and drastically cut down on their weight to start transforming their lives and go under the knife.

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Losing Weight Smartly

The secret is keeping the weight off, permanently

  • Many experts say that losing 1-2 pounds a week is a healthy and safe rate, which is around 4-8 pounds a month. They believe that losing more than that is considered too much; that it could put you at risk of developing certain health problems. These can be losing too much muscle, nutritional deficiencies, gallstones, and a drop in metabolism too
  • If you are starting to diet and exercise, you might lose more than 2 pounds in your first week. That’s OK because that’s the initial dieting period. The body gets a ‘shock’ from less food and more exercise – and you lose a lot of water weight. When this happens, your body will start to dip into its energy store which is known as glycogen. The glycogen gets burned for fuel and the body releases the water.
  • You could experience a major drop in weight at first in your first week. Once your body has used up the glycogen stores, your weight might start stabilizing at losing around a pound or 2 a week.

Most people who start “crash diets” usually regain half their weight back in a year

  • Usually, after 3-5 years, they have regained all their weight. Ouch!  It’s the reason that experts suggest losing weight at a slower, steadier pace.
  • If you are losing weight at a slower, steadier pace, it might be because you are following a kind of lifestyle diet; eating more fruit and veggies and holding back on the sugar-sweet beverages. Look at some great diets and recipes. When you follow these type of diets, you usually keep the weight off long-term.
  • Again, there are other studies which show that rapid weight loss can be just as effective, even for the long-term as well. However, these ‘successful’ studies are people on rapid weight loss diets who had ongoing support from dieticians and doctors during the weight-loss study. Research also shows that when you have support from health professionals all along the way, you can experience long-term weight loss success. It is just that this is unlikely to happen with a person at home who does not have a constant dietician and doctor supervision where the rapid weight loss diet would be successful. Also, dieticians and doctors often try and minimize the health risks mentioned above that come with rapid weight loss diets and eating minimal calorie. Not only that, rapid weight loss diets with minimal calories can also slow down your metabolism. Metabolism usually drops because of the loss of muscle and also a fall in the hormones which regulate your metabolism like your thyroid hormone. It’s unfortunate, too, that the drop in metabolism can last long after your diet. Nutritional deficiency results too, which can cause hair loss, excessive fatigue, poor immune function, weak and brittle bones, gallstones, feeling cold all the time, muscle cramps, dizziness, dehydration.

Go slow

There are great tips to help you lose weight at a healthy pace. Slow weight loss might not sound as attractive as fast weight loss, but there are some healthy ways you can speed up your weight loss safe like eating more protein for instance. Look at the spacemen – how do they add more protein to their diet? They make it meteor! Also, don’t forget to cut back on sugar and starch!

Good things take time