That Christmas party coming up during the weekend? You search frantically for that dress that you dazzled the room with five years ago, and to your tearful dismay, you find that its three sizes too small for you. Now a few options come into play: one, get another dress; two, alter the dress; three, go on a diet. In case you are considering option three, you must be aware of the dangers that come with losing that much weight in a few days.
Rapid weight loss, or weight cutting, is the act of losing weight at an abnormal and alarming rate. Weight cutting has been used by athletes in attempt to enter light weight categories that they originally were not eligible for. Even then, it is not recommended by nutritionists, and is done under medical supervision. If you attempt to weight cut by yourself, you expose yourself to medical dangers that are associated with starvation.
Weight cutting can be done in a variety of ways, the most popular being fasting from food for a period of time. Other methods include dehydration of your own body, and eating unsafe combinations of weight loss products.
Fasting from food might lead to effect on your body that is similar to that of starvation. Basically, depriving your body of food for a period of time may lead to your body being malnourished. Your metabolic rate would slow down in response to the lowered amount of energy available for your body to feed on. While you may lose weight through your body having to use up fatty reserves of energy, you will use up the fatty reserves at a slower rate than if you ate normally and exercised due to your lowered metabolic rate and the difficulty involved in metabolizing fats into energy. Prolonged fasting would lead to spells of giddiness due to low blood sugar levels, and possible fainting.
Dehydrating your body is similar to fasting, only that you are fasting from fluids instead of food. Rapid weight loss through dehydration is more dangerous than fasting, as water is a vital component of your body. Your body is made up of 65% of water, and you are able to lose weight by cutting the amount of water in your body. However, to lose an amount of water that would lead to significant and sustainable weight loss is dangerous, and may lead to death.
The most dangerous of the three methods, indiscriminate consumption of weight loss drugs in a bid to cut weight can lead to serious medical side effects, and in the worst case, death. The desperate can consume unprescribed amounts of weight loss drugs, which may lead to an overdose that induces unconsciousness or poisoning. Consuming unsafe combinations of such drugs may also cause an unprecedented chemical reaction, which may cause severe health problems or even death. Doing either one of the two may lead to a situation which may warrant emergency treatment.
Rapid weight loss is dangerous business, and highly discouraged by medical professionals. If you really need to lose that weight, try planning ahead and actually starting on that exercise regime that you were planning on. It isn’t worth risking your life and your health, in the long and short term, to lose those few pounds.
