We see it over and over again – people want to lose weight.  They don’t feel great about how they look and so they go to a “fast weight loss” program that promises quick and easy results.  Sometimes, those programs even deliver – in the short term. Which is perfect if you only want to lose weight for a short period of time, say for a wedding or other special occasion. But most people would probably rather shed unwanted weight for good, if asked to give their honest intentions.

The problem with fast weight loss (and the reason it never works in the long run) is that your body isn’t designed to lose weight quickly.  As soon as you

try to do it, some significant changes happen in your body. Here are 3 primary reasons why fast weight loss doesn’t usually work as a permanent weight management solution.

3 Reasons Why Fast Weight Loss Never Works

1. Your Hormones are signaled by your fat: Not all body fat is bad for you, and all of it has a purpose. Stored body fat is in direct proportion to a hormone called leptin. This hormone controls appetite, modulates metabolism and promotes fat burning. When fat levels drop quickly, leptin levels drop quickly as well, and your body is triggered to power down and become more efficient. In the health and fitness space, this is sometimes anecdotally referred to as “starvation mode.” The hormone response shuts down systems and makes your body do everything it can to conserve energy. As a result, your metabolism slows and that can limit or even stop you from losing more weight. In a way, this is your body’s awesome ability to be efficient. But with weight loss, it can work against your progress. 
   
   
2. Nutritional deficiency: Restrictive, low-calorie diets are usually deficient in necessary macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Lack of these nutrients can lead to unhealthy skin, hair, and nails, a suppressed immune system, insufficient hormone production, poor recovery, and more. That means you’re more likely to get, and stay, sick. Lack of minerals can lead to irregular heartbeat, muscle cramps and loss of bone mass. Depriving your body of calories over time can also cause it to use a larger mix of skeletal muscle mass for energy as it burns off body mass. This “muscle burning” state is not optimal for sustained weight loss, because your skeletal muscle mass is directly connected to your basal metabolic rate (the minimum amount of energy you passively burn at rest). 
   
   
3. Psychological Complications: Severe restriction is not sustainable in the long-term, and is known to lead dieters into a binge/restrict cycle – the body fighting with the mind to try to get enough nutrients to survive. This cycle very often leads to severely disordered thinking about food and weight, and frequently into eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Restrictive diets can become socially excluding – you’re so worried about your food that you’re not enjoying life with your family and friends. One of my favorite nutrition coach sayings: “You can’t have healthy without the happy.” It is important that your diet practices fit into your lifestyle in a way that supports sustainable, healthy weight management, while also being enjoyable. 

This doesn’t mean weight loss and a life of healthy maintenance is impossible – it just means you can’t do it by buying into the marketing promises put out by businesses intent on making a quick profit.  Fast weight loss harms your body, it harms your mind, AND in 97% of cases it leads to regaining not only the weight you lost, but more weight on top of it– that’s leptin at work, trying to keep you safe and alive!

Want to lose weight, and keep it off for good?  Check out the new monthly subscription program called Thrive, where we focus on establishing Healthy Habits and creating a roadmap to sane, steady, sustainable weight loss and lifetime weight maintenance.  You can learn more about that here!

Have questions you’d like to run by me? You can schedule a free 15-minute coaching call, designed to help you figure out where you want to go and how we can help you get there. You can schedule that here! 

Sources:

Goldman, Charles, MD, Weight Management for Your life- Ten steps to prepare you for adopting a healthy lifestyle, Charles Goldman- 2008

Summerfield, Liane, PhD & Ellis, Stephanie, PhD, Nutrition, Exercise & Behavior, Cengage Learning- 2014