Slow and Steady- Losing Weight Slowly is Best

You don’t want to hear it, but the best way to lose weight is slowly. Rapid weight loss, while appealing, is just a temporary fix.
 
Water Loss
When we lose weight too quickly, the first few pounds are usually water. A gallon of water weighs about eight pounds, and while you’re likely not losing a gallon of fluids, rapid weight loss (anything more than the 1-2 pounds a week) can be pretty dehydrating. Aside from the fact that water loss is very misleading on the scale, it can be unhealthy. Water plays several very important roles in our body. It flushes waste, lubricates joints and bathes the parts of our body that work best up when moist, like the eyeball. Of course acute dehydration can be dangerous, even life threatening, but chronic dehydration can be just as dangerous, if less obvious. Symptoms of acute dehydration include, very dry mouth, lack of urination, feeling dizzy or disoriented and passing out. Symptoms of mild dehydration are less severe and include dry mouth and darkly colored urine. While mild dehydration may not seem as severe, if left untreated chronically, it can lease to kidney stones, fatigue and constipation just to name a few of the more unsavory side effect.
 
Muscle Loss
In addition to losing water, much of the weight, when lost too quickly, is muscle. This is a double whammy because muscle is metabolically active tissue, meaning that it burns calories even while you are sleeping. Fat on the other hand is generally metabolically inactive, meaning that it does not work for you the same way muscle does.  So when you lose your muscle and leave behind fat, you risk slowing your metabolism down, making it difficult to continue to lose weight or even maintain the weight you find yourself at. The second ill effect is that in addition to being unsightly and uncomfortable, fat also has a nasty habit of secreting hormones that are known to increase your risk of some cancers.
 
Fat Loss
So losing weight too quickly can potentially cause dehydration and a slower metabolism, but what about actually losing fat in the mix? You will lose fat even when you crash diet, or follow any rapid weight loss diet but at a rate that is so slow it is not worth the risks above. Your body is designed to hold on to its precious energy by storing fat. It took weeks, months or even years to gain that weight you want to lose and you can’t expect it to come off more quickly than you put it on.  
 
Instead of throwing your efforts into a quick-fix diet, spend your valuable time shopping and preparing healthful foods and going for at least a 20 minute walk every day. You will see the weight come off at a healthful rate (1-2 pounds per week) that promotes continued loss and most importantly allows you to break the yo-yo habit.