Danger of Rapid Weight Loss

Many weight-loss supplements and fad diets promise to shed pounds quickly. Many people trying to lose weight desperately believe these claims. Some suffer nothing more than disappointment. Others suffer lingering health problems even when rapid weight loss is achieved.

Starvation

• Some Master Cleanse--style diets are nothing more than starvation diets and rapid weight loss does follow. However, in the process, a person may actually starve his body of needed vitamins, minerals and nutrition, which taxes the heart, muscles, and internal organs.

Imbalances

• Rapid weight loss can result in gallstones, mineral and electrolyte imbalances, rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure and low blood sugar levels. All of these conditions can be life-threatening.

Slower Metabolism

• When a person goes on a diet, he decreases his intake of food and his metabolism slows down. Rapid weight loss will greatly slow down metabolism to account for the lower weight; when normal eating resumes, less food is needed and burned to maintain current weight. Not accounting for this slowed metabolism often explains why people on crash diets immediately regain weight once they stop dieting.

Control

• In rapid weight loss, food intake is most often drastically reduced. When normal eating resumes, hunger may become out of control and a person may eat beyond fullness.

Heart Disease

• Dr. C. Wayne Callaway, a nutrition specialist in Washington D.C., concluded that people who "yo-yo diet" are at great risk of developing heart disease. Losing and regaining weight rapidly stresses the heart and the body.

Edema

• Rapid weight loss can result in salt and water retention, or edema. The body will essentially become bloated and subject to easy weight gain through increased water weight.