Nutrition specialists recommend not losing more than 1 kilo a week as it can be dangerous to health and unsustainable in the long term
Every day, millions of people start a weight loss process to decrease their excess weight. Many of them embark on miracle diets that promise to lose many pounds in a short time. However, doctors and nutritionists distrust these methods and remember that, in many cases, they lead to the so-called rebound effect.
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The first thing to understand is that, when it comes to losing weight, it is necessary to burn more calories than are consumed. This is called a caloric deficit, but it is not easy to lose half a kilo each day. Specialists estimate that to lose a kilo of weight you have to burn about 7,000 calories, so it is time to do a mathematical calculation.
Your normal diet consists of between 2,000 and 2,500 calories and you want to burn another 3,500 calories of fat that would be equivalent to half a kilo, which means having to do sports in a very demanding way for hours until you burn between 5,500 and 6,000 calories every day. Something unlikely and also not recommended by doctors.
Unhealthy and risky
Experts from Healthline say that it is possible to lose 500 grams of body fat per day, but to achieve this you have to increase your physical activity exponentially and, at the same time, reduce your food intake drastically. Neither option is medically healthy and, above all, they are not sustainable in the long term.
However, the weight of fat should not be confused with body fluids. Losing a pound of fluids is more realistic since it refers to the water that the body accumulates in its tissues. There are people who directly retain fluids, either due to illness, hormonal levels, or excessive salt consumption.
Also, glycogen is much because of fluid retention. It is a polysaccharide that comes from carbohydrates and accumulates mainly in the liver, but also in the muscles. And every gram of glycogen stored in the body does so with another three grams of water, so fluid retention increases with carbohydrates.
A good way to end this problem is to increase sports practice and, at the same time, reduce the intake of carbohydrates, especially simple ones. Doctors and nutritionists always recommend consuming complex carbohydrates such as those found in whole grains, legumes, greens, or vegetables. Therefore, the first thing that is normally lost when losing weight is water and not fat.
Is it safe to lose a pound every day?
Experts recommend not losing more than 1 kilo per week, a measure that requires a caloric deficit of about 1,000 calories a day. However, losing half a kilo a day would imply a reduction of 3.5 kilos per week, which for doctors and nutritionists is losing too much weight since it is necessary to reduce food intake and, therefore, not meet nutritional needs.
These low-calorie diets can be very dangerous for your health, but they are also associated with the rebound effect that occurs when that weight loss plan is abandoned. That means that instead of losing weight, in the long term we could be gaining it. Not to mention the alteration of metabolism, which can also prevent us from achieving the goal of losing weight.
A hormonal imbalance can also occur related to leptin and ghrelin, the hormones that regulate hunger and appetite. One last reason not to try to lose weight quickly is that the sport required to achieve the caloric deficit could be excessive for a person not used to exercise, which could lead to injuries and, above all, heart problems.
In summary, specialists agree that losing half a kilo a day is dangerous to health and unsustainable in the long term. It is best to put yourself in the hands of doctors and nutrition experts to individually help each person to achieve their ideal weight through a balanced diet and healthy exercise.
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