Staying Healthy While Losing Weight

Staying healthy while losing weight is the primary objective of any over weight, or worse obese people to achieve a healthier state of well being. Also, the dilemma of being able to balance the healthy state without compromising the rate of weight loss and vice versa is usually confused as to how it should be done.

Starvation Misconception

Chances are, some of weight losers become desperate and try drastic changes for losing weight that they expose themselves to a non nutritive state, leading to malnutrition, and complications arising from skipping meals such as ulcers and nausea. On the other hand, a consciously focused individual on staying healthy may forget that his primary goal is to shed the unwanted fat and exercise vigorously and would find himself not losing those pounds, all because of added muscle mass. Such confusion may eventually cause the individual to lose interest in maintaining and enduring the current healthy practice and resort back to unhealthy lifestyle with a less hassle maintenance.

Overworking The Body

Another misconception regarding staying healthy while losing weight is that it can be done faster with more exercise per day. Though this may hold true, our body can only take as much work before we tire out. Intensifying it abruptly, hoping that the added jolt in workload would hasten the shedding process, may trigger a rebound effect on the brain, for the brain has a survival mechanism that triggers a slow down of metabolism if the body is subjected to a high caloric consumption. Furthermore, complications like muscle injuries and joint sprains may occur as these are subjected to a load without having them adapt to it gradually.

Muscle Atrophy

In addition to the slow down of metabolism as a rebound effect, there is also another detrimental outcome for the body to preserve as much energy reserves [read: fat deposits], that instead of burning up the fatty deposits, muscle cells are rather used up instead. This is because protein is easier to synthesize into smaller components for energy sourcing than fat. Also, fat has larger energy content per unit than a protein, therefore allowing the body to efficiently store energy at a greater ratio. Such phenomenon is called muscle atrophy. With Muscle atrophy, a person is then subject to double time in gaining back the lost weight in muscles and at the same time keeping t he fat deposit levels low.

Couple With Exercise

Staying healthy while losing weight requires both a lessened caloric intake calculated and intended to the desired body weight requirement and coupled with adequate exercise. Usually, the first two weeks will have no significant results as the body will still have to adapt and change its metabolic paradigm with the new stressor. After which, significant weight drops would occur from the start of the third week of consistent losing weight. After which, the rate at which the mass sheds off gradually slows down until the desired weight is achieved.

Staying healthy while losing weight takes time to achieve. There are neither shortcuts nor easy way outs for this two to work harmoniously together. For a successful healthy status while losing weight, It is important to understand that the two should be well balanced so that not one of the aspects try to out hunger the other and cause a failure in the desired objective.