Weight loss drastically after a strict diet? these 5 effects for the body

Diet can help you get the ideal body weight. However, you shouldn't be too pushy live it to the point where the weight drops dramatically. Even though you can achieve your dream weight target faster, losing weight very drastically in a short time actually risks causing various adverse side effects to the body.

Weight loss drastically after a strict diet? Beware of its detrimental effects on the body

1. Metabolism slows down

You can lose weight if you eat less, but eating too little can also decrease the body's metabolism. Metabolism affects how quickly your body burns the calories it gets from food. If your metabolism is running slowly, your body will use up calories from food more slowly.

When you cut your total calorie intake to a fraction of the usual amount, your body will perceive you as starving, which will slow down your calorie burn. The slower your metabolism, the less calories you burn. The decline in metabolism can even continue long after you finish the diet. This will only be dangerous.

When you come back to increase your calorie intake higher, your body will not burn calories as fast as before. So in the future, it will be more difficult for you to lose weight. You will actually find it easier to gain weight after dieting.

2. Loss of muscle

When you are on a strict low-calorie diet, you can lose weight quickly, but you may not necessarily lose fat. In fact, it is actually the muscle mass that is lost. Research published in the journal Obesity Society in 2016 showed that people who diets very low in calories have a 6-fold risk of losing muscle mass.

The side effects of losing muscle mass are related to a decrease in the body's metabolism after a dramatic drop in body weight. One of the ways of metabolic work is determined by the muscle mass you have. The smaller your muscle mass, the slower your metabolism works. As a result, the body will burn fewer calories. This tends to make the body store more calories, which in turn will cause you to gain weight.

This can happen when you only eat less, but not accompanied by exercise. By exercising, you can maintain and even increase muscle mass so that your body's metabolism also increases.

3. Lack of nutrients

Drastic weight loss after a strict diet is at risk of making you deficient in certain nutrients, because you limit the amount and type of food everyday.

A strict low-calorie diet is generally at risk of causing a person to be deficient in iron, folate, calcium and vitamin B12. This effect can be detrimental to the health of the body in the long run. Malnutrition can cause you to experience extreme fatigue, anemia, get sick easily due to a weakened immune system, frequent muscle cramps, and severe hair loss.

4. Sagging skin

Drastic weight loss can make your skin appear saggy and saggy, especially on your stomach, arms, and legs. This is because the skin loses its elasticity after being stretched for a long time by the presence of fat.

Instant weight loss prevents the skin from shrinking in response to changes in body shape. These side effects do not have long-term health consequences, but they can make you feel inferior about your physical appearance.

The Medical Center at Columbia University recommends surgery as the only way out to correct this if the skin does not return to contouring after 2 years of drastic weight loss.

5. Gallstones

Reporting from Healthline, gallstones are one of the most common complications of drastic weight loss in a short period of time.

Normally, the gallbladder will release digestive enzymes to break down fatty food so that it can be digested. But when you are on a strict diet, you will certainly limit the portion of fatty foods, right? Now, when the body doesn't get enough fat intake, the gallbladder will stop producing this enzyme which causes bile salts to decrease.

Meanwhile, the body that breaks down fat stores during a strict diet causes the liver to release large amounts of cholesterol into the bile, so that the bile becomes saturated. Gallstones are formed when substances in the digestive enzymes settle and crystallize into stones. What's more, frequent skipping meals or not eating for long periods of time can decrease gallbladder contractions to empty bile. As a result, gallstones can form.

Gallstones may not show any symptoms at first. This is something to watch out for, because if the gallstones continue to get bigger, painful symptoms can start to appear so you will need to have surgery to remove the gallstones.