Dieting Dangers

Weight loss can be beneficial on many levels. Psychologically, it can improve depression and body image. Weight loss can also help reduce high blood pressure and the risk for most chronic illnesses, including heart disease and most types of cancer. However, there are dangers that can result from weight loss and altering your diet that those looking to improve their weight need to avoid. These dangers are: becoming too thin, malnutrition, and losing weight too rapidly.

Before beginning a weight loss program, people need to distinguish whether they are overweight or merely over-fat. If you are overweight, you will need to lose weight slowly, through healthy diet and exercise to increase your lean muscle mass and reduce your body fat. If you are not overweight but over-fat, decreasing the amount of fat on your body and increasing the amount of muscle is important for a trimmed down look and improved health, but you will want to maintain your weight. Becoming too thin is just as dangerous, if not more so, than being overweight and you will want to guard carefully against that while dieting.

Malnutrition and losing weight too rapidly are also dieting dangers. You should make sure that you are losing weight at an appropriate pace; 2 pounds or 1 kilogram per week is the maximum you should expect to lose in a given period of time. Weight loss that proceeds more rapidly is associated with kidney problems as well as gall stones. Malnutrition can also result as it is unlikely that a person who reduces their diet calories enough to produce more rapid weight loss is getting all the nutrients, vitamins and minerals that the body needs to stay healthy.