Things You Shouldn’t Be Doing When Trying to Lose Weight

Weight loss is something that a lot of people struggle with. Losing weight is hard. It requires patience, perseverance, and a lot of hard work. There are many weight loss methods out there, but not all of these methods are safe for your body. Featured below are seven things that you should never do when trying to lose weight.

Completely removing fats from your diet

Believe it or not, fats are actually important for your body. Natural fats from egg yolk, lard, and butter provide your body with important nutrients. Completely removing fat from your diet is a bad idea. Vitamins A, E, D, and K in particular require your body to have fats in order to be absorbed properly. Furthermore, most healthy fatty acids like omega-3 actually help with weight loss.

Purging

Purging includes forced vomiting and using too much laxatives. Regular vomiting and abusing laxatives can cause an imbalance in your electrolytes, not to mention dehydration. These methods of weight loss are dangerous and can cause your body harm in the long run. Healthy diet and exercise, while taking more time, is a much safer alternative.

Starving yourself

Eating food makes you gain weight, so why not just stop eating entirely for a bit? Starvation is a terrible idea. The body needs a constant supply of nutrients to maintain its functions. While starvation can indeed cause you to lose weight, it causes too many risks to be considered a viable weight loss method. Starving yourself can cause depression, fatigue, hair loss, hormone imbalance, and sleep deprivation. It can also cause muscle, bone, and organ tissue to break down.

Looking for an easy way out

Avoid diets and methods that claim immediate results. Weight loss takes time, it doesn’t happen overnight. Avoid pills and supplements that aim to trick your body into losing weight. Weight loss methods that advertise quick results are often effective, people wouldn’t be using them otherwise, but tricking your body in the short term is not the solution.

These types of quick-fire diets are hard or nearly impossible to maintain. If you can’t keep up your diet, your body will quickly regress back into its old state, wasting all of your hard work.

Exercising too much while not eating enough

Everybody knows you need to exercise to lose weight. Reducing your calorie intake also helps. However, when working out, remember to always eat enough. Your body burns calories when you exercise, but remember to keep your calorie reserves high before exercising. Maintain a healthy balance between your calorie intake and the amount of calories you burn through activities. Rigorous exercise should never be paired up with an empty stomach.

Smoking

Smoking can cause weight loss. Nicotine in particular can suppress appetites. However, smoking also comes with a variety of health risks. Smoking harms the body and can be the cause of respiratory, cardiovascular, and other types of diseases. It can also cause cancer. Losing weight because of smoking is a side effect. A person should never start smoking because he or she wants to lose weight.

Taking illegal drugs, particularly stimulants

Like smoking, most illegal drugs can cause weight loss as a side effect. Illegal drugs are illegal for a reason; they destroy your body and can be highly addictive. Never consider taking drugs to lose weight. Even if you miraculously achieve your desired weight level, you’ll probably end up getting addicted to the drugs you took. Illegal drugs cause your body harm in the form of increased blood pressure and increased risks of strokes and seizures. Addiction can also cause impulsivity, mood swings, and bad decision making.

It’s easy to get tempted by weight loss methods that advertise immediate results. However most of these methods are unhealthy and some are downright dangerous. Consult a dietician or a physician for on the proper way to lose weight. Weight loss should be done healthily through a balanced diet and plenty of exercise.

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HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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