Many people are so overweight that it can be detrimental to their health, from heart problems to diabetes. That is why weight loss is a goal that many people who want to improve their health, or even improve their appearance, have in common.
In order for you to set realistic expectations, you need to know healthy weight loss rates . To do this, we recommend that you follow the advice in this guide.
How can you lose weight?
Weight loss occurs when people consume fewer calories than they burn during the day. On the other hand, weight gain occurs when people consume more calories than they burn.
Any food or drink you consume that has calories counts towards your total calorie intake, but the issue of energy or calorie expenditure is much more complicated, since it is divided into 3 components:
- Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR): This is the number of calories your body needs to maintain normal bodily functions, such as breathing and pumping blood.
- Thermal effect of food (ETA): refers to the calories used to digest, absorb and metabolize food.
- Thermal effect of exercise (TEE): these are the calories you use during exercise. It may also include non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT), which accounts for calories used for common physical activities.
Factors that affect weight loss
The gender
The fat-muscle ratio greatly affects the ability to lose weight . Because women tend to have a higher ratio of fat to muscle than men, they have a 5-10% lower resting metabolic rate than men of the same height.
This means that women generally burn 5-10% fewer calories than men at rest. Therefore, men tend to lose weight faster than women who eat an equal calorie diet.
An 8-week study that included more than 2,000 participants on an 800-calorie diet found that men lost 16% more weight than women (Christensen et al., 2018).
Age
One of the many body changes that occur with aging are alterations in body composition: the increase in fat mass and muscle mass decreases. This change, together with other factors such as the decrease in caloric needs of the main organs, contributes to a lower RMR (St-Onge and Gallagher, 2010). In fact, adults in their 70s can have an MRT 20-25% lower than younger adults.
This is the reason why losing weight is increasingly difficult with age .
Initial weight loss
Starting body weight also affects how quickly you can lose weight .
The amount of weight that is lost, especially during the first few weeks, tends to be proportional to your body weight. People who are heavier will lose more kg than those who are less heavy. However, the rate of weight loss tends to be similar in percentage.
For example, a person who weighs 135 kg can lose 4.5 kg after reducing the daily consumption of 500 calories for 2 weeks. In contrast, a person of the same age and gender who weighs 70 kg can lose only 2.3 kg using the same method.
Negative caloric balance
In order to lose weight, you must create a negative caloric balance . The extent of this calorie deficit affects how quickly you lose weight. For example, consuming 500 fewer calories per day over an 8-week period will likely result in greater weight loss than eating 200 fewer calories per day.
However, make sure you don't make your calorie deficit too great. Doing so would not only be unsustainable, but it would also put you at risk for nutrient deficiencies.
Loss of sleep
Sleep tends to be a crucial component of weight loss that is overlooked. Chronic sleep loss can significantly hinder weight loss and the speed with which it is lost.
Just one night of sleep deprivation has been shown to increase the desire for calorie-dense, less nutrient-dense foods such as cookies, cakes, sugary drinks, and potato chips.
In a 2-week study, participants on a calorie-restricted diet were randomly assigned to get 5 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Those who slept 5 hours lost 55% less body fat and 60% more lean body mass than those who slept 8 hours per night (Nedeltcheva et al., 2010).
Secondary factors affecting weight loss
- Medications: The consumption of medications, such as antidepressants and other antipsychotics, can promote weight gain or hinder weight loss (Domecq et al., 2015).
- Medical conditions: diseases such as depression and hypothyroidism, a condition in which the thyroid gland produces very few hormones that regulate metabolism, can slow weight loss and stimulate weight gain (Liu et al., 2017).
- Family history and genes: There is a well-established genetic component associated with people who are overweight or obese, and it can affect weight loss (Thaker, 2017).
- Yo-yo diets: This eating pattern can make weight loss increasingly difficult with each attempt, due to a decrease in TMR (Astrup et al., 1999).
The best diet to lose weight
Currently we can find a large number of diets that promise impressive and fast results, therefore it can be difficult to determine which one to use. However, while their creators and advocates consider their programs to be superior to the rest, there is no better diet for weight loss (Johnston et al., 2014).
Low-carb diets, such as ketogenic, can help you lose more weight initially, but studies find no significant difference in long-term weight loss.
What matters most is the ability to follow a healthy, low-calorie eating pattern. However, following a very low calorie diet for long periods is difficult for many people and is the main reason most diets don't work.
Safe Weight Loss Rates
Most people expect quick results, but it is important that this does not put your health at risk, since a very restrictive diet can increase the risk of gallstones, dehydration and malnutrition.
Other side effects of rapid weight loss include the following:
- Headaches.
- Irritability.
- Fatigue.
- Constipation.
- Hair loss.
- Menstrual irregularities.
- Muscle loss
Although weight loss may occur faster at the start of a program, experts recommend a weight loss of 0.45 to 1.36 kg per week, or about 1% of body weight. that weight loss is not a linear process. Some weeks you may lose more weight, while others you may lose less or nothing (Heymsfield et al., 2012).
Therefore, you should not be discouraged if your weight loss slows or stagnates for several days.
conclusion
Most overweight people want to lose weight quickly and efficiently, but it is important to note that this occurs only when people consume fewer calories than they burn. The different factors that affect weight loss should also be taken into account, such as gender, age, initial weight, quality of sleep and the extent of the caloric deficit.
However, it can be concluded that a safe way to lose weight is to lose between 0.45 and 1.36 kg per week.
References
- Astrup, A., Gøtzsche, P., Van de Werken, K., Ranneries, C., Toubro, S., Raben, A. and Buemann, B. (1999). Meta-analysis of resting metabolic rate in formerly obese subjects. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. doi: 10.1093 / ajcn / 69.6.1117
- Christensen, P., Larsen, T., Westerterp, M., Macdonald, I., Martinez, J., Handjiev, S., Poppitt, S… Raben, A. (2018). Men and women respond differently to rapid weight loss: Metabolic outcomes of a multi-center intervention study after a low-energy diet in 2500 overweight, individuals with pre-diabetes (PREVIEW). Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism . doi: 10.1111 / dom.13466
- Domecq, J., Prutsky, G., Leppin, A., Sonbol, B., Altayar, O., Undavalli, C., Wang, Z… Elraiyah, T. (2015). Drugs Commonly Associated With Weight Change: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. doi: 10.1210 / jc.2014-3421
- Heymsfield, S., Thomas, D., Martin, C., Redman, L., Strauss, B., Bosy-Westphal, A., Müller, M… Shen, W. (2012). Energy content of weight loss: kinetic features during voluntary caloric restriction. Metabolism . doi: 10.1016 / j.metabol.2011.11.012
- Johnston, B., Kanters, S., Bandayrel, K., Wu, P., Naji, F., Siemieniuk, R., Bola, G… Mills, J. (2014). Comparison of weight loss among named diet programs in overweight and obese adults: a meta-analysis. JAMA . doi: 10.1001 / jama.2014.10397
- Liu, G., Liang, L., Bray, G., Qi, L., Hu, F., Rood, J., Sacks, F… Sun, Q. (2017). Thyroid hormones and changes in body weight and metabolic parameters in response to weight loss diets: the POUNDS LOST trial. International Journal of Obesity. doi: 10.1038 / ijo.2017.28
- Nedeltcheva, A., Kilkus, J., Imperial, J., Schoeller, D. and Penev, P. (2010). Insufficient sleep undermines dietary efforts to reduce adiposity. Annals of Internal Medicine. doi: 10.7326 / 0003-4819-153-7-201010050-00006
- St-Onge, M. and Gallagher, D. (2010). Body composition changes with aging: the cause or the result of alterations in metabolic rate and macronutrient oxidation? Nutrition . doi: 10.1016 / j.nut.2009.07.004
- Thaker, V. (2017). Genetic and Epigenetic Causes of Obesity. Adolescent Medicine. doi: 10PMC6226269
