Healthy Weight Loss: How Much Weight Is It Safe To Lose In A Month?

Just what is considered healthy weight loss? When our mindset is right and we’re determined to lose weight—whether it’s for health reasons or because we want to improve the way we look, it’s often then that we get impatient.

It’s our instinct to want to see results immediately. That surely doesn’t happen, and we get frustrated with the wait and the process.

You’ve probably heard people say rather go slow and steady to keep the weight off long-term, right?

Consider the famed doctor, Younan Nowzaradan (Dr. Now) on My 600-lb. Life. Even though his clients are morbidly obese, for them to get the gastrostomy surgery, they need to drastically cut down on their calories and reduce their weight significantly to start transforming their lives and go under the knife.

So how do you achieve healthy weight loss permanently?

 Just what do you do to keep the weight off without incurring health issues?

Many experts say that losing 1-2 pounds a week is a healthy and safe rate, which is around 4-8 pounds a month.

• • • They believe that losing more than that is considered too much; that it could put you at risk of developing certain health problems.
      • • • • These risks can be…
            • losing too much muscle
            • nutritional deficiencies
            • gallstones, and a
            • drop in metabolism

That’s OK because that’s the initial dieting period. The body gets a ‘shock’ from less food and more exercise, and you lose a lot of water weight.

When this happens, your body will start to dip into its energy store which is known as glycogen. The glycogen gets burned for fuel and the body releases the water.

• • You could experience a major drop in weight at first in your first week. Once your body has used up the glycogen stores, your weight might start stabilizing at losing around a pound or 2 a week.

Most people who start “crash diets” usually regain half their weight back in a year.

• • Usually, after 3-5 years, they’ve regained all their weight. Ouch! It’s the reason experts suggest losing weight at a slower, steadier pace.
  • If you are losing weight at a slower, steadier pace, it might be because you’re likely following a kind of lifestyle diet–eating more fruit and veggies and holding back on the sugar-sweet beverages.

Think of some of the most popular diets. When you follow these type of diets, you usually keep the weight off long-term.

Again, there are other studies which show that rapid weight loss can be just as effective, even for the long-term as well.

However, these ‘successful’ studies are people on rapid weight loss diets who had ongoing support from dieticians and doctors during the weight-loss study.

It’s just that this is unlikely to happen with a person at home who doesn’t have a dietician on call and a doctor’s supervision where the rapid weight loss diet would be successful.

• • Also, dieticians and doctors often try and minimize the health risks mentioned above that come with rapid weight loss diets and eating minimal calorie. Not only that, but rapid weight loss diets with minimal calories can also slow down your metabolism.
  • Metabolism usually drops because of the loss of muscle and a fall in the hormones which regulate your metabolism like your thyroid hormone. It’s unfortunate, too, that the drop in metabolism can last long after your diet.
  • Nutritional deficiency results too, which can cause hair loss, excessive fatigue, poor immune function, weak and brittle bones, gallstones, feeling cold all the time, muscle cramps, dizziness, dehydration.

Yes, there’s a lot of advice and tips out there to help you lose weight at a healthy pace. Slow weight loss might not sound as attractive as fast weight loss, but there are some healthy ways you can speed up your weight loss in a safe manner.

• • Try to eat more protein, for instance. For example, consider astronauts: How do they add more protein to their diet? They make it meteor. Also, don’t forget to cut back on sugar and starch.