Health Related Benefits From Weight Loss Dieting

By Author: Sulamita Berrezi
Total Articles: 115
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There are numerous health-related benefits from weight-loss dieting in overweight individuals. Weight losses of 5 to 10 percent usually produce significant improvements in blood sugar control, hypertension, blood lipids, and other health indices. hese improvements deteriorate if lost weight is regained. Weight loss tends to produce changes in bodily functions that encourage weight regain (e.g., heightened levels of ghrelin and greater insulin sensitivity). Weight loss tends to produce a slowing of metabolic rate for two reasons. One is that some of the lost weight is muscle, which unlike fat, is metabolically active. he other is that the body can react to weight loss as if it is starving and therefore show an exaggerated metabolic slowdown, especially if weight losses are large. For those who are able to maintain a weight loss, evidence suggests that this "defensive" component of the metabolic slowdown dissipates over time. herefore, for most people who lose and maintain a weight loss, their metabolism at their lower weight will be comparable to someone of equal size who never lost weight. Because weight lost on diets is frequently ...
... regained, many people acquire a history of weight loss and regain (or weight cycling). Although initial research on weight cycling raised concerns that weight loss became more diicult and weight regain more likely with each weight cycle, subsequent research has mostly concluded that cycling does not have signiicant adverse efects on physiological parameters. here is some evidence that a history of weight cycling is associated with arteriosclerosis and early mortality. However, it is not clear whether any such associations might be due to volitional weight loss or to weight losses due to other factors. Finally, it is important to remember that individuals prone to weight gain who do not engage in weight-loss eforts are likely to continue gaining weight, which deinitely has negative health consequences. A reasonable conclusion from this research is that the health beneits of diet-induced weight loss appear to outweigh any concerns about the possible deleterious efects of repeated bouts of weight loss and regain.