How much can you lose weight in a month without harm to health?

Criticism related to non-compliance with certain Canons of beauty they cost the lives of many people, and in a variety of ways. The last, or at least one of the last, was cuihuaA 21 year old Chinese influencer who passed away last month weight loss camp. Similar initiatives have become very popular in the Asian country as they promise rapid weight loss. But is it really great? Was this young woman a coincidence, or could such a rapid weight loss put her life at risk?

It is enough to see the information that Cuihua spread on his social networks to understand what could have happened to him. When he entered the camp, he weighed 156 kg and his intention was to lose no more and no less than 100. In the first two months he lost 20 kilos. Then, in less than a month, he dropped another 10. His goal seemed achievable if he continued at the same pace, but it was a rhythm that cannot be hidden by health.

Experts recommend leaving about 2 to 4 kg each month. This may vary from person to person, but 10 kg per month left Cuihua were really dangerous. And that if we immediately leave too much weight, the body will look for energy where it can, albeit in the most extreme cases, suppose to consume itself. Literally.

Why do you need fast weight loss?

The main goal of losing weight should always be health. However, when we are looking for rapid weight losshealth is the last thing we think about. Cuihua probably didn’t want to look thinner to be healthier, but rather to look her best in front of her fans. To be able to compare yourself to other influencers. Actually, Canons of beauty Extremes are enforced very harshly in China, and many people practice the same extremes as those that cost this young woman’s life.

Hence weight loss camps have been heavily criticized by nutritionists ever since they came into vogue in USA and China. As a rule, it is about programs from 6 to 9 weeks in which a very intense diet and exercise are carried out with the aim of achieving rapid weight loss. The problem is that routines don’t usually come with a habit change awareness program, so once they’re over, there’s a kickback effect. In addition, these are such spartan exercises that, no matter how much willpower the participants have, it becomes impossible to maintain them over time.

In fact, the adjective “Spartan routines” is quite appropriate, since in some places the coaches for weight loss are military. They usually do not do psychological work with the participants, but instead focus on getting them to lose weight as quickly as possible. There are exceptions. In Spain, for example, there are only three such camps. Of all of them, there is one who claims to have psychological support. However, it is not the most common. You only need to see what happened to Kuihua.

How can you lose weight in a healthy way?

Generally speaking, we can say that we lose weight when we burn more calories than we consume. But you must consider several factors. First, the calories that actually kilocaloriesThey power unit. That is, through food we acquire the energy our body needs work. Sometimes we eat excess that accumulates as fat, and part of this makes us fat. These reserves are burned during physical activity, since it implies an additional need for the body for energy, which should burn the excess that has accumulated. That’s why diet is not enoughYou also need to exercise to lose weight.

So far so good. But there is a confusion that we usually don’t take into account, as he explained. hypertexthe is a nutritionist Daniel Ursua. “If a very strict diet is followed, most often this weight is due to muscle massthat the body throws out in the first place, ”says the specialist. “Fat is very important for the body, so it will be practically its last choice“.

Actually, it is for this reason that strength training is recommended in addition to cardio. “For remember to an organism that need muscles“.

This means that if we lose weight quickly, we can lose a lot of muscle mass with all the ensuing consequences. This extreme loss of weight and muscle mass is called cachexia and is usually associated with disease, so it is clear that this is not healthy weight loss.

Also, if this cachexia is very advanced, the body may even try to get energy from its own organs. This is something very extreme and rare, but it can happen and of course entails serious health problems. In fact, this may be what happened to the Chinese woman.

Rapid weight loss is a bad sign.

“Very rapid weight loss would let us know that something is not going right,” explains Ursua. So the fact that weight loss camps are selling as good results is a clear sign that they are doing something wrong.

But not only because of the possible consequences for physical health. And also what it all means for mental health. In fact, Ursua does not dare to name the number of kilograms per month that can be lose health; because it may indicate that if you do not reach this amount, you are not losing weight with health, which is not the case.

“The thing is, if we’re using a non-weight-focused approach, it’s a bit difficult to talk about healthy weight loss because, after all, I’m at least always advocating not having weight loss as a goal. And it is a reality that there are many factors involved in weight loss, and if I say, for example, that healthy weight loss is 2 kilograms per month, then the person who loses less is not doing enough? Could you do more? Well, not the same. Yes, I can clearly see that high weight loss is a sign that things are going wrong due to muscle loss. It must be taken into account that weight loss in a teenager who has never played sports, and whose body reacts more easily, than in a person 20 years older.

Daniel Ursua, nutritionist

This weight-neutral approach what the nutritionist says is important to avoid problems like Eating disorder. Actually, this is the reason why psychological support which is often lacking in weight loss camps. Because exercise and healthy eating should be habits for a healthy lifestyle, not tools for losing weight, especially for losing weight quickly. Before glorifying the Spartan camps, one must try to destroy the impossible canons of beauty. Because beauty is absolutely subjective, and no canon should make a person think that his physique makes him worse than the rest. If that were the case, perhaps Cuihua would be alive now.