DRAMATIC WEIGHT LOSS: IS IT SAFE TO LOSE LOTS OF WEIGHT?

Maybe you’ve seen weight loss ads or stories featuring dramatic before and after photos of celebrities, or even ordinary people, and wondered if you could lose a lot of weight, too. Is it safe to lose a lot of weight? How dramatic is too dramatic? These are all good questions. And like many questions, the answer is, it depends.

If the dramatic weight loss comes in the form of a fad diet, a fast, a cleanse, or some other quick weight loss scheme, chances are very high that the dramatic weight loss is neither safe nor lasting no matter how much or little weight is lost.

However, if the dramatic weight loss comes from following a balanced, nutritionally sound, medically supervised, and multifaceted plan like the one we use at The Center for Medical Weight Loss (CMWL), dramatic weight loss can be both safe and lasting.

Our Success Stories are a perfect example. As the before and after photos show, all of these people have achieved dramatic weight loss, improved their health, lost a lot of weight safely, and learned how to keep it off. So remember, it’s not really a matter of dramatic weight loss or whether it’s safe to lose a lot of weight. It’s all about how you lose the weight and where the weight loss actually comes from.

With quick fix diets, most of the weight lost comes from water and muscle, not fat. This leads to a circular weight gain and loss cycle that can slow your metabolism and make it harder and harder to lose fat.

A balanced plan, on the other hand, will allow you to lose fat, not just weight. And after all, it really is excess fat people want to lose, not muscle or water. Doing so is possible but not easy. Our bodies naturally resist losing fat thanks to ancient programming aimed at helping us survive a feast or famine lifestyle.

To make things even more complex, we’re starting to see that not every diet works for everyone, just as we are seeing that not everyone’s weight problems are caused by the same things. That’s why CMWL tailors a program taking all of these factors into account for each of our patients, ensuring them the best possible chances for success. When you’re doing all the right things, it’s relatively easy to achieve dramatic weight loss safely.