One of the benefits of shedding unwanted pounds is that it can make one look and feel younger, as well as staving off a variety of ailments associated with advanced age. However, it is possible for weight loss to go too far, and actually age the body. Thus, people who are chasing a slim and/or chiseled figure should take care not to take their quest to extremes.
Excessive or overly rapid fat loss can cause skin to sag, leading to unsightly folds, more obvious wrinkles, and a gaunt appearance. Some people who experience this problem resort to plastic surgery, so as to remove excess skin. People who experience drastic weight loss earlier in life are less likely to have this problem, as their skin is springier and more elastic.
Of course, there are also cases when young people do end up looking much older because of weight loss. Such cases are particularly noticeable if the young person is a celebrity suffering a severe eating disorder. One of the earliest and most notorious cases was that of singer Karen Carpenter. Carpenter appears emaciated in the footage from performances in the last years of her short life. Her hollow, vacant expression is a disquieting contrast to her warm voice and the emotional lyrics of her songs. More recent is the case of Isabelle Caro, a former runway model who, once her eating disorder became clear, displayed her nude, frighteningly thin body as part of a controversial ad campaign to combat eating disorders. Sadly, though Caro acknowledged her illness, she was not able to recover, and succumbed fatally to it. Caro was just 28 years old when she died, but photographs of her leading up to her death show an emaciated woman who looks elderly. Her eyes bulge, and her nose appears to have virtually disappeared, but for the nostrils. Caro and Carpenter represent two very extreme cases of excessive weight loss.
Clearly, however, there are other reasons to avoid excessive weight loss besides the prospect of becoming, or at least looking like, the sufferer of an eating disorder. It is possible for people without anorexia, bulimia, or similar problems to lose too much weight, particularly in the context of a popular culture that glorifies weight loss. There are many types of cases when people, without ever having an eating disorder, deliberately decide to lose extreme amounts of weight, such as when well-heeled health buffs try out low calorie diets.
Let us see what happens when people go on extreme low-calorie diets. Such diets are extremely complex, and require very precise calculations in terms of both the quantity and nature of food consumed. Deviating from the diet even slightly can cause drastic weight gain, and devotees often have to calculate exactly how many nuts they are supposed to eat. On the plus side, indicators such as heart rate and blood pressure suggest that low calorie diets can have some health benefits, and even extend life. However, the other effects of this diet are somewhat disturbing. Both men and women can lose the ability to lift heavy objects or perform strenuous exercise. Women can become amenorrheic, which means, in other words, that they suddenly lose their period, even though they are much too young to be in menopause. People who go on this diet also take on aspects of an aging elderly appearance, with bony faces, skinny limbs, and hunched backs. In addition, this diet is relatively new on the scene, so we are not yet sure about what its long term effects on a person’s body will be. The diet might make you live longer (or not), but it may also force you to start to live like an old person before your time.
Ideally, a healthy, youthful body is the product of balanced living. Going too far is likely to give you the opposite results to what you wanted.
This is a great article! It’s true that we need vitamins and nutrients to function, and restricting our intake too much causes the body to ravage itself. We should never be so extreme about weight loss that we lose our precious health!
anything excessive can be dangerous. no matter how much weight you need to lose, you should not lose it in a rush. let your body adapt to the changes that you are introducing. do ot allow it to be shocked and react negatively in return.