When you’re overweight, it’s more likely than not that you would like to lose that weight as fast as you can. I know, I was there. I didn’t want to lose it overnight, but I wished ‘healthy’ rate of loss could be more like four pounds a week instead of one to two.
We hear about the rate of healthy weight loss, but we applaud the awesomeness of people who lose more than that. Sometimes, we’re even a little jealous, wishing we could do it to.
We forget why the healthy per week weight loss rate is healthy.
When I went on a meal replacement diet, it wasn’t to lose weight fast. However, that’s what happened, and I certainly wasn’t going to complain! But it was that rapid weight loss that got me into trouble. I’d always been a bit of a ticking time bomb in regards to my gallbladder, but I had no idea. Not even after the first attack.
The thing we need to remember is that our fat cells don’t just store FATX in the same way everywhere. It stores toxins as well. Those preservatives from the McDonald’s Big Mac? Maybe in your butt. A few fat cells in your arm still have that nicotine from when you were smoking. And salt! Oh, the loads of salt people eat without even knowing it.
Don’t get me started on sugar.
What I’m saying is that it’s not just straight fat stored. You store a history of your eating (drinking, smoking) habits on your fat cells. That is why rapid weight loss can be so dangerous.
In my case, I overloaded my liver with fat cells ripe with toxins and other crap from my days of eating fast food and drinking gallons of gatorade in the States. My liver didn’t have to go through just an overflow of fat, that’s for sure.
Then came the gallstones.
Risk factors for gallstones includes:
1. Being a woman (we get all sorts of good stuff, don’t we?)
2. Being on birth control
3. Being overweight
4. Losing significant amounts of weight in a short time
5. Being Native American
6. Family history
There are other things that incline you to getting gallstones, but those are the big ones (and the ones that predisposed me to getting them).
As it turns out, I was just one puzzle piece from growing those pre-existing stones and setting off my gallbladder. Losing forty pounds was that missing puzzle piece. Not only that, there was no going back. I haven’t been on the meal replacements since August, but the gall attacks continued.
So, the next time you wish you could lose four pounds a week, just try to remember why one to two pounds a week is the healthy way to go.
Sometimes it amazes me that we can be told things hundreds of times over, but we will only truly *get* things in our own time.
A while back now, Jenera talked about the times when she feels sexiest. Thinking about when I feel sexiest, I figured I could split things into two categories: the physical side and the mental/emotional side.