Losing Weight ≠ Being Healthy

Every woman at least once in her life has gone on a diet and delightedly saw minus 2–3 kg on the scales in the first few days. We are used to thinking that this is success. But as a student of The Open University and the British sports academy PT ACADEMY, studying physiology and sports science, I must disappoint you: fat does not burn that fast.

The First Week Trap: Where Does the Weight Disappear?

What we see on the scales at first is not fat, but water.

Our body stores energy in the form of glycogen. Each gram of glycogen holds 3–4 grams of water near it. When you sharply restrict calories, the body burns glycogen stores, and the water simply leaves. You deflate, but your fatty tissue remains in place. As soon as you return to your usual diet, glycogen will bring the water back, and the weight will come with friends.

The friends being talked about are the psychological and physiological consequences of sharp restrictions. Here is who usually comes along with the lost kilograms:

1. Edema due to a sharp jump in water

When, after a strict diet, you eat something usual, for example, a portion of pasta or fruit, the body begins to frantically restore glycogen stores. Since every gram of carbohydrates pulls 3–4 grams of water with it, the scales can show +2-3 kg literally overnight. This is not fat, but visually it looks like a puffy face and body.

2. Hunger Hormone Ghrelin

During a sharp calorie restriction, the level of ghrelin, the hormone that makes us feel hungry, rises, and the level of leptin, the satiety hormone, falls. The friends here are an uncontrollable appetite. Your body tries to eat in reserve because it has just survived a famine.

3. Slowed Metabolism

On a strict diet, the body goes into energy-saving mode. If you have simultaneously lost not only fat but also some muscle, which often happens with rapid weight loss without protein and training, your body begins to burn fewer calories at rest. Now even a normal portion of food, from which you didn’t gain weight before, becomes excessive.

4. Additional Fatty Tissue or the Yo-Yo Effect

The body perceives a diet as a threat to life. Therefore, when food reappears, it tries not just to get its own back, but to make a surplus on top — in case of the next hungry period.

Weight returns with friends in the form of food binges, edema, and disappointment.
That is why in my blog we do not play games like minus 5 kg per week. We are building a system where the body feels safe, does not store water, and does not turn on survival mode. We need a result that will stay with us, not bring a company of extra kilograms back.

Weight returns with friends in the form of food binges, edema, and disappointment.

Sources:

• Fernández-Elías et al. (2015), “Relationship between muscle glycogen and total body water.”
• ACSM (American College of Sports Medicine): Position Stand on Appropriate Physical Activity Intervention Strategies for Weight Loss).
• NHS (National Health Service):  “Why diets fail”
• The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)