What Happens to the Body During Weight Loss?
Unfortunately, when a person undergoes weight gain that is not necessary, the body’s count of fat cells increase. Many people examine the way the body transforms during weight gain, but not many account for the body changes during weight loss.
Motivations for Weight Loss
When a person embarks on a weight shedding journey, their motivation is usually health. In North America, the populations definitely struggle with overweight and obese BMI’s. To counteract this, a person will take countermeasures to ensure that their body is within the normal range.
Stretch Marks on the Skin
One of the body changes during weight loss is that there might be stretch marks. If a person is not being careful to apply a cocoa butter cream each night, or even if the individual is, these marks will begin to appear. It is just an unfortunate side effect of the body’s skin trying to shrink back into normal shape. These marks occur whether the person loses or gains weight.
Loose Skin in Extreme Cases
Another change might be in extreme weight loss cases. The skin will literally shag on the bones. There is no longer any subcutaneous fat to fill in out, so it is left just hanging there. This will usually only occur if a person is obese and then goes on a journey to a normal weight. However, in older people who might have disordered eating, they will lose the fat but not gain enough muscle to replace that mass. So their skin will look like a loose drape that is wrapped around the bone.
More Energy with Exercise
This might sound counter intuitive. And in some cases, this is true. Generally, an intake of less calories should make a person lethargic- right? While that sounds reasonable, if the weight loss is coupled with exercise, the body starts pumping out more energizing brain neurotransmitters, like endorphin’s, dopamine and nor-adrenaline.
In this case then, there is a surge of motivating chemicals being emitted from the brain more regularly. This flood is just as though one were to take a stimulant or an energizing anti-depressant. The person will feel more alive and ready for action the entire day.
Less Fat Around Organs
This is another wonderful side effect of weight loss. That fat that surrounds the organs, putting people at higher risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, starts to dissipate. This then allows the person to enjoy a lower risk of chronic illness. However, in the case of anorexia, the opposite is true. A person will have little fat left to burn off, so the body will start to burn away the actual organs of the body.
The body changes during weight loss are extremely positive for the most part. However, if one begins to exhibit signs of an eating disorder, then these changes turn into dire foreboding for organ failure and eventual death. So monitor one’s weight to ensure that healthy efforts are made towards a normal BMI, and that extremes like obesity and underweight ranges are always avoided.