Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weight
Losing weight does more than give you an excuse to buy new clothes.
— -- intro: Losing weight does more than give you an excuse to buy new clothes. Dropping just 5 to 10% of your body weight can improve your overall health and reduce your risk for chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. But shedding unwanted pounds can also have less-obvious effects, and not always for the better, says Adam Tsai, MD, a physician at Kaiser Permanente Colorado and a spokesperson for the Obesity Society. Here are the good things—and the bad—that you don't normally hear about losing weight.
11 Reasons Why You're Not Losing Belly Fat
quicklist: 1category: Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weighttitle: Your energy levels will skyrocketurl:text:A big energy boost is often the first thing people notice when they start dropping weight. Why? When you're carrying around fewer pounds, you use less energy to simply go about your day, says Dr. Tsai. Weight loss also improves oxygen efficiency, so you won't find yourself out of breath so easily when climbing stairs or hustling to catch the bus.
17 Ways Your Job Is Making You Fat
quicklist: 2category: Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weighttitle: Your memory may improveurl:text:In a 2013 Swedish study, older women scored better on memory tests after six months of following a weight-loss plan. Brain scans showed more activity during the encoding process (when memories are formed) and less activity during memory retrieval, suggesting greater recall efficiency. "The altered brain activity after weight loss suggests that the brain becomes more active while storing new memories and therefore needs fewer brain resources to recollect stored information," said study author Andreas Pettersson, MD, in a press release. Previous research has also linked obesity to poor memory, especially in pear-shaped women who carry extra pounds around their hips.
12 Unexpected Things That Mess With Your Memory
quicklist: 3category: Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weighttitle: Your relationship will be testedurl:text:Losing weight can make you feel sexier, but your slimmed-down body—and that newfound confidence—won't necessarily strengthen your bond with your spouse. In a 2013 study from North Carolina State University, researchers found that although dropping 60 pounds or more in two years or less usually improved couples' relationships, occasionally a dieter's partner felt jealous or threatened. Why? Your body transformation may force your significant other to consider his or her own health choices, says Gail Saltz, MD, Health‘s contributing psychology editor. Another problem: Your partner may worry about how your personality might change. “You feeling great, sexy, or confident could shift the balance of the relationship,” Dr. Saltz says. “They fear losing the identity of the more confident one or losing the upper hand.” Many of these challenges could apply to friendships, too.
quicklist: 4category: Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weighttitle: Your risk of cancer will be lowerurl:text:You know that smoking, sun exposure, and radiation can cause cancer, but obesity has been linked to several types of cancers as well, says Dr. Tsai. Being overweight causes inflammation that triggers cell changes within the body. Dangerous levels of inflammation can be lowered, however, by losing just 5% of your body weight, according to a 2012 study on post-menopausal women published in the journal Cancer Research. And a 2014 study published in Obesity Research found that morbidly obese men who underwent bariatric surgery reduced their cancer risk over the following years to roughly that of normal-weight people.
quicklist: 5category: Things Nobody Tells You About Losing Weighttitle: If you were depressed before, that may not changeurl:text:Does being overweight make you depressed—or does being depressed lead to weight gain? It's not always possible to tell what comes first, says Dr. Tsai. And while most people feel happier after they've lost weight, it's not a cure-all. "For a smaller percentage of people, mood will not improve even after they lose 100 pounds," he says. That may be because weight loss doesn't address any underlying problems you may have, says Dr. Saltz.