Doctors and nutritionists always spare no effort to admonish, urge, and advise those who are more or less "overweight" to lose weight for their own health. Ultimately, being overweight has simply become the classic culprit for a series of daunting diseases of affluence. The German Medical Journal has published a list of diseases related to being overweight: "Being overweight and obese increases the risk of diseases of the circulatory system, including high blood pressure, high blood lipids, and diabetes. It also leads to the thinning of blood vessels, which can cause more complex diseases such as heart attacks and strokes. In addition, obesity is closely related to gallstones, the thinning of blood vessels, heart failure, joint wear and tear, gout, and certain cancers. These diseases and their complications all reduce people's lifespans to varying degrees."
All of this sounds absolutely alarming. It is clear that everyone who does not want to get sick or aspires to immortality should immediately take action to get rid of their pot belly. However, a decisive question is overlooked in this process: Is one really healthier after losing weight than when one was overweight? People often forget the negative aspects of weight loss. Because a slender figure is so attractive, people have long since forgotten the side effects of weight loss. We would be happy to talk about these aspects here.
The most famous side effect of losing weight according to any diet plan is the "yo-yo effect," which ultimately ends with the weight being regained. This effect is often mentioned by people on the street, but the serious health consequences caused by weight loss are little known to dieters—whether they can maintain the hard-earned slender figure or not, these consequences can still occur: arrhythmia leading to heart attacks, gallstones, osteoporosis and fractures, increased uric acid levels, impaired liver function, disturbances in the body's water and electrolyte balance, loss of muscle mass throughout the body and even the heart, diabetes, stomach ulcers, and anorexia.
To this day, there is still no evidence to support the view that overweight people can at least reduce the risk of diseases of the circulatory system by losing weight, although this is also a reason why people are often advised to lose weight. On the contrary, the more frequent occurrence of heart disease after weight loss may very well reduce a person's lifespan. In some studies, this proportion is even more than 50%. Whether it's crazy dieting or so-called "gentle" therapies or "psychological" therapies; whether the weight-loss tips come from women's magazines, local clinics, psychology professors, or big-name stars; no matter which "deity" stands behind these weight-loss theories—the body's reaction to a lack of nutrition is the same.
A key fallacy explained here is that the causal relationship between things is often confused. Perhaps being overweight can be described as a risk indicator for a certain health condition—but it is far from the cause of the disease that we need to fight against. For example, if laziness (lack of physical exercise) is one of the causes of a heart attack, or even a rather major one, then of course there would be an association with being overweight: it's very simple because most overweight people are not very active. Conclusions drawn from different hypothetical premises will always be different; in one case, weight is lost—by whatever means, which is the goal of all weight-loss efforts; in another case, health is improved through physical exercise or manual labor—a person may lose weight as a result, or their appetite may increase and they may even gain weight.
In the face of these dangerous and often life-threatening diet complications, people must think about this question: from a medical point of view, is this struggle over weight really worth it? If people compare dieting with other high-risk behaviors, they will see that its harm can be "comparable" to that of smoking. Therefore, some outspoken people have long suggested that women's magazines should carry the following notice in the New Year: "Dieting is harmful to health!"