Constant weight fluctuations could increase cardiac risk
Thousands of people every day try to lose weight by going to strict diets or other tools that allow a sudden loss of kilos, but unfortunately, many of those kilos recover soon after. These constant weight fluctuations not only discourage and frustrate but could also increase cardiac risk.
A stable weight: Ideal target
Maintaining weight over time, with changes of maximum two or three kilos more or less would be ideal to take care of health and to feel conformed to our change of habits, however, in most of the times this does not happen.
A recent study published in the journal Circulation shows that while overweight in adulthood is associated with increased cardiac risk, constant weight changes or falls and increases in weight cyclically were linked to a higher risk of sudden cardiac death As well as coronary heart disease.
The study was conducted over 11 years of follow-up and evaluated more than 158,000 adult women, therefore, the association was found to be significant with greater impact of weight fluctuations in those women of normal weight.
However, the reasons why constant weight change may increase coronary and cardiac risk remains unclear.
One explanation for this may be the great metabolic change produced by the “me-yo” or very strict diets that favor abrupt weight loss and subsequent recovery of lost pounds.
Given the impossibility of maintaining a stable weight, it is often preferable to retain a slight overweight accompanied by healthy habits.
Changes in hormones that regulate hunger, metabolism, and adipose tissue can make maintenance of lost weight very difficult and can also be responsible for considerable body-wide stress that ultimately damages the cardio circulatory system.
We must take into account that reducing and cyclically increasing body weight and body mass, also involves constantly changing circulating blood volume and this, in the long term could mean an overload for the cardiac and circulatory system that causes, among other things, this increased cardiac risk.
In short, the ideal would be to look for a stable weight over time and faced with the impossibility of achieving it, it is often preferable to keep a slightly elevated weight but accompanied by exercise and other healthy habits that undergo a strict diet that causes a sudden drop in weight With recovery of later kilos.
