Abnormal Weight Loss

Weight loss can be mandatory for some and can be a dilemma for some. Abnormal weight loss is one such topic that deals with both the cases, these situations are:

1. When you are over weight and you are unable to loose weight.
2. When you have normal weight or are under weight and are still loosing weight.

Both these conditions apt to be placed in an abnormal condition and may be a serious threat to the health of an individual. Why? Let me tell you in little detail:

1. When you are over weight and you are unable to loose weight:

Being an overweight is always a problem no matter what category you fall in, fat, obese or morbidly obese. Loosing weight is equally important for all the three categories. But what if all efforts start failing and you remain unable to loose an inch from your body. Off course than you should look for the reason which is preventing you from loosing weight. There are few check points that will make it easier for you to rule out what is causing the problem for you:

a. Your Diet: Check what you are eating. Cut off on high calorie diets. You can even choose a diet plan for yourself. Eat lesser amount of calories than your body requirement.

b. Your Physical Activities: Along with eating less, you need to burn more. Do heavy physical exercises. Sweat more to reduce that fat from your body. You can walk, run, jog, swim, play sports, do exercise, aerobics or weight training, dance, use exercise machinery, anything you want and you like to do. This will help you to boost your calorie burning. And it'll burn that fat and makes your body firm with perfect trim, we all wish for.

c. Your Medical Condition: Renal failures, heart failures, respiratory and cardiac problems, Gastro Intestinal Tract problems, hormonal imbalances, hidden food allergies, stress conditions and lack of necessary nutrition can cause impairment of systems which leads to undesired results like water retention, edema and fat deposition.

2. When you have normal weight or are under weight and are still loosing weight:

This is one of the abnormal conditions. When you are loosing weight abnormally and excessively, and you don't want to, it is really a point of concern. There can be many reasons for that. I'm giving a brief account of some which are commonly present.

a. Lack of nutrition: Usually seen in poor families and in third world countries. Lack of meals and proper diet can lead to starvation and conditions in which there's lack of enough nutrition to build proper muscle mass.

b. Hidden medical condition: There can be a hidden medical condition which impairs the food to be proper digested and assimilated. There can be intestinal worms, blood dyscrasias, any neoplastic condition, mental or physical stress, hormonal imbalances, hyperthyroidism, Grave's disease or anorexia or bulimia.

c. Anorexia nervosa and Bulimia nervosa: These two medical conditions are discussed separately because of their seriousness regarding weight loss and their common existence in the present teenagers. Mostly signs of both anorexia and bulimia are easily confused with each other as they both have almost same signs and symptoms. These eating disorders are found more in teenagers, particularly girls. Both the conditions are partially psychogenic which turns out to be lethal. Right now I'll tell you how to differentiate between the two:

• Anorexia Nervosa: Commonly called as Anorexia. An anorexic patient can easily be identified with extreme loss of weight in an unhealthy way. The weight of the patient drops at least 20% of the normal required weight according to the height. Patient may seem allergic to food, their smells and even talking about food. They consider themselves as fat and simply refuse to eat at all. They exercise heavily. And when people start advising them, they usually withdraw their selves from social gatherings.
• Bulimia Nervosa: It has very little difference from Anorexia Nervosa. In this condition patient does eats well, may be more than normal but they don't gain weight. Reason is that they either induce vomit or take laxatives to get rid of the food before it start absorption in the body. This is known as binge and purge behavior. The patient after having meal will quickly go to the bathroom. They do eat but never gain weight in fact they loose up to 10% of the normal required weight. They too like Anorexic patients avoid social gatherings.

I hope all this information might have helped you to determine any abnormal condition in you, your friend or a family member. For all these issues we highly recommend you routine medical checkups to your physician.