So you are on a crash diet to lose 3kgs in 3 days because of an upcoming event or you want to fit in a lovely dress you just bought? Be warned, extreme dieting might not only let you lose weight, but also potentially a great deal of hair loss.
One of the main causes of sudden hair loss (Telogen Effluvium) is greatly attributed to an uncontrolled or unplanned crash dieting course. Without proper supervision from a qualified nutritionist, it's a potential health risk and can really do long term damage to your hair as well.
Defining Crash Diet
It's direct and simple, crashing your diet is like crashing your car into a brick wall. It's a process where you create a huge sudden impact and shock to your body by depriving and starving it of its daily needs in order to achieve a great loss of weight within the shortest time possible.
During this period, your body faces shortage of essential nutrients and vital supplies of energy to function appropriately leading to emotional and physical exhaustion. Your metabolism as well as your body's rhythm can be severely affected too by unmanaged dieting.
Other forms of crash diets might not only involve reducing food consumption but also you might be
- Performing extreme exercises
- Depriving yourself from sleep
- Consuming diet pills
If you are performing or thinking of doing such acts, you are preparing yourself for a possible massive hair loss condition known as Telogen Effluvium, or sudden hair loss.
How Crash Diets Affects Your Hair
There are really many other ways of losing weight and staying healthy in the same time but crash diets are definitely a no-no way to get fat off your body fast. As a matter of fact, professionals and doctors have greatly disagreed with the effectiveness of crash dieting as a fast and reliable way to lose weight.
Besides that, it can cause potential health risk to your body and hair. If you want to lose weight instantly just for the sake of fitting in a new dress or looking particularly good for a special occasion, bear in mind that there are consequences to pay too.
Crash diets can really stress your body and mind and all these factors can lead to sudden hair loss. If you continue this routine for a period of time, you might end up with a longer period of shedding and dull looking hair.
Major Side Effects of a Extreme Dieting
Physical and Mental Stress
Mentally and emotionally, your body cannot accept a sudden change in your diet as your body crave for the foods that it needs. That will in turn cause mood problems, rejection and depression. Frequent dieting might lead to anorexia and bulimia.
Nutritional Deficiency
One of the main causes of hair loss is directly related to nutritional deficiency. In the stressful world we live in, trying to get a balanced supply of nutrients for your daily needs is already a challenge itself. Imagine what will happen if you purposely make it worse by starving your body by extreme dieting.
Sudden depreciation of nutrients in your body might affect the normal flow of your body and can trigger major nutrient deficiencies that your hair needs like
- Iron
- Vitamin B12
- Protein
- Body Electrolytes
A lack of these will make your skin and hair looks pale and very fragile and can signal a chain of unfortunate events leading to sudden hair loss.
A Crash on Your Body Itself
Prolonged crash dieting can damage your vital organs like your
These major organs are the most important and crucial systems in your body. As you consume less carbohydrate and calories and also going on strenuous exercises, your organs cannot get enough energy from your body to sustain itself. As a result, your organs will have to extract the energy from your muscle tissues in order to stay functioning.
This can result in a cutting off of energy supply from other non essential parts of your body like your hair follicles. A sudden cut of supply will eventually turn ANAGEN hairs into TELOGEN hairs instantaneously. So the more you stress your body, the more problems you will have with hair loss later.
Your Hair Might be Important to You, But Not Your Body
In terms of distributing vital nutrients and oxygen, your body places the least importance to your hair follicles because it's not an essential organ that keeps you alive.
If you overdo yourself, it will indeed take a long period before you see your hair grow again. Your other organs like your livers and kidneys (which are the most affected by crash dieting) will be placed first. So your hair loss can continue for months or even years to come after you stop with your extreme dieting plan.
So it's better to understand the full consequences before you even start doing it as your hair is one beauty asset you don't want to lose.
If You are Crashing, Put On Your Seat Belts
If you really need to lose weight in the shortest time possible, there are indeed a lot of ways to do it without risking your precious hair and health. One way is to get professional opinion like your nutritionist or your doctor. Get the right procedures and plans for managed dieting instead.
There is a great article from Yahoo! Health about 'crashing' your diet the right way. It provides direct opinions and suggestions by doctors on how you can lose weight fast and safely. Check it out here.
Return to Top of Crash Diet
Back to Telogen Effluvium
Return to Surviving-Hairloss.com
All information here are written by a hair loss sufferer based on experience and self research.
It's best to seek a medical professional regarding any health problems.
