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Weight Loss

What Happens to Your Body When You Lose 5% of Your Weight

After struggling for a while on the diet and dedicating yourself to physical exercises, you finally weigh yourself on the scales, however, you don’t like the result so much. After all, you still haven’t lost all that amount of weight you’d like. But did you know that this doesn’t have to be a reason to be discouraged?

That’s because although the end goal seems a little distant, eliminating some weight can already make a good difference. Even if your goal is higher, losing 5% of your body weight has several benefits. For example:

Facilitates joint work

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Losing some weight already facilitates the functioning of the joints because the more weight a person has, the more stress is placed on their joints, which makes them more fragile.

In fact, it is precisely because of the stress that excess weight puts on the joints that obesity is one of the risk factors for developing arthritis, a disease characterized by inflammation of one or more joints .

Speaking of inflammation, being overweight creates a more pro-inflammatory environment in the body, which worsens pain in regions such as the hip, knee and spine. When this 5% of weight is lost, the inflammatory process is also mitigated.

Prevention of type 2 diabetes

Being overweight ( overweight or obesity ) is also one of the risk factors for developing type 2 diabetes. At the same time, storing fat, especially in the belly region, indicates a higher risk of developing the disease.

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Men with a waist circumference greater than 101.6 cm and women with a waist circumference greater than 88.9 cm have an increased risk of developing the condition.

On the other hand, with a 5% decrease in body weight it is possible to obtain a hormonal improvement that helps to prevent the disease.

In addition, those who have diabetes and lose 5% of their body weight can already begin to see improvements in the control of their blood sugar levels. However, the more weight you lose, the greater the benefit to health and disease control.

Improvement of cholesterol levels

When it comes to improving cholesterol levels, the reference is not only the decrease in bad cholesterol (LDL), but also the increase in good cholesterol (HDL).

Bad cholesterol corresponds to most of the cholesterol present in the body. Having high LDL levels increases your risk of developing heart disease and stroke.

The good cholesterol is the one that fixes the fat molecules (cholesterol) inside the cells to be taken to the liver. In turn, the organ eliminates this cholesterol from the body. It’s no wonder that having high levels of HDL can reduce the risks of having heart disease and stroke.

Good cholesterol is the most difficult to increase, however, it starts to get higher when you manage to lose weight. Especially when this weight loss process involves physical exercise.

Improvement in triglyceride levels

Triglycerides are a type of fat (lipid) present in the blood. After eating a meal, the body converts calories that it will not use immediately into triglycerides.

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Then, triglycerides are stored in adipose (fat) cells, and will be used for energy production when needed.

However, when you consume more calories than necessary, especially from foods rich in carbohydrates, triglyceride levels are higher than they should be , which can lead to a number of diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.

On the other hand, losing some weight and exercising are part of lifestyle changes that can help control triglyceride levels. After all, during this process, the body starts to burn its fat stores.

Blood pressure control

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Losing 5% of body weight also results in a decrease in weight overload on the circulatory system, which can help to better control blood pressure.

The more weight a person is, the more blood they need to supply oxygen and nutrients to the body’s tissues. The problem is that as the amount of blood flow in the vessels increases, the pressure on the arterial walls also increases.

Both maintaining a healthy weight or losing weight if you are overweight are part of lifestyle changes that can help a patient manage high blood pressure .

Better sleep quality

People who are overweight have more difficulty sleeping and tend to have poorer quality sleep. This has to do with breathing: many people who are overweight suffer from sleep apnea .

However, studies have suggested that with a 5% loss of body weight it is already possible to have some benefit in this regard.
Follow medical recommendations

Shedding 5% of body weight is not going to cure the health problems listed above, although it can help. In addition to losing weight, it is essential to follow all medical recommendations to treat and keep these diseases under control.

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