It is perfectly natural to lose one or two pounds during the week. People’s weight normally fluctuates at about 1-5 pounds from week to week, depending on how active you have been and your diet. But if you find yourself losing more than five pounds and reaching up into ten pounds unexpectedly you may have diabetes or another health condition. Signs of unexpected weight loss are a big sign of both Type-1 and Type-2 diabetes.
If you have diabetes, your body either doesn’t produce enough insulin (Type-1 diabetes) or doesn’t use insulin effectively (Type-2 diabetes). When your body doesn’t produce insulin or use it efficiently, then it starves your body of glucose. The glucose builds up in the blood and isn’t transported to the cells. When your cells fail to receive glucose, your body believes it is being starved, and this triggers a response to compensate. It begins to burn fat and muscle at a rapid pace to create energy. This leads to unexplained weight loss. But this type of weight loss is unhealthy for a few reasons. Not only do you lose muscle, but your kidneys will be overloaded because they will have to work harder to remove the excess glucose from your blood stream. This can damage your kidneys overtime.
You can reverse your weight loss and gain weight healthily by following certain guidelines:
- Eat smaller meals with higher frequency. This is easier to stick to than simply eating 3 large meals a day.
- Eat fatty foods like whole dairy products: cream, milk, yogurt, cheese.
- Include unsaturated fats in your diet, such as nuts, seeds, avocados, olive oils, etc.
- Eat veggies with melted butter or grated cheese.
- Drink nutrient dense drinks like smoothies and milk shakes.
