Though it is commendable that excess weight be shed, given that being overweight is a risk for certain diseases and conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers, few people take the time to understand how weight gain works before jumping on any bandwagon that preaches weight loss.
A nutritionist, Mr Victor Olayinka, said, “the first thing to consider before thinking weight loss is determining if you are overweight. You need to be sure you’re overweight before embarking on weight loss. The simple way of knowing you’re overweight is by measuring your Body Mass index (BMI) based on height and weight and this applies only to adults.”
In a bid to shed some weight, quite a number of people have gone to the extreme employing diets, herbs, drugs, weight-loss teas as well as going as far as starvation and induced vomiting. It seems with every passing day, a new procedure is introduced to lose weight and many embrace this without proper consultation with experts. But Mr Olayinka says weight loss is not achieved overnight; one has to put in some measure of discipline into making it happen.
Recently, the international media were awash with the story of a teenager who had contracted hepatitis after drinking three cups of Chinese green tea per day.
The UK Huffingtonpost reported that the 16-year-old, who is unnamed, drank three cups of green tea every day for three months. She had purchased the tea from a Chinese website in a bid to lose weight.
After experiencing dizziness, sickness and joint pains, she visited her general practitioner who diagnosed her with a urinary tract infection. She was prescribed antibiotics, however, two days later she was back in hospital because her condition had worsened.
According to the journal BMJ Case Reports, the girl was suffering from jaundice which made the whites of her eyes and skin turn yellow.
After being referred to the acute medical team, she was diagnosed with acute hepatitis.
Hepatitis is a term which describes the inflammation of the liver. Usually it occurs because of a viral infection or because the liver is exposed to harmful substances such as alcohol.
Writing in the journal, doctors said the teen had not taken any prescribed or over-the-counter medications, and there was no recent travel history. She had, however, regularly consumed Chinese green tea ordered from the internet, which contained Camellia sinensis.
Doctors say that after the woman stopped drinking the herbal tea, she rapidly recovered.
They are now trying to raise awareness of the hidden dangers of green tea - particularly tea containing Camellia sinensis - as this has been linked to hepatitis in the past.
The teen said: “I had bought the green tea over the internet to lose weight. I bought two boxes of 100 bags of tea and was drinking about three cups a day for a few months.
“I had only lost a couple of pounds but then started having horrible pains in my joints, and felt very dizzy and sick.”
She said she felt “very scared” when admitted to hospital and “didn’t fully understand what was going on”.
“Now I look back it was definitely due to the tea, I never took anything else and it all started happening after drinking it,” she added.
“I will never buy any online tea again or any weight loss pills. People should be more aware of what they are buying and the side effects. Most of the ingredients of the tea I bought were written in Chinese.”
However, experts have said this is not to counter the consumption of green tea as it appears to be safe in moderate amounts, but used as a course of therapy for weight loss has been discouraged.
Besides such teas, a new introduction has been made in the weight loss world. The proponents encourage a one meal, no fat, only fruit diet for those looking to lose weight. With this diet, one main meal is eaten per day and this would not contain any form of fat. To satisfy hunger for the rest of the day, the diet requires just fruits. While a number of people have begun to embrace this, experts say it is a risky procedure to lose weight.
A dietician, Grace Essien said, “Although people can take only fruits during a fruit fast and this is healthy, it is usually done for a short period under the guidance of a dietician and not as a weight-loss plan for a long period of time. Though it is true that fruits and vegetables have powerful nutritive properties due to their high amounts of essential vitamins, minerals and nutrients, they do not provide other nutritional needs such as carbohydrate, protein and fat needed for the body to function optimally. This is why you need to balance your diet and not go on only fruits for extended periods at a stretch. It might seem to work initially because the person might notice weight loss, but it’s not healthy weight loss because you are depriving the body of needed nutrients and interpreting the body’s signal of lack of nutrients as weight loss.”
According to Mrs Yemisi Solanke-Lawal, a nutritionist and Chief Executive Officer Evergreen Health and Social Care Int’l Ltd, “an only-fruit diet is not proper for weight loss, neither is it advisable to have only fruits for breakfast for a prolonged period of time because fruits don’t contain starch but mostly sugar. To lose weight the proper and healthy way, the secret is in eating balanced diet in reduced food portion sizes and exercising more. When it comes to fats, it is true that too much fat in one’s diet can add to body weight. So, fried foods should be used sparingly. We need fat for the proper functioning of our bodies so we cannot eliminate it completely. We either use it in small amounts for instance in frying eggs or rely on fat sources from foods such as egusi (melon), fish and meat.”
There is also the concern about high-carbohydrate diet being a culprit to weight gain. Mr Olayinka clarifies this by stating, “Weight loss is goes beyond avoiding fatty foods; it is also about eating rightly. For instance, we know carbohydrate foods to be rich in starch and sugar but when you eat them late in the night, they are converted to fats in the body. Carbohydrate, because of its sugar content and energy, is better taken in the morning because it would be burnt in the cause of the day but when it is taken at night, there’s no proven way of burning the sugar except through sex and the accumulation of the starch in the body is what births fat. However, carbohydrate shouldn’t be solely held responsible as the cause of fat, it’s more of a person eating carbohydrate wrongly to the tone of causing fat in the body.
“Beyond diet modification, exercise also contributes to losing weight. Interestingly, exercise goes beyond helping to lose weight, but also helps rid the body of bad fat that clogs the blood vessels which could increase the blood pressure. Diet to consider in other to prevent fat should include, fruits , vegetables and whole grain cereals. Exercise should be seen as a programme that must be done in routine in other to get effective results.”
Although exercising and reduced caloric intake is usually touted as key to weight loss, experts have also pointed out that some other factors may stand in the way. Will Owen, a ftness expert said stress and poor sleep can mitigate efforts to lose weight. He explains that stress releases cortisol (often simply referred to as “the stress hormone”) which degrades muscle tissue and encourages the storage of body fat. He also adds that not only does enough sleep reduce levels of cortisol, but it also produces growth hormone (GH). GH has the opposite effect of cortisol on the body—it encourages fat loss, supports the immune system, and helps to keep the organs functioning properly. So when sleep is not enough, it reduces the production of the GH which would in turn contribute to weight gain.
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