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Taking Laxatives To Lose Weight

Following a recent report released by the surgeon general stating that over two thirds of the population is overweight, there has been a flurry of diet plans and weight loss schemes put forth on the internet and in magazines. Taking laxatives to lose weight is by far one of the worst and least effective of the bunch.

Like other medications, laxatives do have a specific purpose. To help those who may have become constipated. If you take laxatives on a regular basis you will undermine your natural ability to expel waste.

The part of the digestive system that is affected by laxatives lies at the end of the line, after food has been digested to whatever extent it will be. We know that the body has already taken all the calories it can from a meal before it gets to this point.

There is only a certain amount that the bowel can hold. Even with a high colonic procedure, you could not remove more material than that. Laxatives generally work on just the lower third to last half of the bowel, so they cannot rid the body of more weight than a colonic does.

The best way to attempt to lose weight is to make changes in one’s lifestyle. Decreasing your caloric intake and increasing the number of calories you burn is the only proven way to lose weight.

It is vital to make these changes as part of a permanent change, not a “diet”. One can not ‘go on a diet’ and starve oneself until the desired weight is lost, then resume the same old habits. When this occurs the result is always that the weight will return. The weight you lost would return, leaving you where you started or maybe even heavier. Taking laxatives to lose weight is an even worse idea than starving yourself, and it is a lot more dangerous.

There are hundreds of different ideas floating around about the best way to lose weight. Some of them make sense while others are completely unrealistic. One of those outright insane theories is that you can lose weight with laxatives.

The way laxatives work is that they stimulate the colon, which causes an increase in the rate of peristaltic movements in the bowel’s wall, as well as raises the level of water in the bowel. Neither of these actions will cause permanent weight loss.

The absorption of nutrients into the body during normal digestion is not inhibited by these drugs. Any part of what is consumed that can benefit the body in any way finds its way into the bloodstream and into the cells of the body. Waste material is the only thing left that cannot be used by the body. The bowel is limited in size and can not hold more than about five pounds of waste material.

Laxatives can help this waste to be flushed from the system more quickly and they also may help to rid the body of water; however, the weight lost from flushing these substances will not exceed six to seven pounds. This process can also result in healthy problems such as abdominal cramps, dehydration and other undesirable consequences that are actually more dangerous than the consequences of having those six or seven pounds present in your system.

People who use laxatives routinely as means to attempt to lose weight often find that their bowels will no longer work properly without them. Not only is this bad for your overall health; it may cause a loss in self confidence to be dependent on these drugs.

Not only is laxative abuse useless in the fight to drop pounds, it’s damaging to one’s health. It does not create any significant weight loss. Any weight you manage to lose will return as soon as you consume any food or beverages. You can’t lose weight with laxatives because it isn’t possible, so your best course of action is to try to find a more practical way to shed unwanted pounds.