7 Dangerous Side Effects of Skipping Meals on Your Health

How many times a day do you skip meals to lose weight? Did you know skipping meals is beneficial for weight loss?

Skipping meals has serious consequences. We skip meals because we think we have little time to eat. Or sometimes we skip meals thinking that it will be beneficial in losing weight. Food provides fuel to our body systems. That’s why skipping meals affects the body badly.

According to my observations, young girls adopt new unhealthy methods to lose weight. Some of them drank apple vinegar daily with hot water and ate no food all day. This method is unhealthy because apple vinegar can have harmful effects on the stomach.

Some people skip breakfast and lunch to lose weight. You should not skip meals without consulting a nutritionist. Skipping meals influences your health in unexpected ways. Let’s have a look at the dangerous side effects of skipping meals.

1. Decrease Sugar Levels in Blood

Skipping meals decreases sugar in the blood. Our minds use glucose to run efficiently, and with low glucose, our minds don’t work properly. Low blood sugar makes you irritable and less active. Skipping meals provides a few calories that drop glucose levels in the blood.

2. Lose Fullness and Hunger Signs

Our bodies receive fullness and hunger signals from the hormones. The leptin hormone decreases appetite, giving the signs of fullness. The Ghrelin hormone gives signs of hunger. Your body’s fullness and hunger cues are good indicators of when you need nourishment. We can throw these hormones off when we don’t care due to overeating. Losing grasps on fullness and hunger can be very difficult to gain back.

3. Increased Sugar and carbohydrate Cravings

Low blood sugar can lead to cravings for sugar and carbohydrate-rich foods. These foods provide us with more energy quickly. As a result, you have intrusive thoughts of overeating snacks to satisfy your hunger. Your efforts to skip meals for weight loss backfired and led you towards binge-eating. You eat food like it is scarce, and you gain weight quickly.

4. Digestion Becomes Irregular

Skipping meals can cause nausea, diarrhea, and even constipation. Similarly, when you feel anxious, the stress hormone cortisol is released due to skipping meals. As a result, digestion slows down and makes your bathroom time unpredictable. Low blood sugar leads you to binge-eating, and you eat unhealthy foods, i.e. chips, burgers, and fries.

5. Increase the Risk of Eating Disorders

People who skip meals are more at risk of developing eating disorders. At first, these circumstances affect your well-being, but at a deeper level, you forget about your purpose in life. Skipping meals will lead to many eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and binge-eating. Because of feeling guilty after skipping meals, we eat more quickly with no sufficient amount of time to break.

6. Eating Becomes Boring

Enjoying the food we eat is an important aspect of life. Food is necessary, but it should be pleasurable and nourishing. Eating on a strict schedule can sometimes make you feel anxious when things are not going right. If you don’t enjoy your diet, then losing weight will become an impossible task.

7. Nutritional Inadequacy

Skipping meals can cause nutritional deficiencies for many reasons. They also increase carb cravings that don’t provide sufficient nutrients.?A study in 2017, conducted at UMass Medical School, found that students who skipped breakfast had a deficiency in thiamine, niacin, and folate as compared to breakfast eaters who consumed more fiber and less fat.?Carbohydrates are an essential part of a diet, but we should take them in moderation.

6 Productive Strategies to Avoid Skipping Meals

1. Eat small and frequent meals throughout the day rather than skipping meals.
2. You can have a snack before your next meal, like yogurt or a salad.
3. Eat foods rich in protein and fiber to keep you full for a long time.
4. Plan your meals and keep a food journal.
5. Set an alarm for meal time if you are very busy.
6. Set a proper time for lunch with the family.

Healthy eating is a way of life, that is simple, realistic, and ultimately livable.

Arthur Agatston

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