10 Things Losing Weight Does To Your Body

A little weight loss goes a long way. How far? Well, the benefits of losing weight extend to every facet of your health.

Whatever stage you're at on your weight loss journey, here are 10 things that happen to your body when you begin losing weight.

Our knees cop a battering at the best of times, let alone when we're carrying an extra 20kg up top. When you walk, the load exerted on your knees is equal to four times your body weight! 

For every 1kg of body weight you lose, you take 4kg of load off each of your knees. Think about how much you walk a day and what difference this makes!

If you lose 10kg, that's 40kg of load per knee you're taking away per step. And if you're walking 7,400 steps a day (the Australian average), that's 296 tonnes of load off each of your knees! Every Single Day!

But not just this, Men who are overweight are five times more likely to develop osteoarthritis than men who are a healthy weight.

When you lose weight, you reduce your heart's workload by pumping blood around the body. Losing even just 10% of total body weight (12kg if you weigh 120kg), has been shown to reduce your risk of heart disease. 

Even in sufferers of heart disease, weight loss has been shown to greatly improve their condition with atrial fibrillation incidence falling by 50%.

Can't sleep properly? Obesity increases the amount of fatty tissue in the back of your throat, which can cause snoring and sleep apnea. Losing weight encourages better-quality sleep and reduces the risk of developing sleep apnea.

By cutting down 10% of your body weight, you can reduce your incidence of apnoea events by around 26%.

Epidemiological evidence clearly indicates that obesity has an adverse effect on your reproductive abilities. 

Carrying excess body fat can also cause a distinct reduction in testosterone levels. According to experts, dropping just 5kg is enough to increase your testosterone levels and your libido, giving your love life a boost!

Studies have shown that weight loss of 5-10% can reduce the incidence of diabetes in pre-diabetics by nearly 60%. 

For diabetics, a similar weight loss range has been shown to make a big difference in diabetes management.

That's right, while your health kick may be intended to reduce your gut, it also detoxifies your skin. 

With all the healthy foods and nutrients you substitute into your diet instead of cheeseburgers, you push all the toxins out of your pores, cleansing them and resulting in glowing, healthy skin.

New research indicates that when you're losing weight, you're gaining memory. Losing weight alters your brain performance, leading to better memory among other benefits. Being overweight is linked to memory and concentration problems. 

So if you're sick of losing your keys, lose weight instead!

There is a strong correlation between depression and obesity. 

In one study conducted by Northwestern University, an 8% reduction in body weight was shown to improve mental health in participants.

Losing weight reduces the strain on your back muscles and your spinal column.

A 2016 study from the Journal of Medicine found that high-intensity back pain and/or disability were associated with increased obesity in a large sample of men.

A reduction in body fat is an effective strategy to reduce back pain and stress.

Extra body weight makes your heart work harder to push blood around your body. In fact, your blood pressure rises as your weight increases.

Vice versa, your blood pressure lowers as you lose weight. An Australian study recently found that hypertension patients who lost more than 10% of their body weight were able to reduce their need for blood pressure medication by, on average, 50 per cent!

So if looking and feeling great wasn't motivation enough, there are 10 more important reasons to commit to a healthier, happier you today!