Once-overweight stars like Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond have made a business out of slimming down. But new research suggests that weight loss over the long term could actually be hazardous to your health.
Recent studies have found that too much exercise may not help shed pounds because it can actually make you hungrier, flying in the face of commonly held beliefs about how to lose weight.
Now researchers at Kyungpook National University in South Korea say long-term weight loss is not necessarily healthy. Pollutants are released into the bloodstream after losing weight, which could lead to conditions such as type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis and hypertension, they contend.
The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, analyzed seven compounds in the blood of 1,099 American participants.
Industrial pollutants found in blood are stored in fatty tissues, lead researcher Duk-Hee Lee told Reuters. When the participants lost weight, the fat broke down and the pollutants trickled into the bloodstream.
Lee expressed concern that such toxins could attack vital organs and cause long-term damage.
"We are living under the strong dogma that weight loss is always beneficial, [and] weight gain is always harmful ... but we think that increased [pollutant] levels [in the blood] due to weight loss can affect human health in a variety of ways," she wrote in an e-mail to Reuters.
Persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, were detected in the highest concentration in those who had lost weight over a 10-year period. Those who gained or maintained their weight had lower POP levels. Age, gender and race were factored in.
"There is emerging evidence that POPs ... are not safe." Lee said. "POPs [are] linked to Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis [and] periodontal disease."
But before you order the fettuccine carbonara for lunch, hold on. Lisa Cimperman, a clinical dietician at University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Ohio, said the findings shouldn't be used as an excuse for overweight or obese people to stop trying to drop pounds.
"We have overwhelming data that shows that attaining a healthy body weight is good for preventing chronic diseases," Cimperman told AOL Health. "People may throw their hands up and say, 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't!' and 'I won't try to lose weight or exercise.' But remember, these are studies that generate headlines and sound bites."
Instead, she suggested figuring out whether the research seems sound and applies to the average population.
"If you see a study that goes against common sense, remember that common sense still holds true," she advised. "I suppose it goes back to the idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure ... We should be looking at pollutants in the environment as a possible solution to the problem and asking ourselves: How can we prevent becoming overweight in the first place?"
Cimperman worries that overweight Americans may use such reports to reinforce decisions not to exercise or eat well.
"I hope that we're not seeing a trend toward trying to rationalize our state of being overweight and obese," she told AOL Health. "To me that sounds like self-medicating by assuaging our guilt at being unhealthy."
Lee acknowledged that further studies are needed before a conclusive link between long-term weight loss and health problems is established.
