The 1 Unexpected Side Effect Of Rapid Weight Loss We Don't Talk About Enough

For generations, people have been told they need to look a certain way and weigh a certain amount to be accepted and to be considered “healthy.” But we know that being thin isn’t an indicator of well-being.

“It’s actually a major talking point I would say in the obesity community now… what are the unintended consequences of weight loss?” said Dr. Kurt Kennel, a bariatrician and endocrinologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

One of those consequences was detailed by actor Jameela Jamil, who recently shared on Instagram that years of extreme dieting and weight loss had harmed her bone density.

“So much chat about the dangers of eating too much and crickets when it comes to the long term impact of eating too little,” Jamil wrote. Jamil, who is 38, said that she damaged her bone density through 20 years of extreme dieting and is now dealing with consequences such as pain.

Though bone density isn’t talked about very much in day-to-day life, it’s an important measure of health. Bone density is how much mineral content is present in your bone, explained Dr. Gillian Wooldridge, a sports medicine physician at Houston Methodist Hospital.

“If you have higher bone density, it generally means you have denser ― and for the most part, healthier ― bones that are more resistant to fracture or breaking,” Wooldridge said. “If you have thinner bone density, it means you don’t have as much good structure there and you could be at increased risk for fracture.”

Our bone density peaks around 25-years-old, said Kennel, “and then we hope to maintain that through most of our midlife until our 50-ish year of age or so. Because after that we start to lose it as part of menopause, we start to lose it as part of aging.”

This is one reason