"Lose 7 Pounds in A Week!" "Drop 2 Dress Sizes in 20 Days!"

Weight-loss products are full of promises. They know that people who are struggling with their weight want to lose pounds fast.

In theory, there is a slim chance you could actually lose as much as 20 pounds a week, depending on how much water your body has stored up. But the bigger question is whether it is really such a good idea to lose weight so rapidly.

Red Alert #1: The Yo-Yo Effect

Has this ever happened to you? You start a new diet, cut back your calorie intake, avoid fatty foods, and drop 10 pounds relatively quickly … then the pounds just stop coming off. No matter how hard you try, the scale won't budge. So you go right back to your old eating habits, and pack the pounds back on in no time.

This is the dreaded "yo-yo syndrome," and there are simple biological reasons behind it. First of all, much of the weight you initially lose when dieting is water weight, not fat. So your initial success may be very misleading.

Secondly, nature has a way of protecting the body against rapid weight loss. So when you drastically cut back on calories, your body will compensate by slowing down your metabolism. As a result, you'll need fewer calories to maintain your weight. And as soon as you go off your diet, your metabolism will be too slow to handle the sudden deluge of calories. That's why you often gain back more than you lost.

Besides being a frustrating experience, this yo-yo effect has serious consequences for your health. For example, a study of 485 female heart patients published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that yo-yo dieters had relatively low levels of HDL cholesterol - the "good" cholesterol that helps prevent heart disease.

Red Alert #2: Health Risks of Rapid Weight Loss

The human body is an amazingly complex and wonderful machine, but it performs best when it is not subjected to sudden shocks. When you lose weight too quickly, your body's organs and regulatory systems don't have time to adjust.

For instance, according to the National Digestive Diseases Information Clearinghouse, fast weight loss has been linked to the formation of gall stones, stone-like objects that form when liquid stored in the gallbladder hardens.

Gallstones can block the normal flow of bile if they move from the gallbladder and lodge in any of the ducts that carry bile from the liver to the small intestine. Bile trapped in these ducts can cause inflammation in the gallbladder, the ducts, or in rare cases, the liver.

If any of the bile ducts remain blocked for a significant period of time, severe damage or infection can occur in the gallbladder, liver, or pancreas. Left untreated, the condition can be fatal.

Slow & Steady Wins the Race

For most people, gradual weight loss of about one to two pounds per week, at most, is best, because it will be easier for your body to adjust and keep the weight off. Also, if you set sensible goals for yourself, chances are you'll be more likely to meet them and stay motivated.

Avoid starvation diets and products that promise you'll drop pounds in no time. Instead, opt for products that offer gradual, steady, sustainable results like the Sensa Weight-Loss System. While Sensa makes no specific claims about how quickly users will lose weight, clinical testing showed weight loss of around five pounds per month.

Click Here if you'd like to learn more about Sensa.