Throwing up is our body’s natural reaction to eradicate something bad from the stomach. However, it has been increasingly common to see some people make themselves throw up unnaturally in hope of losing weight.
In this article, we are going to examine does throwing up help you lose weight and also how it affects your health!
What Is Throwing Up and Why Does It Happen?
Throwing up, or you may be familiar with “vomiting”, is a common issue that most of us experience at least once in our life.
If you vomit something greenish yellow, the possibility is that you are vomiting yellow bile.
Bile is another term for gastric juices. Normally, it does not exist in your stomach. Only if something strange goes into your digestive system does the pyloric sphincter open abnormally.
Then, foods will travel from your small intestine and combine with contents in your stomach, which makes gastric fluid yellow.
Overall, the most common causes for throwing up are:
- Bile reflux
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Empty stomach
- Respiratory inflammation
- Dehydration
- Alcohol and drugs
- Food poisoning
- Morning sickness
- Cyclic vomiting syndrome
As you probably notice, some of these causes can be made on our own. In other words, throwing up can happen unnaturally.
What are the reasons behind self-induced vomiting?
Good Reasons to Throw Up
Throwing up plays an important role in our body as it is the main way to prevent food poisoning.
You may occasionally eat spoilt food without realizing it. They are full of dangerously toxic germs. Expelling all of these microorganisms will lower the likelihood of future sickness.
Besides, throwing up can protect your from drinking poison, for example, when you use too much alcohol. These are good effects of throwing up.
On the other hand, many people force themselves to throw up because they believe that throwing up will help them lose a significant number of weight. But is it true? Does throwing up really help you lose weight?
Does Throwing Up Help You Lose Weight?
Throwing up to lose weight is a controversial issue in many medical communities. While some people express their agreement with this method, most are strongly opposed to it because it does not bring any significant impact.
More importantly, it even has disastrous effects on your health. In this part, we will shed light on the shocking truth behind the question “Does throwing up help you lose weight?”
No, is the response! Refusing to eat does not aid in weight loss. If it does, you should seek medical attention right once because vomiting is detrimental to your health.
First of all, the yellowish bile you throw up is actually stomach acid and contents. Your teeth, esophagus, and several other organs are harmed by bile.
Are you ready to suffer from these consequences in exchange of losing little weight?
Secondly, the main reason why people are obese is because of the concentration of unhealthy fats in their body. Focusing on throwing up is not a solution to eliminating these fats. You are attacking the wrong points!
Instead, you are removing all contents from your stomach, including nutrients that are good for your health.
The Dangers Behind Throwing Up to Lose Weight
So, we come down to the conclusion that losing weight has nothing to do with losing weight. So, it is NO for the question does throwing up help you lose weight. Even more, throwing up is a contributor to many worse problems that you are going to suffer from!
Inflammation in Your Digestive System
Your stomach contains a certain amount of gastric juices which are responsible for breaking down foods. This process enables your body to absorb nutrients from foods.
Throwing up will release both gastric juices and half-digested foods from your stomach. They will go through the esophagus. At this moment, gastric juices will irritate, or even burn your throat’s lining.
The consequence is that you will suffer from severe inflammation. The severity of inflammation will increase in direct proportion to how much you vomit.
Besides, you will find it hard to swallow something after that. Or you may not be able to speak clearly either.
- Esophageal Damage
There is a greater chance of serious esophageal injury if you throw up too frequently. For example, bulimics often make their bodies throw up after large meals in an attempt to either maintain or reduce weight.
Your esophagus lining will become torn by the repeated pressure and burning that comes with vomiting. Esophageal rupture is a common outcome.
- Esophagitis
Esophagitis refers to the inflammation in the throat over an extended period of time. It may go with some typical symptoms, such as painful swallowing, sore throat, heartburn and hoarseness.
Heartburn, like throwing up, happens when gastric juices have contact with your esophagus. You will go through burning sensations in the throat, as well as upper chest.
- Barrett’s Esophagus
Inflammation due to stomach acids will develop into a problem called Barrett’s esophagus. It usually happens after a long time of suffering from heartburn.
The symptoms might not be very clear, but Barrett’s esophagus should be seen as a very dangerous problem as it raises the likelihood of esophageal cancer.
Therefore, when your heartburn is chronic, it is important to have doctor examine your esophagus. It would help to detect the problem sooner and the treatment comes earlier.
Teeth and Mouth
For those who want to throw up after every big meal, their teeth will face serious issues. You need to know that throwing up contains a lot of stomach acids, so it is very toxic.
The main purpose of these stomach acids is to break down foods to allow our body to digest them better. When the acids are in your mouth, they are able to eliminate the enamel which is responsible for protecting the teeth.
- Cavities
Frequent vomiting causes your tooth to be exposed to acids. As a result, your tooth enamel is worn away and cavities will appear on your teeth. Dental decay will make your gums bleed.
Without proper filling, these holes might develop and you will lose your teeth.
- Yellow, brittle teeth
Worse erosion will accompany with significant changes in the texture and color of the teeth. In particular, they become more brittle and weaker. In other words, you are more likely to lose your teeth.
Some bulimia might even notice their teeth become shorter or distorted in shape.
- Mouth sores
Another bad effect of stomach acid is to wear away your mouth’s skin and damage the throat. Some painful sores will appear inside the mouth or throat, along with swelling and infections.
- Dry mouth
The shortage of saliva results in dry mouth. It has catastrophic influence on the way you taste foods.
Moreover, saliva is a major component of eliminating bacteria in your mouth. If you lack it, the possibility of tooth decay is much higher.
- Pain
Tooth pain is also very common among those who have worn tooth enamel. It is more intense when you try some cold or hot foods. Besides, you will experience a lot of troubles swallowing or chewing.
Central Nervous System
Forcing your body to throw up unnaturally to lose weight can become a mental disorder and affect your central nervous system as well. Anxiety, depression, and some obsessive-compulsive behaviors are just some of many problems to come.
These people usually overthink about weight and how to control foods in their body. As a result, they lose their concentration on any other activities in life.
Besides, throwing up to achieve an ideal weight is not something too proud to boast about. Therefore, they usually have to keep it as secrets which contribute to worse anxiety and stress.
As time passes by, it can develop into embarrassment or shame. In fact, these feelings may be fatal if we do not address them on time.
Circulatory System
Dehydration is another result from frequent throwing up. It makes your muscles weaker and makes you often feel extremely tired. Dehydration is dangerous for your heart as it destroys the balance of electrolytes in your body.
Electrolytes that usually disappear due to constant throwing up are sodium, potassium and magnesium. They are responsible for many important
You might experience irregular heartbeat or worse, heart failure.
Integumentary System
When it comes to integumentary system, we would like to talk about nails, skin and hair. If you think they have nothing to do with throwing up, then you are wrong!
Dehydration due to frequent throwing up makes your body lack water seriously. This has negative influences on all integumentary system. For example, your hair becomes frizzy and dry. In addition, hair loss is worse.
Meanwhile, the shortage of fluids causes dryness in your nails and skin. It seems that your beauty is the highest price you have to exchange if you choose throwing up to lose weight.
Alternative Ways to Lose Weight
To sum up, does throwing up help you lose weight? No. It is not even a good idea to throw up on your own regularly!
If you are still keen on effective ways to lose weight, here are some recommendations for you to concentrate on, instead of wasting too much time on the question “does throwing up help you lose weight?”
Balanced Diet
This is definitely the most important part of all efforts to lose weight. You need to pick up the right food. Otherwise, your weight loss will never be as successful as you want, no matter how often you do exercise.
There are a lot of things to discuss when it comes to diet for weight loss.
- Make protein a critical component of your diet
Protein dominates in the world of nutrients. The digestion and metabolization of proteins will stimulate the burning of calories.
Furthermore, a diet consisting of much protein increases your fullness and makes you less eager for foods. According to studies, high-protein diet will reduce more than 400 calories on a daily basis.
- Choose healthy foods
It is not difficult to know which food is healthy or unhealthy for your body. Spend a couple of minutes on the Internet before you decide and you will know it immediately.
Fruits and vegetables are always top priority groups of foods for people who want to lose weight.
If you do not have much time to prepare, some healthy snacks that you can come up with immediately are yogurt, hard-boiled eggs or whole fruit.
- Limit Sugar
There is a close link between the consumption of added sugar and diseases, including some of the most dangerous, like cancer or heart disease.
The tricky thing is that sugar can be written by many different names when you read ingredient lists. So, it is hard to detect the exact amount of sugar in a product.
To tackle this problem, you had better choose fresh, organic products, instead of canned or processed foods.
- Stay away from processed foods
Processed foods are an abundant source of added fats, sugars and calories. None of them is good for your goals of weight loss.
Furthermore, most people have a tendency to consume processed foods more and more. It becomes addiction more easily.
Do Exercise
Regular exercise routine is the key to successful weight loss, undeniably. In addition, it does give a boost to your general well-being, while throwing up won’t help you lose weight.
You should go for exercises that are enjoyable for you. Yoga, dancing and jogging are excellent ideas to start training if you are a beginner.
Experts recommend that you do cardio for around 150 minutes every week. In addition, you should spend 2 days on training your strength.
Exercise has positive impacts on not only your health but also your mood. It encourages your body to produce endorphins, which are responsible for happiness and confidence.
Drink Water
A simple activity that we do every day, like drinking water, can actually have significant impact on your weight.
If you drink water before having meals, it helps to lower the intake of calories. This is especially true among elderly people.
In addition, while most beverages contain a lot of sugar and calories, water is a particularly great choice to help you achieve and maintain your ideal weight.
Rest Enough
Finally, do not focus too much on training and forget the significance of rest. When you give your body enough sleep, it will boost your well-being significantly.
It means that you need more or less than 8 hours to sleep on a daily basis. In order to improve the quality of your sleep, turn off your electronic devices before bedtime.
Conclusion
Does throwing up help you lose weight? You should stop believing in such statements. Throwing up does not bring any great results in weight loss. Instead, you should devote your time and energy to more reasonable methods.
Only by following healthy lifestyles and diet can you manage to achieve your desired weight.
Do not forget to SHARE this article to make other people aware of the dangers behind throwing up and stop this fantasy from misleading people!
References
- https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003117.htm
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/cyclic-vomiting-syndrome/symptoms-causes/syc-20352161
- https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000265.htm
- https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/overweight-and-obesity
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1357179/
- https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/003114.htm
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3663219/
- https://ajcn.nutrition.org/article/S0002-9165(23)29507-6/fulltext
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8123778/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25692302/