Sandhya Raghavan
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Written By: Sandhya Raghavan | Updated : October 23, 2017 1:07 PM IST
Whenever it is the festive season or wedding season everybody wants to look and feel their best. It is also a time when crash dieting fads are at an all-time high. Surviving on just salads, juices or proteins may help you slip into that silk kurta in a month's time, but what about your overall health? It's common knowledge that extreme weight loss can harm your body in more ways than one and your skin is among the first things to get affected.
Your skin holds the distinction of being the largest organ in your body. And with this power comes great responsibilities (sorry Spiderman). It performs a whole lot of important functions in your body, from eliminating toxins to regulating your body temperature. More importantly, it is a mirror of your health. If you are hooked on an extreme diet, chances are your skin is suffering. These nine symptoms are your skin's way of telling you that you need to switch to a healthier diet.
Acne
If your diet isn't nourishing enough, you could end up with spots on your face. Rapid weight loss caused by your may create a hormonal imbalance in your body, causing an acne flare up. Nutrient deficiencies caused by a low-fat diet can also influence acne. Vitamin A, required for skin health cannot be absorbed if your diet is deficient in fat.12
(Read8 signs you aren't eating enough)
Orange-tinged skin
As strange as it sounds, a bad diet can cause your skin to turn into a shade of orange. Most fad diets that are focussed on weight loss will endorse eating high carotenoid-rich veggies like carrots which have negative calories. In the absence of other nutritious food, there will be an excessive buildup of carotenoids in the skin, giving it an orange tinge. 1 2
Scaly skin
Asteatotic skin refers to the scaly patterns that develop on the skin due to nutrient and fat deficiencies. Constant crash dieting can also wreck your thyroid functions, resulting in compensatory hypothyroidism. This can manifest as parched, dry skin.13
Hyperpigmentation
Discoloured spots on the skin suggest that you haven't been eating enough. Malnutrition triggers a hormonal imbalance, which then manifests as hyperpigmented spots on the skin. 1
Seborrheic dermatitis
Nutritional deficiencies, especially that of vitamin B-6, caused by your fad diet can result in seborrheic dermatitis. It's a chronic skin condition where patients develop dry skin flakes and reddened skin in the area where there are a lot of sebaceous glands. Since it is quite conspicuous, it can cause embarrassment to sufferers who may shun social interactions.14
Slow wound healing
Is that paper cut on your fingers still fresh as day one? Something is seriously wrong! Malnutrition hinders the normal process of wound healing. It is common to see unhealed ulcers and infections in people who have nutritional deficiencies.15
(Read: Here's how crash dieting affects your health)
Stretch marks
Extreme weight loss does take its pound of flesh (no pun intended) in the form unsightly lines on your skin. These lines are called stretch marks caused by tears in deeper layers of the skin. When your diet lacks the essential nutrients, the connective tissues break down and your skin loses its elasticity. It also starts looking dry and paper thin, to the point of translucence.1
Scalp balding
If you have a thinning crown, better take a good look at your diet. The scanty hair on the crow is a sign of telogen effluvium, a scalp disorder caused by the early entry of the hair in the telogen phase. This causes shedding and thinning of scalp hair. It is also a classic sign of nutritional deficiencies caused by a bad diet.1
Body hair
No matter how much you hate your cellulite, a little bit of body fat is important to keep yourself warm. In the absence of fat, your body switches to its survival mode and tries to trap the heat from escaping. You will notice fine "peach fuzz" hair known as lanugo growing on your chest, back, arms, neck and face. It's the body attempting to insulate itself from the cold. This is a serious sign of extreme fat loss.2
References:
1. Strumia, R. (2005). Dermatologic signs in patients with eating disorders. American journal of clinical dermatology, 6(3), 165-173.
2. Gupta, M. A., Gupta, A. K., & Haberman, H. F. (1987). Dermatologic signs in anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Archives of dermatology, 123(10), 1386-1390
3. Horrobin, D. F. (1989). Essential fatty acids in clinical dermatology. Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, 20(6), 1045-1053. fatty acid
4.Pappas, A. (2009). The relationship of diet and acne: A review. Dermato-Endocrinology, 1(5), 262 267. acne
5.Stechmiller, J. K. (2010). Understanding the role of nutrition and wound healing. Nutrition in clinical practice, 25(1), 61-68.
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