Can weight loss lead to hair loss? Come, gain some insight

Are you struggling to maintain strong, healthy looking hair? If yes, there are various reasons due to which you may experience hair loss. You may be surprised to know that your weight loss journey could also be one of the causes. 

Yes ladies, hair loss can be an outcome of your weight loss diet! Here’s why

What many people don’t realize is that losing hair has a great deal to do with diet. Hair growth is a complex metabolic process requiring multiple nutrients, vitamins and enzymes. But due to following a weight loss diet, one may experience a nutrient deficiency which can lead to hair reduction or your hair won’t be able to grow to its full potential. 

Weight loss in itself does not lead to hair loss!

What needs to be considered here is that though losing hair is a possible side effect of losing weight, it happens because people follow unhealthy methods and diets when trying to lose weight. Once can infer that losing weight does not impact hair health, but it may happen if one adopts unhealthy strategies to reach a weight goal.

Here’s how your diet plays an important role

Kiran Dalal, Chief Dietitian, Fortis Hospital, Faridabad, says, “Our body needs optimal nutrition – the right balance of calorie, protein, fats and adequate micronutrients to nourish and maintain the functioning of all the cells, tissues, organs as well as the hair follicles.”

Here’s how a poor diet can lead to hair loss

Due to abrupt weight loss beyond 4-5 kg per month, coupled with nutritionally poor diets, for example, fad diets like keto diet or crash dieting, could be grossly inadequate to meet the daily dietary recommendations of protein, iron, vitamin A, vitamin E, selenium, zinc, which can impact your metabolism and hair growth, says Dalal. 

Hair loss may be related to nutritional deficiency due to nutritionally poor diets and a few could experience hair loss within a couple of months of following such diets.

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The solution?

Dalal suggests some ways to tackle the problem. Here they are: 

• A balanced and healthy diet may reverse hair loss within six to eight months. 
• A severe calorie-restricted diet should be avoided. 
• Include healthy proteins in your diet to improve the production of amino acids which is needed to produce keratin so include adequate vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and healthy fats, nuts & seeds on a daily basis. 
• Multiple nutritional deficiencies may result in the situation, which may arise due to genetic disorders, medical conditions, dietary practices- nutritional deficiencies must be corrected. 
• Correct the daily iron consumption. 

However, excess intake of some nutrients is also risky as it may result in multiple toxicities. Over supplementation of certain nutrients, including vitamin A, E, selenium, zinc may actually result in hair loss. So be mindful of that!