If you are beginning your weight-loss journey, you might have some questions concerning common, unpleasant side effects like hair loss. But if you are well underway in the effort, you might have already started to notice that a lot of your hair is thinning out. Either way, you must know the facts about the link between hair loss with weight loss and screen out other possible causes.
Diet-Related Hair Loss
Hair follicles are very metabolically active in the human body. Studies have shown that hair growth can be affected when you lower your protein or calorie intake or suffer from a deficiency of micronutrients. These connections are complicated. If you are experiencing hair loss, your diet might be responsible, as could many other factors. To understand diet-related hair loss, it’s essential to have a fundamental understanding of the four stages of the hair growth cycle:
1. Anagen phase:
This is the stage during which your hair keeps growing and growing. Around 80 to 90% of your hair stays in the anagen stage for two to seven years.
2. Catagen phase:
The catagen phase is a transition stage that lasts for ten days. During this stage, your hair follicles become thinner, and hair detaches from its blood supply, which prevents it from growing.
3. Telogen phase:
This is the resting period that lasts for about three months. During this stage, 10 to 15 percent of the released hair rests in the hair follicles before falling out.
4. Exogen phase:
In this phase, the release of the hair shafts is initiated and executed. Typically, you lose around 50 to 100 strands every day during this phase since some of your hair has already detached from the follicles.
Loss of Hair After Weight Loss
The human body requires enough protein and calories to nourish your hair follicles. Some experts believe that the more weight you lose, the higher your chances of experiencing a particular hair loss level. Dropping and regaining weight (yoyo dieting) over many years can have a significant impact on your metabolism and hair growth in your body. Some individuals on weight loss diets such as keto or Ideal Protein may experience hair loss within three to six months of embarking on the diet. However, since hair loss during dieting is usually temporary, a healthy, balanced diet should reverse it within six months.
Hair Loss Dieting Research
Telogen Effluvium:
Acute telogen effluvium is one of the common side effects of reduced protein intake or sudden weight loss. This condition causes the shedding or thinning of hair, and it occurs when your hair prematurely enters the telogen phase. Dieting, especially the wrong way, can result in emotional and physical stress. It can cause a more significant amount of hair to reach the telogen phase.
Protein deficiency:
Lack of protein can affect your hair, nails, and skin since they are all made of protein. Protein is an essential mineral for hair growth! Hence, having inadequate amounts of healthy protein can lead to broken hair strands that typically refuse to grow back. This imbalance is a common finding on a low-calorie diet and keto diets with inadequate protein.
Ideal Protein protocol fills the gap of nutrition-deficiency in a typical keto diet. The Ideal Protein method ensures that while your weight loss follows a healthy path, your body acquires the required high-quality protein and essential minerals from bioavailable foods.
Iron deficiency:
This is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, outside of diets. Iron deficiency is also one of the prevalent causes of hair loss. However, the degree of insufficiency that results in hair loss remains unclear, and studies have been inconclusive. Some of the possible risk factors include malabsorption, menstrual blood loss, the use of H2 receptor blockers, a vegetarian or vegan diet.
The RDA for iron is 18 mg per day.
Zinc deficiency:
Zinc is an essential mineral for skin and hair health. It is also vital for other critical functions in the body. Even though zinc deficiency is relatively rare, risk factors include cancer, diabetes, malabsorption, anorexia, aging, GIT disease, alcoholism, a vegetarian diet, chronic liver, or renal disease.
Vitamin D deficiency:
Vit D is known to stimulate the growth of new hair follicles. For this reason, some experts think that insufficiency in the vitamin can lead to hair thinning or loss. Vitamin D deficiency is related to alopecia areata, a common autoimmune disease that results in patchy hair loss. Now more than ever, Vitamin D is a focal point for immune health, especially with COVID-19.
The RDA for vitamin D is 600 international units (IU) per day from food. If your skin doesn’t get enough sunlight, your intake should be closer to 1,000 IU per day
5 Effective Tips to Help Prevent Hair Loss
- Avoid diets that severely restrict calories. It is possible to sidestep this somewhat by opting for a diet that places the body in a nutritional ketosis state, like on ketogenic diets or Ideal Protein diet.
- Meet your minimum adequate protein requirements. One downfall of vegan, vegetarian, and keto diet is not providing enough protein. Those on keto diets can be both ketogenic and meet minimum protein requirements to prevent hair loss. Be sure to include a wide range of healthy proteins in your diet to help raise the production of amino acids necessary for keratin production. Additionally, if not meeting these requirements, you may also set yourself to regain the weight you lose by not supporting your metabolism. Adequate protein also supports muscle mass, which is the basis of your metabolism.
- Meet your vitamin and mineral requirements. Micronutrients are necessary for the body to support its vital processes like gas and oil are essential to a vehicle. A comprehensive weight loss diet will include mandatory supplements to ensure you meet these needs. Some on a diet may seem like supplements are unnecessary, but the cost of not meeting the body’s requirements can include excessive hair loss along with slower weight loss (more time dieting), and more. Take high-quality multivitamins that offer at least 100 percent of the recommended daily amount.
- Select the right diet. Losing weight is truly a science. While we historically have been taught calories in – calories out are the keys to weight loss, there is more to science. Losing weight is not a lifestyle; there needs to be a beginning and an end. Programs that advocate for a dieting lifestyle set dieters up for more severe health and psychosocial issues. In addition to hair loss, selecting the wrong diet sets you up to gain the weight back, sending you back to the cycle of yoyo dieting.
- Get enough sleep (around 7-8 hours every night). Having a regular lack of sleep is associated with adverse effects on the body, and can also have a direct or indirect impact on hair loss and thinning hair. Inadequate sleep can raise stress levels, which is found to cause hair loss. Moreover, if you are trying to lose weight, a lack of sleep can increase appetite by changing hormone levels, fueling unhealthy eating, and food habits.
It is not a hidden fact that hair loss can impact our self-esteem and demote the sense of beauty we associate ourselves with. Your hair loss may be due to nutritional deficiencies resulting from being on a diet. However, if you continue to experience excessive hair loss, it’s crucial to speak with your doctor. A physical examination, lab work, and your health history will help your doctor determine whether a genetic disorder, health condition, or dietary mishap is the actual cause of your hair loss. Remember, arming yourself with correct information about your diet, making the right decision, and taking care of yourself is the key here.
If you’re looking for a diet that will address most of the concerns listed above while allowing you to lose 2-5 pounds per week, schedule a complimentary consultation to learn more about BioIntelligent Wellness and our Ideal Protein protocol.
