While cancer and GI issues and mental health cause most unintentional weight loss, there are many other reasons you might suddenly lose weight, including: Dementia, due to changes in mealtime habits. Endocrine issues, including thyroid disorders and diabetes.
As a rule of thumb, losing more than 5% of your weight over 6 to 12 months may indicate a problem. If you're an older adult with other medical conditions and health issues, even a smaller amount of weight loss may be significant.
What tests to run for unintentional weight loss? Common tests include blood tests (CBC, thyroid function, blood sugar), urine tests, imaging tests (like X-rays or CT scans), and sometimes endoscopy or colonoscopy, depending on symptoms and medical history.
Some types of cancer can also make it harder for your body to absorb nutrients (called malabsorption). Weight loss may be more common in lung cancer and upper gastrointestinal cancers such as pancreatic, stomach and esophageal cancer.
Types of autoimmune disorders
Diabetes (Type I) – affects the pancreas. Symptoms include thirst, frequent urination, weight loss and an increased susceptibility to infection. Graves' disease – affects the thyroid gland. Symptoms include weight loss, elevated heart rate, anxiety and diarrhoea.
The point at which unexplained weight loss becomes a medical concern is not exact. But many health care providers agree that a medical evaluation is called for if you lose more than 5% of your weight in 6 to 12 months, especially if you're an older adult.
This baseline blood test for weight loss measures the levels of several markers associated with metabolism, including a cholesterol and lipid panel, comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP), thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) test, and a hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test.
In addition to these symptoms, some digestive disorders can also cause weight loss. The most common digestive problems that cause weight loss are Crohn's disease, diabetes, hyperthyroidism, peptic ulcers, and celiac disease.
Symptoms of cachexia
Cachexia is more common in people with lung cancer or with cancers anywhere in the digestive system. The main symptoms are: severe weight loss, including loss of fat and muscle mass.
Causes for Unexpected Weight Loss
Other symptoms include trouble sleeping and muscle weakness which may cause you to feel tired more often. Mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder): The symptoms of these mental health conditions can also cause involuntary weight loss.
Unexplained weight loss can be a symptom of diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, some types of cancer, and even some mental health disorders such as depression.
Cardiac cachexia is unintentional severe weight loss caused by severe heart failure.
1) The technique of weight loss through dehydration is not actually a weight loss technique. It is merely a way to enhance one's performance in a sport activity. If your aim is to lose weight and you are not a sports personality, you should never ever consider this option.
Losing weight for no clear reason does not mean you have cancer, however. The amount of weight lost matters. Losing a few pounds is usually not serious. But losing 10 pounds or more without explanation can be a warning sign.
How much weight loss is a concern. Your body weight can regularly fluctuate. But the persistent, unintentional loss of more than 5 per cent of your weight over 6 to 12 months is usually a cause for concern. Losing this much weight can be a sign of malnutrition.
Celiac disease: Some people with celiac disease lose weight because their intestines can't absorb all the nutrients from food. Celiac symptoms also include diarrhea and vomiting. Crohn's disease: This inflammation of your bowels or colon can make you lose your appetite and lead to chronic diarrhea.
Basic labs should include a CBC with differential, urinalysis, renal panel, calcium, liver panel, fasting glucose, fecal occult blood test (FOBT), erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), HIV and chest radiograph.
Vasculitis: Vasculitis involves inflammation of blood vessels, leading to various symptoms depending on the affected organs. The diagnosis often requires imaging studies and biopsies, making it one of the more challenging autoimmune diseases to identify.
3-By-3 Rule For Weight Loss, Per A Registered Dietitian
She reveals that this method consists of “eating 3 meals a day, drinking at least 3 bottles of water by 3 o'clock, and having at least 3 hours of exercise spread out throughout the week.”
Once people have GERD and the condition becomes chronic, weight loss may occur due to eating- and appetite-related complications.
"In general, 1 to 2 pounds per week, or 4 to 8 pounds per month, is a safe and sustainable amount to lose," says Sarah Gold Anzlovar, M.S., RDN, LDN and founder of Sarah Gold Nutrition. "Some people may lose more than that in the beginning, but it's often a lot of water weight and not true fat loss."