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Journalism of Courage
In a shocking turn of events, India’s wrestling star Vinesh Phogat was disqualified from the Paris Olympics after failing to meet the weight requirements for the women’s 50kg category. “Despite the best efforts by the team through the night, she weighed in a few grams over 50kg this morning,” the IOA said in a statement.
Some sources had earlier said the wrestler was roughly over 100 grams of the permissible limit. Vinesh, who had reached the final becoming the first Indian woman wrestler to do so, was approximately 2 kilos overweight on Tuesday night, The Indian Express had previously reported.
According to Dr Sanjay Gupta, an internal medicine expert at Delhi’s Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, losing 2-3 kilograms of weight overnight is not only next to impossible but also “dangerous.” Another internal medicine expert, Dr Manjeeta Nath Das, agreed with his assessment, adding that it can also be “fatal.”
Our body weight is made up of our bones, muscles, and fat. It is extremely dangerous to try to lose this much weight overnight as that would include not drinking water, or even having salt, let alone carbs or proteins, which is also incidentally something boxer Nikhat Zareen had to do. For a 29-year-old like Vinesh, losing this weight is doubly difficult, especially overnight.
“We lose water and salts even while breathing and doing nothing so actively working to lose water and not hydrating enough can prove to be dangerous and lead to many complications in the body,” said Dr Das in an interaction. “It is never medically advised to do this, athlete or not.”
Dr Gupta explained that losing excess water and carbs could push a body into hypoglycaemia as the blood sugar levels go below 70 milligrams per decilitre (mg/dl).
When you drastically reduce calorie intake to lose weight quickly, your body’s glycogen stores (the primary energy source) deplete rapidly. This can lead to low blood sugar levels, especially if you don’t consume enough carbohydrates, which is often what these atheletes have to do.
Symptoms of hypoglycaemia include shakiness, sweating, dizziness, confusion, and rapid heartbeat. Complete renal failure is also a possibility said Dr Das.
Dr Gupta explained that our brains can’t go more than 2-3 minutes without glucose. “Even that 2-3 minutes can cause severe and permanent brain damage, but beyond that you’re flirting with permanent brain death i.e. coma,” he said.
If left untreated, severe hypoglycaemia can hence lead to seizures, unconsciousness, and even death.
Both doctors vehemently advise against trying to lose weight like this as it is not detrimental to health but can also prove fatal.
