Benefits of Losing 5 kg: BP, Sugar, Liver, Knees and Sleep
The benefits of losing 5 kg are bigger than 5 kg sounds. For a 65 kg man that is about 7 to 8 percent of his body weight, the range where blood pressure readings come down, HbA1c improves, a fatty liver starts to shrink, each step loads the knees less and snoring quietens. The face looks the same for a while. The numbers do not.
What 5 kg buys a 65 kg man
- Blood pressure: a 5 to 10 percent loss is linked with a better chance of a 5 mmHg drop in both numbers.
- Sugar: the same loss is linked with HbA1c falling, and in prediabetes, losing 5 to 7 percent cut the chance of diabetes developing.
- Liver: weight loss is the main treatment for a fatty liver.
- Knees: each kilo lost takes roughly four kilos of force off the knee per step.
- Sleep: losing weight is first on the NHS list for sleep apnoea.
- Time it takes: about 10 weeks at an honest 0.5 kg a week.
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Why is 5 kg a big deal for a 65 kg man?
Because the body counts in percentages, not kilos, and 5 out of 65 is about 7.7 percent. The NHS puts the useful threshold at 5 to 10 percent of body weight, so a 65 kg man clears it with 5 kg while a 100 kg man needs 8 or 10 for the same effect. The fat doing the harm sits around the middle, the waist tells the story the BMI hides, and the first kilos tend to leave from exactly there.
What does losing 5 kg do to blood pressure?
It gives you a real chance of lower readings without changing anything else. In the big Look AHEAD programme of adults with type 2 diabetes, those who lost 5 to under 10 percent in a year had about one and a half times the odds of a 5 mmHg fall in both the top and bottom numbers compared with people whose weight stayed put. Five points does not sound like much. For a man sitting at 142 over 92 it is the difference between a diagnosis and a watchful eye, because 140/90 at the clinic or about 135/85 at home is the line, and our guide to home BP readings shows how to take one that counts. Already on blood pressure tablets? The weight loss is still worth having. The tablets stay until your doctor says otherwise.
What happens to fasting sugar and HbA1c?
They move in the right direction, and this is where the belly matters most, because deep belly fat is a main driver of insulin resistance and losing it lets the muscles respond to insulin again, so the sugar after meals stops climbing so high. In the same Look AHEAD analysis, a 5 to 10 percent loss gave about three and a half times the odds of HbA1c dropping by half a percentage point. For a man at 6.2 percent, in the prediabetes band, that is the difference between drifting towards 6.5 and drifting back below 5.7, and in the American diabetes prevention programme, people with prediabetes who lost 5 to 7 percent of their weight cut their chance of developing diabetes. The afternoon slump lifts within weeks. Usually it is the first thing a man notices.
Five kilos changes the blood tests months before it changes the photographs.
Does losing 5 kg shrink a fatty liver?
Usually, yes. Fatty liver is common in men with a large waist, rarely gives symptoms beyond tiredness, and is usually found by accident on an ultrasound. There is no tablet for it. Losing weight is the main treatment the NHS lists, with 150 minutes of activity a week alongside, and the liver tends to respond early because the fat inside it is some of the first to go. A grade 1 on a report is a reason to start, not a reason to panic, and what the grades mean explains 1, 2 and 3.
How much less do the knees carry?
About four kilos less per step for every kilo lost, from measurements of knee joint forces in adults losing weight. Walking puts several times your body weight through the knee with each stride, so 5 kg off the scale is roughly 20 kg off the knee with every step, several thousand steps a day. Men who gave up the after-dinner walk because of a sore knee often find the first few kilos make the walk possible again. If the knee is what stops you now, knee pain and weight has the gentle starting points.
Does losing weight help snoring and sleep?
It is the first thing on the NHS list for sleep apnoea, because a thinner neck and a smaller belly give the airway more room once you are lying down, so snoring quietens, the pauses your wife notices get fewer, and mornings stop feeling like a hangover. Five kilos will not fix severe apnoea on its own. Loud snoring with gasps or heavy daytime sleepiness still needs a sleep study, covered in snoring and sleep apnoea. Sleep better, eat less. Eat less, sleep better.
How do I lose 5 kg in 10 weeks?
At the honest rate. The first week gives 1 to 2 kg of water, explained in what to expect in the first two weeks, then roughly 0.5 kg a week of real loss. Ten weeks, kept most days.
- Weeks 1 to 2: halve the sugar in every cup of chai, swap the biscuits for roasted chana, walk 10 minutes after dinner.
- Weeks 3 to 4: one roti fewer at dinner, a level katori of sabzi in its place, dinner finished three hours before bed, a walk after lunch too.
- Weeks 5 to 6: salan cooked with half the oil for the whole family, and two short strength sessions a week.
- Weeks 7 to 10: hold the day, which by now looks like the sample day of eating, and let the walks grow towards 7,000 steps. Weekly weigh-in, same morning. Around week ten the tape should read 4 to 6 cm less.
Do this week
Take three numbers before you change anything: weight on one morning, waist at the navel after breathing out, and a home blood pressure reading seated after five minutes of rest. Write them inside the cupboard door with the date. In ten weeks you will have your own evidence rather than this article’s.
What does not change, and why that is fine?
Your face, for a while. The deep belly fat goes before the fat under the skin, so the blood tests improve weeks before anyone at the office says anything, and that is the right order even if it is the less satisfying one. Your height, your frame and the family history that sent your father to the heart ward do not change either, which is exactly why the numbers you can move matter so much. Any medicine stays as prescribed until the doctor who prescribed it sees the new readings, because readings that are better on tablets are not readings that are better without them. And 5 kg is a milestone. Not the finish. The 12-week belly fat plan carries on from here, with more in Desi Weight Loss.
If you take insulin or sugar tablets, eating less can drop your sugar dangerously, so involve your doctor before you cut food and never adjust the medicine yourself. The same goes for blood pressure tablets: lower readings are news for the doctor, not a reason to stop. See a doctor first if you have kidney disease, a thyroid condition or any history of eating problems, and promptly if weight is falling without you trying, which is a symptom, not a success. A reading of 180/120 or higher with headache, chest pain, breathlessness or blurred vision is 1122. So is chest pain or pressure during a walk with sweating or pain spreading to the arm or jaw. Not a rest on the kerb.
Losing 5 kg: what men ask
What are the benefits of losing 5 kg?
For a 65 kg man, 5 kg is about 7 to 8 percent of body weight, a range linked with lower blood pressure readings, better HbA1c, less liver fat, lighter knees and quieter snoring.
Will losing 5 kg lower my blood pressure?
It gives a good chance of a drop of about 5 mmHg in both numbers, based on people losing 5 to 10 percent of their weight. Keep any prescribed tablets and let your doctor review the readings.
How long does it take to lose 5 kg safely?
About 10 weeks: 1 to 2 kg of water in the first week, then roughly 0.5 kg a week. Faster than 1 kg a week after the first fortnight is too fast.
Does losing 5 kg reduce belly fat?
Yes, and belly fat tends to go first. Expect the waist tape to fall by about 4 to 6 cm over the 5 kg.
Can losing weight reverse fatty liver?
Weight loss is the main treatment for a fatty liver, and early grades usually improve as the waist comes down. Repeat tests confirm it.
Will 5 kg help my knees?
Yes. Each kilo lost takes roughly four kilos of force off the knee per step, so 5 kg is about 20 kg less per stride, thousands of times a day.
Does losing 5 kg stop snoring?
It usually quietens it, because there is more room in the airway lying down. Snoring with pauses or gasps still needs a doctor and possibly a sleep study.
Is losing 5 kg enough, or do I need to lose more?
Five kilos brings most of the early gains for a 65 kg man. Going further depends on the waist: under about 90 cm is the guidance for South Asian men.
Sources
- NHS: Obesity, 5 to 10 percent weight loss and rate
- Wing RR et al., Diabetes Care 2011: Benefits of modest weight loss on cardiovascular risk factors (Look AHEAD)
- Messier SP et al., Arthritis and Rheumatism 2005: Weight loss reduces knee-joint loads
- NHS: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
- NHS: Sleep apnoea