Does blood donation cause weight loss?

No one is unaware about advantages of losing weight. It helps your body to breathe and rejuvenate body saves from lots of diseases. Everyone who wants to lose weight are always looking for new secret of weight loss, be it crazy diet plan to extensive exercise and fasting and so on. People try lots of fat burning tricks to fasten their metabolism. Some people come up with the weight loss trick that is blood donation. Is it really true; Does donating blood cause weight loss? Let’s check it out.

There are lots of advantages of blood donation, everyone may be not aware of it. Donating blood leads to weight loss at certain degree, but not significantly enough. Giving blood has incredible health benefits as well.

What happens to the body when you give blood?

First thing first, when you donate blood, your weight reduces (some amount of weight) for that time being. Why and how? Here is the answer.

An average person has about ten pints of blood in their body at given point of time, but blood donor can give up to 10% of their body’s blood supply. In short when you do donation of blood, the nurse will usually remove about one pint of blood so that is about 500ml of blood. So, your weight is going to go down instantly by around half a kilogram.

Also one pint of blood burns approximately 650 calories, which is equals to your one day of workout.

When one pint of blood drained from body it takes decent amount of efforts to our body to regenerate the energy.

The first reaction of your body after you donated blood.

When you donate blood, your body loses red cells and body needs to make more red cells to replace them. Special cells in kidney called peritubular cells detect that less oxygen in the blood due to sudden loss of red blood cells and start secreting protein called erythropoietin. This travels through the body until it reaches the bone marrow (the soft fatty tissue inside the bone cavities). Bone marrow produces stem cells; they are building blocks that the body uses to make different blood cells – red cells, white cells and platelets. So ultimately when body finds sudden loss of blood the erythropoietin sends a message to the stem cells telling them to develop more red blood cells first, rather than white cells or platelets. Seems Complex process! In short, your body burns a lot of calories for that time. And some amount of fat as well.

But it doesn’t mean that you can save your gym fees! because you cannot donate blood frequently. So along with gym and good diet helps you to sustainably reduce weight.

Blood regeneration period

But every second of everyday millions of red blood cells die and are replaced new red blood cells, so our body is accustomed with the production of RBC. It’s just that when you donate blood at that time there is sudden loss of blood for which body puts extra efforts to replace those blood cells. But our body can produce 2 million RBC per second hearing this you will ask then why we have to wait for of 8 to 12 weeks for donating blood again? Answer is simple. Producing new blood doesn’t mean blood cells only, hemoglobin plays big role here. So, hemoglobin contains iron, and it takes 8 to 12 weeks to regenerate the sufficient amount of hemoglobin in one’s blood. Therefore, more frequent blood donation can make you lose weight, but it causes risk of anemia and other health issues. That’s why minimum gap of 2 months between blood donations is ideal.

Going to the gym v/s donating blood

There are some unexpected links between blood donation and weight loss, among other health bonuses.

As mentioned ahead if you donate blood, it is true that you have burned energy for that day. The most of our body weight is actually due to water in our body and definitely our blood contains half of the blood volume and half of the water. One pint of blood weights about 1 pound so right after donating blood you are 1 pound lighter! However, you will easily put back some weight as you will be offered tea or some other drink and cookies after donating blood. The reason behind eating tea and cookies after giving blood is to bring back sugar level in your body which you have lost due to blood donation. Every action requires energy and you have donated blood and your body needs to put lots of efforts to produce new blood cells. Blood donation cause weight loss as it is a thing related to metabolism and comes up with lots of calorie burning. Replacing one pint of blood burns around 650 calories, which is equal to cardio in gym.

So, donating blood every two months helps you burn some calories, which is not enough for losing weight. Blood donation has some amazing advantages which will help you to lose weight and keep your body fit and healthy.

It is advised to do not gym for one or two days when you donate blood because your body is recovering at that time, and it needs some time to regenerate the blood cells. So, we can say that blood donation causes weight loss for 1 or 2 days, or blood donation helps in weight loss for that time. It’s a replacement for the gym for ONE day only. You have to continue workout and dieting for losing weight.

Benefits of blood donation

As it is said above blood donation has amazing health benefits apart from losing weight. How it is a blessing for your body let’s check it out.

Metabolism and calorie burning

It is definite that blood donation cause calorie burning and small increase in metabolism which can help you to be fit and energetic.

Cardiovascular disease

Donating blood helps to rejuvenate the blood in your body and it reduces the chances of cardiovascular diseases.

We will discuss it further regarding cardiovascular disease. Blood donation reduces excess iron in the body. So low or high iron level cause issues in your body and is one of the reasons for cardiovascular disease. Donating blood reduces weight not only that but it helps to keep level of iron in your body. A mineral iron can react with oxygen and oxidize, that increase viscosity of the blood and risk of it to stick to the walls of blood vessels. This can bring more chances of heart attacks. So blood donation plays big role in human health.

Chances of cancer

Surprisingly giving blood on regular basis reduces the chances of cancer as well, it is all because body get chance to breathe and regenerate new blood which helps better functioning of the cells in our body.

As discussed above oxidative stress is closely related to accumulation of free radical and mutation of healthy cells into cancer cells. By reducing excessive iron in the body you can reduce chances of oxidative danger which leads to reduce chances of dangerous health issues like cancer.

It is like changing the fuel in the body

Some people have compared donating blood as changing the oil in the car. That is pretty relatable, like when body makes new blood cells that are better at transporting oxygen then older blood cells. Also, that gives your muscles and metabolism a helpful boost. Your energy level increases due to your body receives more oxygen, which definitely plays a bigger role towards your weight loss journey.

As you can see apart from saving life of millions, blood donation cause weight loss help, and not only that it has other health benefits which leads you happier healthier life.

FAQ related to weight loss and blood donation