Today, the positive effects of weight loss on overall health are considered common knowledge. In many cases, a person can reap substantial health benefits from shedding excess weight. Individual goals of reduced blood pressure and cholesterol levels from successfully losing extra pounds are real rewards being achieved by many people. There are also gastrointestinal benefits.
Overweight people face a higher risk of developing gallstones than people of average weight.
However, very low calorie diets that produce quick or signficant weight loss increase the risk of developing gallstones also. Achieving a healthy body weight using moderate dietary restriction and healthy lifestyle changes can help decrease a person's risk for gallstones. Gallstones Gallstones are solid clumps that form in the gallbladder, a small, pear-shaped organ below the liver on the right side of the abdomen. Gallstones may develop as a single large stone or many little stones. Gallstones are a mixture of different compounds, but usually they are formed nearly entirely of cholesterol.