How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off
In our eat-and-run, massive-portion-sized nation, maintaining a healthy weight – let alone trying to lose weight can be an uphill battle. The truth is there is no “one size fits all” solution when it comes to losing weight. What works for one person may not work for you.
Did you know that 95% of people who lose weight will regain it within a few years? Lack of motivation, little or no self-control and trouble sticking with a long-term weight-maintenance plan are the main reasons that weight-loss programs fail.
Pick up any diet book and it will claim to have all the answers to lose weight successfully and keep it off. Some claim the key is to eat less and exercise more, others swear that low-fat is the solution and many are convinced that cutting carbs is the answer. So, what are we supposed to believe?
While some people respond well to counting calories, others respond better to having more of a variety in their meals. Sometimes, just cutting out soda, fried foods, or processed foods is enough to see results.
Popular Weight Loss Strategies
Cut Calories
Some experts believe that if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight. It’s a great concept, but if that were the case, why are we still overweight? When you cut calories, you will lose a few pounds in the beginning, but over time you will find that you are not losing as much weight or any weight at all. When you lose weight, you lose water, lean tissue and fat. In the process you’ve also slowed your metabolism down. In order to continue dropping weight, you will have to continue cutting calories. That definitely wouldn’t be the best idea.
A calorie isn’t a calorie. Foods that are packed with empty calories (like candy) have a completely different effect on your body than nutrient dense low-calorie foods (like vegetables). Eating one hundred calories from a candy bar, for example, will have a different effect on your body than eating one hundred calories of broccoli.
Cut carbs
Maybe the problem is not consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body stores fat after consuming carbohydrates – in particular the role of the hormone insulin. When you eat a meal, carbohydrates from the food enter your bloodstream as glucose. In order to keep your blood sugar levels in check after a meal, your body burns off this glucose before it burns off fat.
If you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal, your body releases insulin to help with the influx of all this glucose into your blood. As well as regulating blood sugar levels, insulin does two things: It prevents your fat cells from releasing fat for the body to burn as fuel (because its priority is to burn off the glucose) and it creates more fat cells for storing everything that your body can’t burn off. The result is that you gain weight and your body now requires more fuel to burn. Since insulin only burns carbohydrates, naturally you crave carbohydrates and so begins the vicious cycle of consuming more carbs and gaining weight.
Whether or not you’re specifically aiming to cut carbs, most of us consume unhealthy amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, and sweetened breakfast cereals. Replacing refined carbs with their whole-grain counterparts and eliminating candy and desserts is only part of the solution. Sugar is hidden in foods as diverse as canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, and many reduced fat foods. Since your body gets all it needs from sugar naturally occurring in food, all this added sugar amounts to nothing but a lot of empty calories and unhealthy spikes in your blood glucose.
Cut fat
It’s the pillar of many diets. If you don’t want to get fat, don’t eat fat. I wonder then, with aisles of low-fat options for us to choose from at the grocery store, why are we still fat?
Not all fat is bad. Healthy or “good” fats can actually help burn fat, control your weight and boost your mood. Unsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soymilk, tofu, and fatty fish can also help keep you satisfied.
Many of us who are trying to watch our fat intake make the mistake of swapping fat for sugar and refined carbohydrates. Filling our bodies with empty calories with no nutritional value is a recipe for disaster.
Control emotional eating
We don’t always eat simply to satisfy hunger. All too often, we turn to food when we’re stressed, worried, bored, lonely, anxious, or depressed. If we’re doing this on a regular basis it’s going to show up on the scale.
Use tools to track your progress
People that keep track always get the best results. Smartphone apps, fitness trackers, or simply keeping a journal can help you keep track of the food you eat, the calories you burn, and the weight you lose. Seeing the results in black and white can help you stay motivated.
Get Moving
The benefits of exercise go way beyond burning calories. Exercise can increase your metabolism, improve your mood, and help burn fat for hours after you leave the gym.
To ensure your exercise program is a success, find a form of exercise that you enjoy. Just because your friend likes kickboxing class doesn’t mean you will. Aim to exercise about an hour a day, three to four times a week.
In Conclusion:
There are plenty of steps you can take to achieve weight loss success and develop a healthier relationship with food. There’s no doubt that losing weight can be a challenge, but there are dieting tips that work and won’t make you miserable! Finding a weight loss strategy that’s right for you will take time, patience, some experimentation with different foods, and a commitment, but it will be worth it in the end.
Remember, slow and steady wins the race. So, don’t be in a rush! Good things come to those who wait, but the best things come to those who do. Good luck to you!
I have been a personal trainer for over seventeen years and I absolutely love what I do. I honestly feel that I have one of the best jobs out there! The most rewarding part of my profession is helping one of my clients succeed at reaching their personal fitness goals. Making a difference in someone’s life makes it all worthwhile. I am currently certified by the National Sports Conditioning Association, Apex Fitness Group, and the International Sports Science Association.
Music & Events Calendar
