Long-Term Weight Loss

The battle to lose weight can be tedious, tempestuous and tormenting for many people. The joy of stepping on the scales to reveal a hard-fought for loss of weight, can be easily overshadowed by unexpected weight gain the week after, it’s often termed ‘Yo-Yo dieting’ and is maybe the cruellest and most disheartening of all weight loss problems.

Many diets fail to address long-term goals, choosing to attract potential customers with the lure of a quick fix and promises of miraculous weight loss right now, right here. That may be fine for a select few who are looking for a temporary weight reduction, but the majority of dieters really would like the weight they have lost to stay lost. For this permanent weight loss to occur, a different diet, and approach to dieting is needed.

Here then, is what is needed, if you ever hope to stand a chance in the battle for permanent weight loss:

1.        Exercise is essential

Sorry, I know it can be an effort but muscle is active tissue, fat is not. The more muscle tissue you have, the more calories you will expend as muscle uses calories just for its maintenance. With this in mind, you should be incorporating some weight training into your exercise regime – if you have one!

The good news is experts now state that 10 minutes exercise 3 times a day, is just as good as one 30 minute session – so now everyone can find time for exercise, isn’t that great?!

Find something you enjoy, walk to the shops, use the stairs, and do sit-ups in front of the TV. Whatever method you choose, start slowly and gradually increase your regime, you will soon find your own routine. Eventually you should be aiming for at least 30 minutes exercise, 5 days a week.

2.        Understanding why you over-eat

This is always overlooked and undervalued, but can seriously improve your chances of success at permanent weight loss. There may be underlying emotional issues, such as depression, which can lead to ‘comfort eating’. Stress can lead to a dietary relapse, causing sudden eating binges and boredom should not be ignored either, many people turn to food when they have nothing better to do.

If you can identify a cause for over-indulgence and learn to deal with the situation without relying on food, your chances of permanent weight loss will increase significantly.

In the case of depression or stress-related eating, consulting a therapist, counsellor or behavioural psychologist may be of benefit. Claiming you over-eat because you enjoy food does not count as a feasible excuse!

3.        Think healthy, not thin

If you constantly obsess about becoming thin you place undue pressure on your success. Constantly fretting about how many ounces you may have lost or worrying that you have gone over your daily calorie ration by 5 calories will do you more harm than good.

If you start stressing you are likely to fail. Learn to focus on improving your general health. Eat nutritional foods, exercise, drink more water – all these will increase your vitality and lead to long-term weight loss. If you stop concentrating on what food may make you slimmer and set your mind to what will make your healthier, you will feel more at ease and the results will speak for themselves.

4.        Support

If you worry about will-power when it comes to dieting, why try a diet program that offers a support group or see if a local hospital or clinic has a group you could join. Alternatively, look to your friends and family for support, there are rarely any occasions when you will have to undertake a weight loss battle by yourself.

Nearly every dieter will have moments of weakness or occasions when they think all this effort is just not worth the hassle. In these circumstances, having someone to offer support or somebody to simply listen to your diet woes can be a diet-saving relief.

5.        Portion control

Portions have increased in general in modern society, no more so than in restaurants and fast food outlets.  Whether the portions have increased in size to satiate our ravenous appetites or it is our food-consuming abilities have caused the inflation of portion sizes is a bit of a ‘chicken or the egg’ conundrum. Whatever the reason, you should be aware of these increases.

If you dine out, do not be afraid to ask for food to be saved and bagged for you to take home, or if you are not that frugal, leave excess food where it is. Remember, the portions are bigger and you do not have to eat it all – don’t be a plate-cleaner!

When eating at home, place a smaller portion than usual on your plate. If you are hungry after eating that go have a bit more. Don’t eat until you are bloated, listen to your stomach and stop when you are comfortably full.

6.        Steady weight loss

The faster you lose weight; the likelihood is that your dramatic new weight loss is nothing more than a loss of water and muscle tissue, not fat.

That is not good, as soon as you stop your crash diet (I will assume that is what is the cause), the weight will soon return – faster than ever.

As mentioned, muscle burns calories and losing it through rapid weight loss means that the amount of calories you can then eat per day is also reduced. So you would then have to eat even less, in order to lose more weight or more importantly, just to stay the same weight.

You will ensure that you lose fat if you lose weight slowly. A rough guide is a pound of fat is the equivalent of 3500 calories. Ideally, you want to lose no more than 1-2 pound a week, to make sure the weight loss is mostly fat and not predominantly water and muscle.

If you reduced your calorie intake by 250 a day and expended 250 calories exercising, you could easily lose 1 pound of fat per week.

7.        Don’t rush your food

Here is something you may not know:

‘Once you start eating, it will take a further 20 minutes before your brain starts to send a signal informing you that you are full.’

A lot of people can cram in a lot of food in that 20 minute gap! Have you ever eaten at speed, finished a big meal in 10 minutes, thought you were still hungry and started to devour a dessert, only to realise you were in trouble half way through?!

Take heed of the 20 minute rule!

Eat slowly, enjoy your food, and give your brain the chance to let you know you have had enough in plenty of time. If you have a meal and think you still have room for more, wait 10 minutes, then decide. Just think of all those extra calories you may not have needed to consume.

8.        Less fat is better than no fat

Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram, fat weighs in at a whopping 9 calories – it is good to limit the intake of high fats in your diet, to an extent.

If you cut them out altogether, the chance is that you will replace them with fat-free products and this could be a problem.

Many fat-free products contain more calories than their fatty counterparts and if you consume more calories a day than your body uses – that’s correct, you will put on weight.

While it is undeniably true that eating less fat will help you lose weight, eating less fat and replacing it with calorie-rich fat-free products will not.

If you take notice of these suggestions and follow their advice, there is every chance you will greatly increase your chances of long-term, permanent weight loss.