A Common Weight Loss, Diet, and Exercise Mistake
Perhaps a Talk With a Professional
I know that I am not the only person, who has gone onto more strict way of eating, and perhaps started doing a little bit more exercise in an attempt to lose a few pounds. As we get older it seems sometimes to get harder to lose the pounds and inches, maybe as a result of a slowing down of our metabolism or because it is harder to actually do as much physically.
I decided, at the age of 51, to get moving because someone told me that in order to get your metabolism going faster, you had to exercise harder, that you had to get your heart rate up at least three times a week. So I upped the "gentleness" of my calorie burning. After about a three week period of time, I felt better, and I was sure that I had lost quite a few more pounds than I usually did at the beginning of my new exercise program, for although I do not really believe that diets are a good thing, I do watch how much I eat, and maintain a lifestyle way of eating instead of going big and changing what I eat in drastically.
So, after three or four weeks of eating less and moving more and moving faster, I was pretty sure that I was going to be happy when I stepped onto the scale, naked. I looked down and to my surprise, I had lost somewhere between one and a half pounds to two pounds. I almost cried. It seemed like my pants were fitting better, and I felt as if it were working, but the pounds just were not coming off like I had expected.
I do not believe in weighing in everyday when trying to lose weight for it just seems to come off too slowly, so I hold it down to once every couple of weeks or so. The next time I weighed myself, it was even worse. I had waited another three weeks, and had lost a pound. What was going on?
Three pounds in two months, I was discouraged. I went to my regular doctor appointment to get my monthly thyroid and other meds, and while there I talked to my doctor about the weight not coming off. He asked me about what I was eating, and what kind of exercise I was doing and how often.
That is when I found out something I had never learned before. Even though I was maintaining a good plan, he said that losing a pound a month was very good. He said that the slower I lost it, the better chance I had of keeping it off.
Also, he told me that muscle weighs more than fat, and when I had chosen my exercises, I had picked ones that not only burned calories, but I had picked ones that caused me to turn it into muscle mass, for I had topped off my walks by wearing 5 pound weights, and things like that. I was thinking I was just getting some muscle tone, which I was.
So, I guess I really was doing the right thing, but it sure did seem like I wasn't. I was able to keep it up for about four or five months, and I have kept off the small bit of weight I took off, but I don't know if I would chose this program again. It was a very hard way to lose a small amount of weight.
