Serious About Losing Weight? Don't Be So Serious!
How You’re Sabotaging Yourself By Putting In Too Much Effort
When losing weight is the goal, less is definitely more. In fact, the harder you try to lose weight, the less your body will. It’s like pushing all the way down on the gas pedal once the light turns green. It’s definitely not good for your car, it may stall, and you might get a little head start but you risk crashing and burning! All in all the body responds better to slower and consistent changes. Changes that can be kept up and changes that won’t shock the body too much.
As explained in this previous article, over exercising can hinder your weight loss goals for various reasons including slowing down your metabolism, and disrupting your normal activity level. The same goes for under-eating. So if you’re too serious about losing weight and you try too hard by using those methods, you’re really sabotaging yourself. You’ll feel over-worked, tired, your metabolism will slow, and you’ll most likely quit because it’s too hard to keep up. This also goes for a lot of fad diets, and other extreme methods. They’re too hard to keep up, unrealistic, mess with your metabolism, and by the time you finally decide to give in, you have damaged and overworked your body, and your body responds to this by gaining even more weight. This is why 80% of dieters gain back more weight than what they previously were after two years.
What the Body Positively Responds To
It’s better to lose weight slowly by decreasing your eating by a little, and increasing your energy expenditure by a little. Eat a little less, exercise a little more. It’s easier to keep up, you lose more weight overtime, and you won’t even feel like you were on a weight loss plan in the first place. Small changes yield big results, especially when it comes to weight loss. Why is it that people feel like they need to lose all of their unwanted weight within a month? If you just lose 6 pounds a month consistently, over 5 months that’s 30 pounds! Five months goes by fast, and 30 pounds is a lot of weight. If you try to not be so serious and take on that frame of mind, losing weight becomes an after thought.
You also don’t need to change what you eat all that much, just lower the portion amount. Your body will naturally adjust to eating that lower amount and in a few days you won’t even feel a bit hungry. So if you’re trying to lose weight ask yourself do I feel relaxed and not tired after a workout, do I feel satisfied and not hungry at the end of the day, and is this easy to keep up? If not, you’re probably doing too much.
Ways People Sabotage Their Weight Loss
- Jump on the Scale Too Often
- Inaccurate readings (because of water weight changes). A person can become less motivated and quit, or think that what they are doing is not working.
- Exercise Too Much
- Slows metabolism instead of speeding it up, and causes exhaustion to the point of quitting.
- Eat Too Little
- Slows metabolism, and risk binge eating when you start to eat normal again.
- Expect Fast Results
- Weight loss is a slow process, high expectations are usually not met, and a person can lose motivation and quit.
3 Steps to Losing Weight Easily and Permanently
- Reduce your calorie consumption by no more than 25% of the amount it would take you to currently maintain.
- Limit workouts to 30 minutes or less a day, taking at least 1 day a week off.
- Do not weigh yourself more than once a month. Because of natural weight fluctuations, actual weight loss may not show up right away. Don’t let it throw you off!
Disclaimer: Before undertaking any diet or exercise plan, please consult your physician or healthcare professional. UltimateLife is not a doctor or trained health professional. Thank-you for your interest and support!
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© 2013 Michelle V
