How to make weightloss tips work

There are a lot of information online regarding weightloss and in fact many of them makes sense. But why is it that these tips do not seem to work for us? Based on my own personal experience, I have managed to pinpoint some of the reasons and I would like to share with everyone in this hub.

I grew up as a big kid and at my peak I was at 75kgs (165 pounds) and my height was 1.59m (5 feet 2 approx). It was tough growing up bigger than the other kids especially in Asia where people seem less tolerant over here. I have struggled with weight loss and tried many methods unsuccessfully until I had some realisations about what I am doing wrong and the weight finally started to drop. I have managed to shed most of them and am at 53kgs (117 pounds approx) now.

Most weight loss tips that you see and read online actually do work, how else would the other people manage to shed their weight based on those? If it worked for somebody, it means it can work for you, it is a matter of getting the right formula.

With this as a premise, I have put together a list of what I have realized about making the tips work:

• Motivation
• Convenience
• Persistance

Let's term it MCP for short. Let us not go into lofty lists, but a really simple one so that we can remember.

To really lose weight, you must have a big enough motivation to do so. Many of us complain that we will never be able to lose weight, we cannot seem to persist through a diet / exercise program, we cannot even bring ourselves to embark on one even though we keep saying so and the list goes on... is because we lack the motivation to do so.

The theory is simple; if something was really important enough to you, you would do it. For example, if you knew that being late for one more time would cost you your job, you will do whatever it takes to make sure you get to work on time. The question is, what is going to be a big enough motivation for you to lose your weight?

There is no hard and fast rule about which motivation will work for you. If vanity is your greatest drive, ride upon its energy. The focus here is to lose the weight and your health will improve in the process. If health reasons really do not motivate you, do not try to convince yourself just to please other people's judgement, the motivation will just fall flat. Let us be honest with ourselves and identify the real motivation that will drive you.

Personally, my motivation was an epiphany that I was going to reach 30 years old soon and I have not experienced what it was like to wear very pretty form fitting dresses. I set a goal for myself to hit my targeted weight by my 30th birthday. This was a big motivating factor for me because I know that I can only be 30 once and I desire very badly for that to be a benchmark. This actually worked well for me and helped me shed my weight from 60kgs to 53kgs last year.

My mom was bordering diabetic and when the doctor informed that if she does not shed some weight, she might have to be put on diabetic medication for the rest of her life. Suddenly, we saw her starting to incorporate daily walks into her exercise and watching her diet. This was her motivation.

What will be your big-enough-motivation? Take a few moments today to think through it and write it down to remind yourself. This little exercise will form the foundations of your weight loss journey.

One thing to add: Do not for a moment think that you will never be able to lose weight in your life. If you output more than your input, there is no scientific way that you will stay obese unless Newton's wrong.

The secret behind losing weight is to make any diet or exercise as convenient and simple as possible. Weight loss is already a challenge to you, why make it harder by embarking on complicated regimes and habitual changes that will only become obstacles to the actual weight loss? When you make something really simple and easy enough, you will notice yourself doing it effortlessly and doing it more often.

Instead of embarking on a new fad diet plan that requires you to cook special meals everyday when you do not usually cook, as a first diet, why not try that weightloss tip that just requires you to cut the portion sizes? Make it really simple for yourself that even when you do not want to do so, your arms can automatically pilot it for you.

For workouts at a gym, select a place that is along the way from work to home. Make it convenient to drop by the gym to work out. I have a friend who signed up for a gym that was 30 minutes away from his home, citing reasons that if he can spend that amount of time driving there and back, he will work out for a longer period of time. In the end, he hardly ever visits the gym because it was just too troublesome to get there. Defeats the whole purpose huh?

My advise is to pick the weight loss tips that are convenient for you to implement into your life. Do it step by step until you are used to it. Once you get used to the new lifestyle changes, your threshold for what is simple and convenient will rise and you can start implementing other changes that was once thought to be troublesome by you.

Keep it simple and convenient - just like my MCP theory!

You need to persist through any diet or exercise regime before it will show you results. Most people give up just right after a few days of implementing their new weight loss tips before they can even properly test if the tip is suitable for their bodies. My dietician has told me to persist for at least 2 weeks to see some results. My weight was plateauing at 60kgs on her diet and she told me not to look at the scale for 2 weeks. Sure enough, when I checked in after 2 weeks, I managed to hit 59kgs.

Whenever you implement a new lifestyle change, you have to persist for at least 2 weeks to fairly judge if it will work for you. Do not give up too early in the game because your body needs time to adjust. It is known as the human homeostasis - where your body tries to reject off anything that changes its internal balance.

Motivation and persistance work hand in hand together. A big enough motivation encourages you to persist in your diet and exercise. Persistance will lead to results which feeds back into your motivation loop. And making everything as convenient to implement and simple to enforce just makes it easier to persist and motivate yourself.

This is what I believe that will increase the chances of you successfully implementing the weightloss tips that you have been reading about. Hope that the information has been simple and easy to implement. All the best in your weight loss journey!

PS: Water retention also attributes to weight gain in our bodies. Do check out my hub - simple tips on how to reduce water retention in our bodies. Very simple and convenient tips to start you off on your weight loss journey.