The Only Way To Lose Weight -- Slowly

Just the facts, ma'am. You can gain five pounds in a single day... but it takes two weeks to lose five pounds.

That is just the way it is!

Do not fall for any weight loss product that says you can lose 2 pounds in a day, or five pounds in a week, "quickly and easily." Oh, they're probably telling the truth... but you're not losing pounds of fat...you're losing water. As soon as you drink a few glasses of water, all that weight comes right back.

The only way to lose weight is to do it slowly and surely.

Here are the facts about weight loss. 90% of the people who go on diets and lose weight...go off their diets. Then they gain back all the weight they lost, and usually even more!

Does this mean there is no point in trying to lose weight?

Not at all. You just have to do it the right way, by understanding a few principles.

The most important principle to remember is that once you have achieved your desired weight, you cannot then turn around and celebrate by stuffing  yourself with all the foods you had heretofore deprived yourself.

You also can not stop your exercise regime.

In order to maintain your new weight, you must watch what you eat very carefully for a couple of months, and allow yourself only an extra serving per meal.

Why is this?

I"m going to anthropomorphize your body for this explanation. When you were overweight, your body "settled" into that weight. Everything was geared toward maintaining that weight. So you spend a few months dieting, and lose weight, and then go off your diet and go back to your old habits... and your body wants to regain all the weight that it once had!

However, by gradually training your body to accept the new weight, your metabolism will adjust to the new weight, and won't let you gain back the old weight, unless you go totally crazy with food - which of course you are not going to do.

As in practically every aspect of life, patience is key.

When you go on your diet - and by "going on a diet" I mean when you develop a plan to continue to eat everything you want, ONLY IN SMALLER PORTIONS, you will expect and hope to see the weight begin to come off immediately.

That's not the way it works.

After the first seven days, you will step on the scale, see that you haven't lost a pound, get angry, and go eat a couple of candy bars.

What you must understand is that before your body can start to lose weight, there must be a caloric imbalance, and you must create this gradually.

If you try to starve  yourself, your body will respond by burning calories more slowly. It will take you longer to lose weight this way! And, sure, eventually you'll get down to the skeletal level, once your body consumes all your muscle it will have no choice but to go for the fat,  but your health will be damaged severely by the time it reaches this point, which kind of ruins the deal.

It usually takes a week, of reducing your food portions, and increasing your exercise level, before your body will start to lose weight -- and even then it will only be perhaps a half pound a day. Your goal is to lose 2 pounds a week - that is the healthiest amount of weight to lose in that time period.

Another reason why you don't want to obsess about how many pounds you are losing - or gaining - on your new regime is because you will be exercising - toning the musles underneath your arms, increasing your biceps, doing something about the flab on your legs.

Muscle weighs more than fat - so you may even gain weight in the first two weeks of your diet, if you are using a weight training regimen (which I highly recommend).

Here's the thing. Muscle weighs more than fat, it looks better (as long as your muscles are proportionate to your body - and only women who use supplements will get the bulked up look of a weight lifter) and it burns calories more efficiently than fat does. And because of that, the more muscle you have, the more (healthy) food you're able to eat!

Let me end this hub by repeating that it's important that you steel your mind against the media bombardment that all women - at least in the United States - are under and will be under. Do not buy into the media hype that you mustn't be a pound overweight when the New Year rolls around, or that if you're ten pounds overweight you're stealing food out of the mouths of starving children in third world countries.

Ten pound overweight is healthier than ten pounds underweight...and the important thing in your life...in anybody's life...is not how much they weigh, but whether or not they have their health. 

It may be trite, but as anybody who suffers from chronic illnesses will tell you: If you dont' have your health, you don't have anything.