Successful Weight Loss

If you want to lose weight….I mean REALLY lose weight, not just talk about it…..then you need to read the following.  Based on research and personal experience, I have compiled a list of things that I think are key factors for successful weight loss.

SUPPORT –

Having a cheering section is helpful.  Is it necessary to have support during weight loss?  No.  Does it help?  Absolutely!  It makes it a little easier knowing that people believe in you, because sometimes it’s hard to believe in yourself.  At the same time, though, it’s important to point out the difference between supporters and enablers.  You want to surround yourself with those who believe in your weight loss goal and will help you sustain it.  You don’t want people around who are going to be telling you that it’s ok for you to indulge every now and then.  It’s ok for you to eat that chocolate cake to reward yourself for all that hard work you did last week losing 3 pounds.  You don’t want to get into the habit of rewarding yourself with food items for weight loss goals.  It’s a reversal of all that hard work you just did!  And those people probably don’t mean any harm by saying those things to you, but chances are….those people have never done what you are doing.  They don’t know how hard it was for you to get those 3 pounds off.  They don’t fully understand the consequences of indulging. 

ENDURANCE –

This is not going to be an overnight journey.  If you’re going to do this, you have to understand that it takes time and you have to stick to it.  You have to be committed to your weight loss and to yourself.  You are doing this first and foremost, for yourself before anyone else.  It might be easier to say that you are doing it for your family or for your children, but in actuality….the most important person you are doing it for is yourself.  So you need to stick with yourself for the long haul.  Understand that it is not easy and sometimes you will want to give up.  I am only in the beginning of my journey and I have already wanted to give up about a million times because it is easier just to be fat than all this business of losing weight. 

PATIENCE –

This brings me to patience.  Unfortunately, weight loss is a slow and painful process.  You are reversing years of bad habits.  This takes time.  Just remember all those old sayings about patience…..”Patience is a virtue”……”Good things come to those who wait”……”Slow and steady wins the race.”  They are all true.  Cheesy, but true.  Don’t get frustrated when you don’t lose as much one week as the last.  Just keep pushing forward and be patient.  Your weight loss will come.  Hard work is always rewarded.  If you put in the effort, you will see the weight loss. 

STRONG WILL –

Temptations are all around you at all times when you are trying to lose weight.  There is always going to be a birthday party, holiday or some kind of special occasion where they have cake and ice cream or other various carb/sugar/fat overloaded goodies.  If you work in an office like me, there is always somebody baking something and bringing it in to share with everyone.  Having to turn it down is hard, but if I want to lose weight it’s what I have to do.  The holidays are coming up.  I’m terrified!  There are going to be tables of food lined up in front of me and I have to make sure that as I fill my plate that I’m making good choices and not overeating.  The good news is, the further into your journey that you get, the easier this part will get.  You will get used to eating certain things and not eating other things.  It will become second nature to you to pick up an apple instead of a muffin or donut.  Think of your will as a muscle.  You have to work it out to make it stronger. 

This also applies in the department of exercise.  There are going to be plenty of times when you are not going to feel like working out, but you have to get yourself into a routine.  For a while it will feel like a chore if it is something that you did not previously do.  Once you get used to working out, you won’t mind it. 

In addition to these character traits, here are some things that you should be doing to assist in your weight loss according to research.

EAT LESS CALORIES –

I personally eat around 1200 calories each day give or take a few.  I don’t go over 1300 and I don’t go under 1100.  Any less than 1200 will cause your body to go into starvation mode after a while and you will stop losing because your body will hold onto everything that you are eating for reserve.  This is especially important if you are exercising.  If you are only eating 800 calories and you are exercising and burning 400-500 of those, then you are going to end up making yourself sick or end up in the hospital.  Counting calories sucks.  I’ll be the first to admit that, but you get used to it just like everything else.  And it really does matter.  If you don’t count calories then you have no idea how much you are putting into your body and it is easy to go over 1200 if you’re not aware.  Some things that you THINK are healthy, might not be so healthy.  Prime example….salads from restaurants.  After all the crap is added to the salad at some of these places, the caloric total adds up to over 1000 in some of those salads.  That is just ridiculous for a salad.  So you really do need to count those calories and pay attention to what goes in.  There is truth to “garbage in, garbage out.”

DRINK MORE WATER –

Water is a natural appetite suppressant.  It also helps the body metabolize fats.  And guess what else?  When you are retaining water, the best way to get rid of it is to drink more water!  Why?  Because the reason you’re retaining water is probably because your body needed it.  So therefore, if you give your body MORE water, then it will release it’s stores of water because it’s getting what it needs.  If you are constantly retaining water, then you probably need to check your sodium intake.  Water helps your muscles maintain their tone.  It gives them the ability to contract and work to their fullest capabilities.  It also helps to minimize sagging skin that goes along with extreme weight loss.  Not to say that you won’t have ANY, but you will have LESS.  You should be drinking at least 8 glasses a day.  Overweight people need more than skinny people.  You need to add one 8 oz glass for every 25 pounds you are overweight and also increase your intake if you are exercising on a hot day.  Also, cold water is absorbed into the body more readily than warm water.  So be sure to drink it while it’s nice and cold! 

EXERCISE DAILY –

You might not be able to do much at first, but every little bit helps.  You have to start somewhere right?  Eventually you should work yourself up to an hour a day.  Some doctors say 5 days a week is sufficient, some suggest every day.  3 days a week is called maintenance exercise.  This is only good enough if you want to stay at your current weight.  Unless you’re working out for hours on end, that is.  Otherwise, an hour a day for 5 or more days a week is your eventual goal.  If you’re busy like me, it tough to figure out where to fit this into your day.  In case you were wondering, here is what I do.  I take a walk around campus during lunch every day at work.  This usually ends up being about 20 minutes.  Then I spend about 5 minutes walking up the stairs in the building.  Then when I get my son in bed at night, I will pop in my Just Dance or EA Sports on the Wii and do that for about 20-30 minutes.  And I will throw in a little floor ab exercise as well for about 10 minutes or so.  This way it’s broken up and it works well for me.  So you just have to figure out where you can fit it into your day.  It doesn’t have to be all at the same time, just as long as you get an hour in along the way.  And remember, the more vigorous and the more you get your heart rate up, the more calories you are going to burn.

TRACKING FOOD AND ACTIVITY –

Keeping a journal might sound like a pain in the rear (and it is) but it’s extremely important.  It helps you figure out what works and what doesn’t.  If you have a week where you don’t lose, you can look back and see what you did differently and figure out what happened.  It helps you see what times of the day you get hungry and how you might need to spread out your calories a little more to keep from eating more at those times.  It also makes you accountable because it’s there in black and white.  This will keep you from eating things that you don’t really need because you don’t want to see it in your journal.  There are lots of online resources and smartphone apps to help out with this.  Some really great online sites are sparkpeople.com, loseit.com, and livestrong.com.  For smartphones, I highly recommend MyFitnessPal.  I use this daily.  It includes a calorie counter, a food index, weight tracker, nutrition tracker, and a handy bar code scanner so that you can scan food containers to see what the nutritional information is and add it to your daily food diary entries. 

If you do these things, you will lose weight!  It works.  You just have to do it.  That’s all there is to it.  Just do it.  No more excuses.  No more procrastination.  DO IT!