Fast Weight Loss Is To Be Avoided
Welcome to another article in the Top 100 weight loss tips series. This is article number 3 in a collection of articles that provides 100 great tips to help you lose weight.
This post follows on from the previous one where I looked at setting achievable goals, by maintaining that you should also avoid trying to lose weight too fast.
Slow and Steady
The old proverb, "Slow and steady wins the race" is very apt when applied to losing weight as it is really the best way to go in order to work in harmony with your body. After all, it is our natural state to fluctuate in weight slightly over time, gaining the odd pound as well as losing it but always returning to that ideal level which is characteristic to us personally.
That means trying to force our bodies into a rapid weight loss spiral is unnatural and will be resisted by our own built-in instincts. By trying to diet to lose weight too fast, our bodies naturally react by slowing down our metabolism to counter the unnatural reduction in essential nutrients, shutting down redundant systems and only keeping the important ones going.
So the body in that state will conserve as much of its store of reserve fats as it can, only using the minimum to keep it going. If you combine a starvation diet with rigorous exercise, you then force the body to give up its reserves and you'll soon be unable to continue as you'll simply run out of energy!
This is a hugely undesirable state to get into as far as losing weight goes as well as overall health as it causes extreme fatigue and will end up with you being confined to total bed rest while you recover. While you're recovering, you'll be putting back on every pound you lost so the effort will be a wasted one.
Lose It Then Gain It Back
There is a huge amount of evidence to suggest that trying to lose weight too fast nearly always results in the same amount that you lost being put right back on again plus a couple of extra pounds. That's because of the way the body reacts to this method.
When you place the body into starvation mode, which is what you will do when you try to use some quick weight loss methods, as soon as you start eating normally again, the body will instinctively store more than it needs in readiness for the perceived next period of starvation. You can't get around that as its hard-wired instinct and the only way to keep weight off once you lose it too quickly is to continue with your harsh regime.
That's not a happy way to lead your life!
It is so much better to lose weight slowly and surely as you increase metabolism and be burning calories more effectively. By setting realistic weight loss goals that are achievable, week by week or month by month and taking it slow and steady, the weight will drop off gradually.
Not only that but it will be much more likely to stay off once you have achieved your goal. That's mainly because you will have altered your lifestyle in that time and given yourself plenty of time to become accustomed to it and comfortable with it.
This means you will be more disposed to maintain the new lifestyle without any hardship or feeling of lack and be happy at your new weight that will remain the norm for you.
100 Weight Loss Tips number 2 follows in the next post!
[BACK TO TOP]
Posted on Mon, 14 Dec 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 2 Comments
2 thoughts on "Fast Weight Loss Is To Be Avoided"
Ivan says:
I was really interested in your article about avoiding fast weight loss as a way to actually succeed in doing the very thing that you are setting out to do by taking a slower. more deliberate approach to the problem. I myself am guilty of trying to go too fast and expect amazing results in far too short a time for anything to happen, then become depressed and sad when I do not see those results. So this has made me stop and think that I should re-visit my own strategy and try taking things more slowly and steadily and perhaps this is the way for me to achieve my own goals.
Thank you
Ivan
Steve Harrison says:
Definately going to have a look for this one as weight loss is an important factor in everyone's life for health and fitness reasons. It gives you a great feeling and all of your confidence which was gone is back, makes your life beautiful and gives you a sense of purpose. That was a great post, thanks!
- Steve Harrison