Why it's Better to Lose Weight Slowly
Here is the 93rd article in our series of 100 Weight Loss Tips. Each new article brings you yet another brand new top tip on how to successfully lose weight.
The last tip looked at eating slowly in order to keep your stomach in tune with your brain so you didn't keep eating after you were actually full up. That's a good way to place a brake on weight gain for sure.
In this article, I'll take the idea of how much weight is safe and sensible to lose and explain why it's better to lose weight slowly.
A sensible person embarking upon a realistic weight loss program will aim to lose between one and two pounds a week. No more and no less. This is because not only are there physical limitations of how much weight it is safe to lose, depending upon your starting weight of course, there are also mental limitations on what the majority of us believe we actually are capable of losing in a week.
Why is it Better to Lose Weight Slowly?
When you set yourself a goal to lose one pound a week, you are saying to yourself that this is something you can easily achieve. Let's face it, it probably took you several months, if not years to put on all that extra weight, so why should you expect to lose it any faster than a pound or two a week?
Of course, if you're dieting and exercising but still not losing at least a pound per week, then you are either cheating on your diet, or not following your chosen program for losing weight properly. OK, it can happen that you can stall on a particular program for a variety of reasons, but more often than not stalling is a result of one of the following:
- You are cheating
- You have lost enough weight
- You are not exercising correctly
- You are cheating
Exercise More
If your exercise routine is not strenuous enough to burn off the excess calories to what you are consuming via your diet, you might need to push yourself harder.
Sometimes, you have actually lost enough weight and your body is telling you that you have reached equilibrium. In other words you don't need to lose any more weight, even if your timetable says you still have a couple of pounds to go.
Don't sweat it, just be grateful your body is in tune with being healthy and not allowing you to go too far to end up looking anorexic. A healthy diet and regular exercise will keep things balanced.
If you are losing more than one pound each week, then chances are you're doing better than expected and again, don't sweat it, just go with the flow. It doesn't necessarily mean you have cracked the age old problem of how to lose weight fast.
Slow it Down
The level of weight that you lose per week will start to decline the further you get into any program anyway. So it just means that you probably had quite a lot to lose and your body is working in harmony with what it needs to achieve.
Just don't get despondent when you begin to level out at that magical one pound a week. That's actually where you want to be and let nature take its course for the best health aspects.
Expecting to lose levels such as five pounds or so a week, or trying for the fabled "10 pounds in 10 days" just isn't realistic and your mind won't accept that it is possible, meaning you stand a far greater chance of early failure when this unrealistic figure is not being met. Far better to aim low and if you do start losing more, then chalk it up to good work and be happy!
100 weight loss tips number 92 will follow in the next post!
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Posted on Wed, 17 Jun 2009 in Top 100 Weight Loss Tips | 0 Comments