If you only need to lose a few pounds, you may be tempted to try a 'fad' diet for reducing your calorie consumption. These diets can work, but you should be aware of their associated problems:
1. Studies have shown that the majority of people who use these diets, will gain the weight back. Often times, they will gain back more than they lost. This is a consequence that most people do not consider. They drink a weight loss shake, or eat a special food for a few months and lose a large amount of weight, but what happens when it's time to go back to regular food? Most people usually start gaining weight again.
2. Without effective behaviour modification, after completing a diet, you will most likely go back to your old eating habits. You cannot remain on fad diets forever, and sooner or later you have to face real food again.
3. Any successful weight loss will require a permanent change in eating habits. A good program should not only help you lose fat, it should also help you to develop the correct eating habits necessary to maintain your new body.
4. You will lose more muscle mass than body fat. Muscle burns more calories than fat - this helps to keep your metabolism elevated. Muscle also gives you a shapely, firm and more defined physique.
5. If you end up with less muscle than when you started, you can bet that your metabolism has been slowed a great deal, which, in the long run, means your body will be burning fewer calories and storing more fat.
6. Although you may get down to the weight that you desire, you will have more body fat, less muscle mass and no muscle tone. People who have a history of dieting off and on (yo-yo dieting), will lose weight and look thinner, but still remain very soft or "jiggly". This type of dieting is notorious for weakening the immune system.
Weight Watching: 5 Tips of Staying Focused
Hopefully, this is your first time out but with many dieters it is a common problem, losing focus. It is usually the same with everyone but in varying degrees, depending on your will power it will be more or less. Here are some guidelines and tips to help you keep yourself on track:
1. Keep focussed on your goals - This is the first and foremost priority for anyone who is undertaking a weight loss program. A common thought that will come into mind when we start to get discouraged is "why am I doing this?". Therefore we must keep track of our goals, write them down and refer back to them often.
2. The first week is always the hardest - No matter what your eating plan is, whether it be low fat, low carbohydrate or anything else you will no doubt feel the uncomfortable feeling of hunger pangs at first. A quick rule is that if you can make it through the first week or two you have it made. Your stomach will shrink and you might not even notice it. For example, before your diet you can put down three hamburgers relatively easy. Try that again in two weeks on a treat day and you might find it a little more difficult.
3. Take scheduled rests - This might seem obvious to some but to others it might not be. Instinct is a hard principle to master. After five or six weeks of hard dieting and exercise it is not that hard to experience burnout. Cycle your eating and training to avoid this. Every fifth or sixth week tone down your training a little as far as intensity is concerned or maybe even take the week off to recharge your batteries. Same goes for your diet. Up your calories a little for a few days to give your metabolism something to work with again thereby speeding it up. If you go too long constricting calories a slow metabolic rate will result. This is not a license to go to town on your eating either. You don't want to counteract what it just took you a month and half to achieve.
4. If you end up cheating it's not the end of the world - We're all human and we are bound to do it once and awhile. Some will think that they wrecked their whole diet and will therefore give up. It is only one day and tomorrow's another day. Look at it positively, it will just work to speed up your metabolism. If you haven't cheated in awhile maybe your body is trying to tell you something. All in all, if you can eat 'clean' for four to six days at a time cheating will not blow your whole diet.
5. Give things time to work - This is another 'essential' element that most people don't realize. You have to give things time to work! Sometimes it can take weeks before you see improvements. If after a month or so you don't see anything happening maybe then it's time to fine-tune your program and make some adjustments. The key is to make sure you do your homework first before you go ballistic in your crusade to combat fat. This will save a lot of pain and time in the long run.
1. Keep focussed on your goals - This is the first and foremost priority for anyone who is undertaking a weight loss program. A common thought that will come into mind when we start to get discouraged is "why am I doing this?". Therefore we must keep track of our goals, write them down and refer back to them often.
2. The first week is always the hardest - No matter what your eating plan is, whether it be low fat, low carbohydrate or anything else you will no doubt feel the uncomfortable feeling of hunger pangs at first. A quick rule is that if you can make it through the first week or two you have it made. Your stomach will shrink and you might not even notice it. For example, before your diet you can put down three hamburgers relatively easy. Try that again in two weeks on a treat day and you might find it a little more difficult.
3. Take scheduled rests - This might seem obvious to some but to others it might not be. Instinct is a hard principle to master. After five or six weeks of hard dieting and exercise it is not that hard to experience burnout. Cycle your eating and training to avoid this. Every fifth or sixth week tone down your training a little as far as intensity is concerned or maybe even take the week off to recharge your batteries. Same goes for your diet. Up your calories a little for a few days to give your metabolism something to work with again thereby speeding it up. If you go too long constricting calories a slow metabolic rate will result. This is not a license to go to town on your eating either. You don't want to counteract what it just took you a month and half to achieve.
4. If you end up cheating it's not the end of the world - We're all human and we are bound to do it once and awhile. Some will think that they wrecked their whole diet and will therefore give up. It is only one day and tomorrow's another day. Look at it positively, it will just work to speed up your metabolism. If you haven't cheated in awhile maybe your body is trying to tell you something. All in all, if you can eat 'clean' for four to six days at a time cheating will not blow your whole diet.
5. Give things time to work - This is another 'essential' element that most people don't realize. You have to give things time to work! Sometimes it can take weeks before you see improvements. If after a month or so you don't see anything happening maybe then it's time to fine-tune your program and make some adjustments. The key is to make sure you do your homework first before you go ballistic in your crusade to combat fat. This will save a lot of pain and time in the long run.
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