You
don’t need us to tell you that losing weight — and keeping
it off —
is hard. About 80 percent of people who lose weight gain it all back,
and sometimes more, within a year, experts say.
But
understanding why weight
loss is so difficult can help you stop beating yourself up over every
little setback, and increase your chances of success.
Forget the
gimmicks, and come to terms with these difficult weight-loss lessons.
Hard Truth No. 1: Your Body Works Against You
It’s
not your imagination. When you try to lose weight, you’re not only
fighting your cravings, but also your own body.
When you lose body
fat, you decrease the hormone leptin, which signals your brain that
you're full, and you increase the hormone gherlin, which stimulates
hunger, Australian researchers found.
The bad news is that this
hormone imbalance continues long after dieters succeed at weight
loss, making it even harder for them to keep the pounds off.
But if
you try to cut too many calories for weight loss, your body will go
into hibernation
mode so
that you don’t starve, and your metabolism will slow, Sarah Dolven,
MD, an endocrinologist in Charleston, S.C. explains.
It's
also important to realize that once you reach your weight-loss goal
and start eating a little more again, the pounds can come back pretty
quickly, so it’s smart to increase your calories gradually.
Hard Truth No. 2: There Are No Quick Fixes
Wishing
you were 30 pounds lighter in time for your high school reunion next
month will not make it so, and there are no magic pills or miracle
cures that can make it happen.
“When you’re trying to lose
weight, it’s hard to be patient,” says Mark Pettus, MD, chief of
medicine at St. Peter’s Hospital in Albany, N.Y., who also
developed and teaches the Healthy Living program at the Western
Massachusetts Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge.
But
you have to be patient because quick starvation diets canwreak
havoc on your metabolism,
damaging your weight-loss efforts for the long term.
As you start
your diet, remember that slow and steady weight loss is the easiest
to maintain, Pettus says, and aim for one to two pounds of fat loss
each week.
Hard Truth No. 3: Exercise Can't Conquer All
Yes,
exercise helps you lose weight and keep it off — the National
Weight Control Registry reports that people who maintain their weight
loss exercise for at least 60 minutes most days — but it’s nearly
impossible to lose weight from exercise alone, Pettus says.
Just do
the math: A 135-pound person biking 60 minutes at 12 miles an hour
will burn 369 calories. You can put all that back on with just a
post-workout protein bar.
To lose
a pound of fat,
you have to burn 3,500 calories more than you consume, so you can see
how hard it is to exercise your way through a poor diet.
Instead, you
have to watch what you eat and exercise,
Pettus says. If there’s any “magic” to dieting, it’s in that
combination.
Hard Truth No. 4: Diet Supplements Don't Work
Those
little pills that claim to supercharge your metabolism are tempting,
but there’s little evidence that they work.
After a review of
thousands of dieters, researchers at Beth Israwl Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston found that liquid diets, fad diets, and
over-the-counter supplement were not
linked to weight loss.
So what worked? Portion control, regular exercise, and group support.
As Dolven says, "nothing replaces a low-calorie diet and
exercise for weight loss."
Hard Truth No. 5: Fad Diets Don't Work
Grapefruit.
Maple syrup. Cabbage. Apple-cider vinegar. Juice. All these “miracle”
diets are supposed to help you melt pounds and trigger fat burning.
The hard fact: Not only is it hard to lose weight on fad
diets,
but also they can be so restrictive that they’re almost impossible
to follow, and they can damage your metabolism.
When it comes to
weight loss, Dolven warns that if it seems to be too good to be true,
it probably is.
Not to belabor the point, she says, “but the key to
weight loss is to be diligent about eating quality calories and
staying physically active.”
Hard Truth No. 6: One Diet Doesn't Fit All
Every body is
unique, so the diet that works for your friend, your co-worker, your
mother, or your sister might not work for you.
When looking at how
best to lose weight, consider your health and family history, your
metabolism, your activity level, your age, your gender, and your
likes and dislikes.
When you’re dieting, it’s important to allow
yourself some foods that you enjoy, Dolven says, or else you’ll
feel deprived and be less likely to stick with an overall healthy
eating plan.
For weight-loss success, tailor your diet to your body and accept
that one diet won’t work for everyone.
Hard Truth No. 7: He Can Eat More Than She Can
It
doesn’t seem fair, but men can eat more than women and still
lose weight.
That’s because men tend to naturally burn more calories than woman,
thanks to their larger size, muscle mass, and elevated levels of the
hormone testosterone, which promotes muscle growth.
Plus, the male
body is genetically designed for more muscle and less fat than the
female body because men do not have to store the energy required to
bear children.
Once you come to terms with this fact and start eating
less than your male partner or friends, the scale will thank you.
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