Losing Weight is NOT all about the diet!

Losing weight, in my opinion, is one of the hardest things for us to do.

Why? Because we try and try to have SOME success… then we try again but it doesn’t work so well and we put all the weight back on – and some! Now I know that I, for one, have done just about every diet under the sun and I’m sure many of you are no different.

Remember the mars bar diet – the cabbage soup diet – the high fibre diet – the three–day heart diet – the Scarsdale diet – the Hollywood diet – the Little French girl diet – the little black dress diet – Goodness, how many are there?

So how CAN we lose weight?

Well, the first thing we need to look at is our lifestyle isn’t it. When I ask people in my clinics “What type of lifestyle do you have?” the answer is nearly always the same: “Busy, stressful, no time to diet.” So that tells us that what we need to do is:

1. Make life a bit less stressful

2. Make time to think about our health

3. Make ourselves an eating plan that suits the US and our lifestyle.

However, that all sounds too easy doesn’t it? Because if it were THAT easy – there wouldn’t be 60% of us in the UK who are in the obese range.

So, what I do at my clinic when people come for weight loss is to try and establish if there are any emotional reasons why they are over-indulging. Did something happen to them as a child which has stuck in their mind and makes them feel that they need to be overweight and unattractive perhaps? Or, were they told (as I was) that if I hadn’t had all that fat on me when I was five years old and had double pneumonia, I would have died. Imagine that! The next thing is to find a way of eating that suits your lifestyle. There is no point in doing an all liquid meal replacement programme if you love your “solid” food and eat out a lot, either for business or pleasure.

One of the things I always find when I’m trying to shed some weight is that I then CONSTANTLY think about food – from the time I wake up until the minute my head hits the pillow – and beyond because I often DREAM about food! So, I now make life much simpler – I make a plan of the healthy foods that I like which are easy to prepare and won’t keep me in the kitchen for hours on end and I suggest to my clients that they do the same. What we also, must not forget, is that this has to be a lifestyle “change”, because once you finally reach your goal you are going to have to stay there or you are just going to continue the cycle of yo-yo dieting.

It’s very common to feel like you’re not losing weight as fast as you would like, despite faithfully sticking to your diet, but the number on the scale is only one measure of weight change. Weight can be influenced by many things, including fluctuations of fluid levels in your body. Our weight can go up and down by up to 5 lbs for a day, depending on how much food and liquid we’ve consumed. Also, increased hormone levels and changes in women can lead to water retention. If the number on the scale isn’t moving, you may very well be losing fat mass but holding on to water. Also, if you’ve been working out at the gym you may be gaining muscle and losing fat and we all know that muscle weighs heavier! When this happens, your clothes may start to feel looser — especially around the waist — despite a stable scale weight. So, at the end of the day, many things affect your weight so don’t get too obsessed with the scales.

Processed or diet food –

They are often considered great choices for shedding weight, but they could have the opposite effect. A lot of these products are filled with sugar to improve their taste. For instance, one pot of low-fat, fruit-flavoured yoghurt can contain 47 grams of sugar (nearly 12 teaspoons), instead of making you feel full, low-fat products are likely to make you hungrier, so you end up eating even more. So, instead of “diet” foods, choose a combination of nutritious, minimally processed foods, because a) you will feel healthier and b) they will do you so much more good.

Eating when you are hungry –

Only when you’re hungry seems to be key to successful weight loss. However, letting yourself get too hungry is also a bad idea. It is much better to have a small healthy snack than become ravenously hungry, which can cause you to make poor food choices. If you don’t have to cook for others, just eat when YOU feel real hunger – not cravings!

Research shows that tracking what you eat can help you get an accurate idea of your calorie consumption, as well as provide accountability. Once you see it written down or in the notes on your phone app you can see exactly where you are going wrong. Remember to put those ten biscuits down! Lol

Don’t have unrealistic expectations for weight loss –

It’s great to have weight loss goals and other health-related goals but be aware of being unrealistic. I have many people come to my clinics and say “I used to be 8th 10lbs and I want to weigh that again” then when I ask them WHEN were they that weight? They usually say: “when I was 22.”

Now at the age of 55, three children and two grandchildren later, they are wanting to weigh the same as they did then – only a lot has changed hasn’t it?

Adjust your expectations to a more realistic and modest goal, such as a 10- 15% decrease in weight in one year. This can help prevent you from getting discouraged and improve your chances of success. Do it steadily, change some of the old negative eating habits for some new positive ones and do some.

Exercise –

Exercise is one of those things that we either love or hate isn’t it. My suggestion is to find something you enjoy even if it is simply walking the dog! If you don’t exercise at all while restricting calories, you’re likely to lose more muscle mass and experience a decrease in your metabolism. Exercising helps minimize the amount of lean mass you lose, boost fat loss and prevent your metabolism from slowing down. The more lean mass you have, the easier it is to lose weight and maintain the weight loss. Whatever exercise you do, do it regularly and keep it up! The results will be well worth it!