Many of us are looking to lose ten pounds fast, and many diet gurus claim to have the
answer. The question is, how much do you want those ten pounds to
stay gone?
Wouldn't the ideal scenario be to be beach-ready at all times without
feeling the need to follow starvation diets that are draining to mind
and body both?
There is an answer, and it will seem like such a no-brainer, but so many
of us out there have still not applied it in our own lives, that it
deserves a mention...
The most important rule in successful weight loss definitely is no starvation!
As logical and beneficial as crash-dieting may seem for that 'quick
fix,' there are a myriad of reasons why this temporal and exhausting form of weight control is a bad idea.
Say you set a goal: You are looking to lose ten pounds in two weeks
time, an absurd goal, but not entirely impossible. Those 14 days you
spend taunting yourself by following a hunger diet will make you edgy
and low energy. You're also likely to dream and obsess about the foods
you are not allowed to eat. Those two weeks will feel like two months
and not very fun ones either. It is almost guaranteed that once you wrap
up those two weeks of self-torment (pleased with the notable weight
loss), you will celebrate this by giving in to the foods you have been
denying yourself. After your body has been functioning on a starvation
diet for a while, your metabolism will slow down, which means your
metabolic rate is lower now, and therefore burns less energy than it did
before. Thus, once you start going back to your old diet, this will
result in weight gain. The second setback is that during the crash diet you have lost both fat and muscle, but the weight you gain back is all fat.
Haven't we all been there? This is what causes yo-yo dieting. Starve
yourself for two weeks and then end the program by 'celebrating' the
finish, and finally being able to eat those foods you missed so much.
This results in weight gain, leaving you displeased and ready for
another dieting spell. The cycle can become endless, and is very
unhealthy for both your body and mental health.
But you're dissatisfied with the conventional 1-2 pounds per week in many weight
loss programs, right? Aren't we all? Nutritionist Mike Roussell and gym
owner Alwyn Cosgrove have put together a powerful, fast and safe
fat-burning program to help you lose weight much faster. It’s called
Warp Speed Fat Loss. Check it out!
Here are some tips to help you get rid of those ten pounds and keep them off:
- Water, water, water. Drink water
throughout the day, every day. A good indication of how much water your
body needs is the following simple sum: Divide your weight in pounds by
two. The outcome is the amount in ounces of water that your body
requires each day. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, aim for 75
ounces of water a day.
Why
water? Your body is made up out of 60-65 percent water. Water is
responsible for transporting important nutrients to the body's cells and
transporting the waste out. When you are not drinking enough water,
your body tends to save it. This is where water weight comes from, along
with high-sodium diets and water retention caused by a woman's
menstrual cycle. Basically, to rid yourself of water weight, you will
have to drink water! It sounds almost contradictory, but it makes sense
when you realize your body is holding onto it because there is a lack of
it. You will be surprised how much difference just drinking enough
water can make on your weight.
If you do not like the taste (or the lack thereof) of water, you can add
slices of lemon or make your own iced tea with nice fruity herbal teas.
Celestial Seasonings has all-herbal variations that are great for
making iced teas. It is important to have herbal tea, and not regular
tea, because regular tea contains ingredients like caffeine (which
depletes the body of water).
-
Eat, eat, eat...that is right, to lose weight successfully and lastingly, you must eat.
This comes down to your metabolism. If your body senses you have not
eaten anything for eight hours, it will shut down, to protect you from
famine, it is your body looking after you. To keep your metabolism up,
you must eat regularly, be it three main meals and two small snacks, or
six small meals throughout the day. Just let your eating be regular and
never go hungry. It will keep your body happy, your metabolism alive,
which in its turn, provides the calorie burning. That's why we must be
kind to our metabolism and not shut it down.
If you have yo-yo dieted in the past, do not worry. Your metabolism is
not a function that will become incapable of revival once it has been
shot. You can actually revive it! Here are a couple of important tips on
how to wake up that calorie-burning machine:
- Eat breakfast. While it may seem that skipping breakfast is
a smart way of eliminating some excess calories from your day, it
actually is a true metabolism killer! Eating first thing in the morning
will shake your body awake, and out of overnight fasting (hence the word
break-fast). Now that your metabolism is awake, it is ready to
burn those calories. A good breakfast also keeps you satisfied and
going until lunchtime, without feeling those 10 a.m. cravings, at which
time many people make bad sugarloaded snack decisions. Studies have
shown that people who skip breakfast actually tend to consume more, not
fewer, calories throughout the day.
- Eat less late at night. We all know the saying Eat breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dine like a pauper, yet our western eating habits
do not exactly support this ideal. Most people have their biggest meal
at dinner, when the day is over and you least need the energy. It only
makes sense that we should eat our biggest meal in the morning at
breakfast, when we need all the energy for the rest of the day, and we
end the day with a lighter supper. Try it for yourself, and you will
definitely see differences, and feel more energized throughout the day,
which means you get more done, and burn more calories.
- Pump it. Invest time in building some muscle, but
you do not have to pull a Schwarzenegger. You can do this 2 or 3 times a
week at home with dumbells or go to a local gym, where you could get
some advice from a professional trainer.
Why is muscle important? When you increase your
muscle mass, your resting metabolism gets a boost, and that will make
your body burn more calories, even when you are doing absolutely
nothing.
When crash-dieting long (and often) enough, in an attempt to fuel
itself, your body will break down muscle tissue for fuel, and this goes
back to the slowing down of your metabolism and weight gain, which I mentioned earlier. This explains why weight
piles on twice as fast after a starvation diet, and why you should
invest time in muscle (re)building. If you want to see real impressive
results, also add some cardiovascular exercise in with the weight
training, but don't overdo it. 2 to 3 times per week should be good
because your body needs time to rest and recover. (The muscle is built after the exercise, not during, so it is essential you let your body rest and build.)
Be active, not only in the gym, but in everyday life. There are plenty
of little tricks to get more exercise into your day without even
noticing you are doing them! Here are some ideas;
- Step it up! Whether it is in an apartment complex or a
public building, choose the stairs over the escalators and elevators. If
you live on the 12th floor, take the elevator halfway, and do the last
half up the stairs. You may not lose ten pounds in three days, but the
amount of exercise that adds up in a week by just taking some stairs
instead of elevators is huge!
- Don't seek the closest parking spot to the entrance of the mall. Intentionally park your car further away...walking is one of the best, most natural exercises.
- Take dancing lessons. Dancing doesn't seem like fitness,
but it surely does work many muscles and is a great cardio exercise.
Besides, knowing how to dance is always a good thing, and it can improve
your posture a lot, which also makes you appear thinner.
- Walk the dog, or offer to walk someone else's dog. You will have a companion with you, yet have the freedom of clearing your head and burning off a few calories.
Being active has proven to reduce the chance of
depression and obesity and it also is a good way to stay young. There
really is no reason why you shouldn't be active in your life, as the
benefits are only positive.
4. Attitude. Adjusting your attitude towards food and
your body actually can make you slimmer. The diet industry thrives off
of people with low self-esteems because of their weight issues, and
secretly wants you to remain insecure about your appearance so that you
will be a lifelong client. There is a reason why the diet industry is
one of the biggest industries out there, and that is the notorious yo-yo
dieter. If there is at least one in every household, count the profits.
When you realize the weight-loss industry is not in it to make you a
happy person with the stable healthy weight that you desire, you have
taken the first step to changing that attitude and building a healthy
individual attitude about and for yourself.
You need to love the foods you feed yourself. If you believe you love
diet products, it is a myth you have created for yourself by years of
media control. Get involved in home cooking, look up interesting recipes
with ingredients that you love, or try new variations you usually would
never go for. Variation is an important key to keeping you enthusiastic
about food; monotone diets can bore you and contribute to a desire to
overeat.
Cooking a home meal does not have to be as time-robbing as you think,
and the price you get back for it in health and the feeling of
accomplishment by cooking a meal all on your own is worth it. And
remember that delicacies are not bad. When the craving for a certain
delicacy comes, answer it. Denying yourself that piece of chocolate that
you are craving right now can backfire. A constant denial of cravings
and putting a taboo on certain foods can build up to a big rebellious
binge. Give yourself that one treat you want in the moment; don't let it
build up and explode into a catastrophic binge.
5. Get real. Be realistic about your goals, and
embrace your body type. No matter how much weight you will lose, you can
not change your body type. You will just have to learn to emphasize
your stronger features, and we all have those. Every day in movies and
television, we are fooled to believe that women are supposed to be a
size 2, while the average American woman in reality is a size 12. That
is a big difference, and a challenge to compare yourself to, in a
society where celebrities are so adored and seen as role models. The
reality is that many women in the modeling and acting industry feel
pressured to be a certain size, and this often results in eating
disorders.
What is most important is to find a setpoint where you can feel good in
your skin, mentally and physically. One does not go without the other.
When you feel beautiful, you are beautiful. In the end, it
comes down to you, you who knows your body best. Do not let anybody else
tell you what to do or how to feel!
We may have been misinformed and applying the wrong measures, but it is
never too late to change it all around and start a new lifestyle in
which you will never have to diet again. By making these small changes
in your life, you can lose those ten pounds, and more. Perhaps not as
fast as you would like, but ten times more likely to last.