What is the best weight loss programme for you?

 Weight loss is not easy for most people.

Which diets work and which don’t?

Why can’t you stick to a diet?

5 tips and ideas for success.

Have you tried to lose weight and maybe had some success and then put the weight back on? Have you tried to lose weight and just couldn’t stick with it…it was just too hard? How many times have you heard people say, “How hard can it be, just eat less and do some exercise?” If it was easy everyone could do it, no one would be overweight and there wouldn’t be a zillion i.e. a cajillion billion, weight loss diet/programmes on the market. Weight loss is more psychology than physiology and what I mean by that is, is that you have to find what works for your mind set, your psyche, your personality, and your lifestyle….and you have to be ready to do it.

The one thing you will need to acknowledge is that you need to change what you are a currently doing.  You will have to change your eating habits.  You can exercise until the cows come home but if you don’t change what and how much you are putting in your mouth you will not lose weight. If you do a one hour workout, that can be cancelled out instantly with one chocolate bar.
Which diets work and which don’t? Nearly all of the diets, weight loss and fat blaster programmes on the market will work as long as you stick with them (not including the really silly and extreme diets of grapefruit only or fruit juice only)….and that is the main factor …you have to be able to stick with it otherwise you won’t lose the weight. Success or failure? There is no point in trying to follow a diet if it is not manageable as you will set yourself up for failure rather than success.  The better fit it is for you the more likely you are to continue and if you continue you will get results. Some diets are quite restrictive and will get you results over 1-3 weeks but are not sustainable.  Once you go off the diet chances are you will put the weight back on and you will be back where you started. Other diets etc. are more manageable and allow for weight loss over a lengthier period but you have to maintain your motivation and focus for a longer period of time without falling off the wagon.  With weight loss, like a lot of things, you need to see or feel some result or reward to help keep you going or interested.

Do any of these sound familiar?

• Why is it that you go on the same diet as your friend who has lost weight but you can’t seem to stick with it like they did? Why? Why? Why?
• Found some of the diets too restrictive so gave them up?
• You were going ok but found you were still having your chocolate so thought “why bother dieting”?
• If you always grab a chocolate bar or potato chips around 3 or 4 o’clock in the afternoon, how do you stop having that craving?
• Do you like counting calories or just choosing low fat or low calorie foods and not worry about the volume of food?
• What if giving up chocolate or your couple of glasses of wine in the evening is just too hard…..do you really need to give them up?
• Do you need a quick loss of weight to get you motivated and to keep you going….what is the best way to do this and is it safe?
• You think you are eating healthy but can’t lose weight…..there are lots of foods that people think are healthy when in fact they offer little nutrition and lots of calories….pasta and rice for starters.
• Do you eat very well but have a very sedentary job and put weight on? How do you get some movement into your day?
• Do you have busy days where unexpected things come up and throw your well laid plans out the window and you end up grabbing some convenient take away food?

You can probably add a few more scenarios to this list and you can see how weight loss is going to be different for everyone.  Not just “eat less and do some exercise.”

What will suit you? Will you plan each day’s meals and shop for them accordingly? Will you take your Weight Watchers handbook with you so you can count your points? Will you have a “shake” to replace lunch and dinner? Will you go for an hour walk each day or 30 minutes of gym work or a 30 minute jog to try and burn off the extra calories? Will you go “cold turkey” with the wine or chocolate? Will you stop having a full cream milk latte at morning tea? Will you just eat low fat or low calorie foods and not worry about how much you eat? Will you go on one of the “low carb” or “high protein” diets and not eat bread or pasta? You probably have already discounted some of these weight loss solutions as you have been reading this because you know you just couldn’t do it.

Here are a few ideas and tips 1. It is the calories that count. It is excess calories that will put the weight on not excess fat, even though fat has more calories than carbohydrates, protein or alcohol.  If you consume more calories than you use up throughout the day you will put weight on – this is the mathematics of it.
 2. The one food that you feel will be the hardest to do without is the one food you should keep in your diet or leave until the last to eliminate or change. Of all the foods you currently eat/drink there is probably one or two foods that you feel you can’t do without .e.g. chocolate for dessert, a couple of glasses of wine to wind down at the end of the day or a cappuccino for morning and afternoon tea. When eliminating or swapping foods for your diet leave the one in there that you feel you can’t do without.  Give up the easiest food first and the hardest to give up food last.
 3. The shakes and meal replacement bars are ok. These products are designed to give you a quick weight loss over a period of one to four weeks.  This gives you hope, a sense of success where you can see the light at the end of the weight loss tunnel.  You will have to start to eat some real food at some stage and most of these programmes have a staggered or incremental system of introducing “real food” back into your diet.
4. Just do some type of physical activity. It doesn’t matter what type of activity or exercise you do as long as you are burning up calories.  Find an activity that you can do regularly and are able to stick with or just move more throughout the day.  Putting more movement in your whole day is the most effective way to burn calories as it forms a part of your daily lifestyle.  It could be housework, yard work, walking the dog, bike riding, social tennis or golf….it doesn’t have to be formal exercise.   5. Swap it, don’t stop it. Swap some high calorie foods for a lesser calorie alternative.

• When having your morning latte or breakfast cereal you don’t have to swap full cream milk for skim milk, just go to the “trim”, “lite” or reduced fat milk.
• At morning or afternoon tea swap cream biscuits with your coffee or tea for plain biscuits.
• Swap to reduced fat ice cream from the regular ice cream
• Swap to low fat mince and sausages instead of the regular type.  Get the idea?

The easier you can make your weight loss diet/programme, the easier it will be to stick with and you will be more likely to get some results.   The one thing you will have to do though is acknowledge that you need to change what you are currently doing.   “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Lao Tzu