It's not magic. But most people don't realize that quick weight loss is a sure way to gain it back. In order to achieve permanent weight loss, we need to eat a healthy diet, not restrict ourselves to the point of sure failure. You cannot rely on willpower alone.
1. Drink at least 64 oz of pure water a day. For every 25 pounds you are overweight, drink another 8 oz. For the first 2 weeks you'll be hitting the bathroom regularly, but that will go away as your body gets used to being hydrated.
2. Check your calories. See what a serving size is; use a measuring cup, a cheap kitchen scale, and an online calorie recorder (like ) to really see what you're eating. You can't fix what you don't know is broken. Once you see what you are consuming, versus what you should be consuming, you may be in for a big awakening. Ever notice that bottle of pop says "2.5 servings per bottle"?
3. Be careful of going on a starvation diet. You may not think you are on one, but if your net calories (net calories = total calories consumed minus exercise calories) are too low then your body will go into starvation mode. Sure, you might lose weight for a time, but you'll also gain it back as soon as you start eating enough calories.
4. Be reasonable on your weight loss goals. The more weight you have to lose, the easier it will come off in the beginning. If you have 20 pounds to lose, you cannot reasonably expect to lose 1 - 2 pounds per week in a healthy way and keep it off. If you have 100 pounds to lose, in the beginning you may see fantastic weight loss that can be 3-4 pounds a week.
This also means be reasonable in what you eat. Telling yourself you can never eat another piece of chocolate again is a sure-fire way to fail, as you are depriving yourself of something you enjoy. Moderation and balance are the keys. You can have a small piece of cake at your child's birthday party; you cannot have the entire half of a cake that's left over. And if you do go overboard - exercise it off!
5. Get up and move. Walk up the stairs (even if only one flight), instead of asking your co-worker to get you another cup of coffee, get up and get it yourself. Exercise does not mean a hot, sweaty room with super thin women jumping around. Whatever you can do, do, even if it's sit on the couch and do resistance bands with your arms, or low weights. Start at something, and work your way up.
6. Keep your metabolism going. It's not just activity that will keep your metabolism going, but also eating a snack or meal every 2-3 hours. A piece of fruit, even a half piece of fruit, a yogurt, smaller meals at mealtimes so you have enough calories for snacks. Don't overload on carbs at a meal or it will have the opposite effect on how you feel, making you tired and sluggish.
7. Don't skip meals - especially breakfast. If you don't think you have time for a "real" breakfast, take a piece of fruit and a yogurt to eat at your desk. When you eat breakfast, you start your metabolism going for the day. When you skip meals, or skip breakfast, your metabolism slows down and conserves energy - creating fat whenever it can.
8. Make your environment a successful one. If you have kids and a hubby who love junk food, but you can't control yourself with all that junk food in the house, get rid of it. The kids and hubby will survive without the chips and cookies, and instead use them as an occasional treat. In the long run, you'll all be healthier.
9. Have pre-planned snacks on hand at all times, whether it's a drawer with granola bars, or vegetables already cut up and in baggies so you can grab and go. If you let yourself get too hungry, you'll end up overeating.
10. Hard exercise does not equal an expensive gym membership. Walking quickly, using your arms as well as your legs, gets your heart rate up there. Use a walking video in your home, Leslie Sansone has several out there that most people can do and it gives a decent workout. Start walk/jogging, "wogging", which is interval running. You walk a bit, you jog a bit, then walk a bit. There are several free programs online that you can download to an mp3 player, or the Couch to 5K program which has a fee. Or, make up your own with your favorite songs. 30 minutes of music, walk for 5 mins, run for 30 seconds, work your way up to running more and walking less over a 9 week period (based on your starting cardio health). If it takes you a month to be able to do the 5/30 intervals before you can do it without stopping or losing your breath, that's fine. (Be sure to give your body a day off in between each running day.) As with any exercise program, check with your doctor first and prop erly warm up your muscles and stretch before exercising, to avoid injury.
11. Learn to listen to your body, and learn to differentiate between real hunger and bored eating, stress eating, and bingeing. This will take time. No one will be perfect, everyone will make mistakes. But keeping track of what's going on when you have your bad moments, how you are feeling, what happened that seemed to trigger you into eating, may clearly indicate what's going on. It could be as simple as your body is addicted to carbs, once you break that addiction you'll find you don't crave them like you used to. But as long as you are learning and correcting yourself when you make mistakes, you will succeed. Sometimes finding the root cause may require professional therapy, there's nothing wrong with that.
12. It's not about willpower. It's about arming yourself with knowledge, providing your body with the nutrients and activity it needs to survive, it's about unlearning bad habits. Find a support group, online or in real life, where you can be accountable to someone. If you're accountable to no one, it's easy to lie to yourself. It may seem embarrassing at first to admit you ate the whole bag of Oreos in one sitting, but others can help you identify why you did what you did and how to avoid that behavior in the future.
The bottom line is this: there is no magic pill, there is no super willpower, there is no surgery that guarantees success. But you can be successful once you arm yourself with the knowledge you need.
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