At any one time 1 of 3 women and 1 of 5 men are on a diet. When it comes to dieting there are a few mistakes we can avoid:
- Crash diets or fad diets
- Wrong diet
- Not giving the diet enough time to work
- No accountability
- Breaking through a plateau
Most people know crash and fad diets don’t work but they want fast weight loss and so millions try them anyway. Before you start any diet read about it, see if it’s safe, effective and worth staying on for a few shorts weeks or forever. I like the forever diets. That way the weight loss is slow and more permanent. Expect to lose 1/2-2lbs per week.
For years I did low fat diets only to maintain my weight and not lose. How frustrating! Once I learned that I’m a carb addict and the way I lose weight is to cut carbs the weight started coming off. Dr. Mercola’s Total Health Cookbook & Program has a short questionaire to help you figure out how you can best lose weight.
Expecting to lose weight fast is unrealistic. It didn’t come on fast and it’s not coming off fast. Give it time to come off. Let’s say you need to lose 40lbs. Then that’s equivalent to about 20-40 weeks for those pounds to come off, then work to maintain.
Starting and stopping a diet is tough on the body. It’s sends mixed messages. Before you start a diet get some accountability i.e a partner, personal trainer, nutritionist, weight loss coach, health & wellness coach (that would be me) or a weight loss program. Journaling and therefore accountability is the #1 way to lose weight. Don’t believe it, look it up. You must have someone to keep you on track. There are smartphone apps for the REALLY motivated persons. I met someone recently who was able to lose weight with an app. It can work. Take a look at this app Lose It!
What to do when you are stuck at your present weight but still need to lose? Break through a plateau with a change in exercise, increase the time or intensity. Consider a 24-48hr fast of liquids only. You just need to get down 1-2lbs to break through the plateau. That resets the body’s setpoint.
If you are going to through all the effort to lose weight make it count and never give up.