How Can Sticking to a Routine Help You Lose Weight?
People today are always looking for a “quick fix” to any issue in their lives. This is particularly true for people who want to lose weight. Quick fix diets offer immediate results, but usually fail to deliver long term benefits. This article explains why you need to give any weight loss programme time to work.
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Most people take several steps to try and lose weight, but there are a number of factors in a person’s life that will hinder their weight loss efforts. Stress, bad eating habits, and low self confidence all contribute to hindering weight loss. If you can follow a good diet and exercise plan and combine that will persistence and consistency then you should have a much better chance of losing weight.
The most common reason for failure in losing weight is that people fail to stick to the diet or exercise plan for a reasonable amount of time. They do not give the diet and exercise plan a chance to work. People want to see instant results and fail to realise that like weight gain, weight loss is not linear. You must have realistic expectations of what can be achieved. Weighing yourself everyday and hoping for a reduction in your weight each day is unrealistic.
Your body simply doesn’t work that way. Some days you will lose weight, some days you will not, and some days you may even gain weight, according to the scales. If you are consistent and track your weight loss weekly and not daily, you will see a pattern of continuous weight loss over time. Again I stress “over time” you will see a downward trend in the graph of your weight loss, but a daily snapshot may not show this. So give your weight loss plan time to work by sticking to it for a period of at least 1-3 months.
Before making any plans to diet and workout it is a good idea to check with your doctor first to ensure that your plan will be OK for you. It is important that you are healthy enough to embark on the specific plan that you have chosen to execute.
Exercise plays a vital role in achieving weight loss. You should give serious thought to your exercise plan. You will want to try and exercise consistently at the same time everyday to make it a part of your normal routine. While exercising routinely at the same time every day is a good idea it is not a good idea to do the exact same thing every time you workout. It is important that you vary your workouts each time. The human body is very good at adapting to new situations. Your body will quickly adapt to your exercise routine if it becomes too predictable, and you will have trouble losing weight. To counter this problem, keep the body guessing by constantly making slight changes to the type and intensity of your exercises.
Diet is another important factor that determines your success with losing weight. Make it easy on yourself to achieve your goals by setting yourself up for success. Plan your meals, prepare meals in advance, and buy healthy foods for your home. Another thing that you can do is to plan what you are going to eat before you go to a restaurant. In the age of the internet many restaurants have their menus online. Go online and have a look at the menu before hand and find items that fit in with your plan. Also ask your waiter or waitress to have the chef prepare your meal to your required specifications.