All medical experts agree that the premise of dieting turns our relationship with food into a negative, tumultuous deep-rooted battle. The best thing to do, instead, is to approach food as a way of taking care of your body for the long haul and enjoying a well-balanced, healthy life.
So how do you make your own rules for weight loss?
Free Report: Why You Can't Shift Your Belly Fat6 Key Rules For Weight Loss
When it comes to our relationship with food, there are a few rules for weight loss to keep in mind:
- Eat only when you’re genuinely hungry
- Be aware of what you’re eating and mindful of each bite
- Stop eating once you’ve had enough
- Enjoy each meal to the fullest
- Drink plenty of water throughout the day
- Pay attention to the signals your body is sending you (for example, if a craving hits, reach for a piece of fruit or vegetable instead of grabbing some chocolate or a bag of chips)
Being healthy is a lifestyle. This includes more than just eating whole wheat toast and quinoa. It means eating more foods that promote good health, limiting those that do not, exercising regularly, getting good, quality sleep and learning how to cope with stress.
4 Reasons Why Diets Fail
Dieting is a process most of us have perfected, right down to the waning enthusiasm a few weeks in and the crazy cravings, the guilt, the anxiety, and the shame. It’s a cycle that can be quite dangerous if you allow it to consume you.
Diets fail because of several ruts we all fall into.
1. Eating large amounts of high glycemic foods
These foods are fast, they’re easy and they’re made to taste irresistibly good that one bite can never be enough. The problem with these types of foods is that they’re drowning in sugar and processed carbohydrates which get quickly absorbed into your bloodstream, wreaking havoc on your blood sugar levels. This may lead to insulin resistance which means that glucose isn’t being flushed out of your system adequately after each meal.
2. Deprive ourselves of nutritious foods and push through the hunger pangs
But studies show that making yourself go hungry actually slows down metabolism as a way of preserving calories. The good news is that you can manage your metabolism by regulating the speed at which you lose weight. So, instead of going on a crash diet, aim for a lifelong game plan to lose the weight, and keep it off.
3. Not eating for longer than 4 hours
It’s important to eat a small meal or snack every 3 or 4 hours, because when you go longer without eating, your body goes into what medical experts refer to as ‘starvation mode’ in an effort to conserve calories and energy.
4. We don’t build our muscle mass
Losing weight means you lose not just fat, but muscle as well, unless you’re doing strength training workouts to maintain muscle mass. And muscles are known to burn more calories than fat, while boosting metabolism.
This is one reason why you see a change in metabolism over the lifespan. As you age, you naturally lose muscle mass, which results in a decreased metabolism. This can be influenced by maintaining muscle mass throughout the lifetime with weight-bearing physical activity.
Free Report: Why You’re Not Losing Belly Fat
So now that you’re living a wholesome, healthful life, the next step is to learn to maintain it through both the good days and the bad. And there will be bad days. It’s inevitable. And there will be days when you have that extra slice of pizza that you know you shouldn’t. But it doesn’t mean you’re back to square one, it just means you hit a bump in the road. Accept it, move on.
Are you frustrated because you feel like you’ve been following all the rules for weight loss rules, but you’re still not able to lose fat? Maybe you’re eating healthy foods and going to the gym, but the change in diet and exercise isn’t making any difference. That’s the bad news. The good news is that it’s possible to lose fat even though you’re not having success right now. To discover more, download my free report, Why You Can’t Shift Your Belly Fat.
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