How often have you triumphantly lost weight, only to accumulation the weight again? Many individuals fight this battle for nearly all of their lives.
What causes yo-yo dieting (or weight cycling)?
It seems like a great idea to drastically cut back on your food intake for rapid weight loss. However, your body sooner or later prepares itself for a decrease in calorie intake. Your body will adapt to this lowered calorie intake by conserving energy and metabolic rate (the way your body burns food for energy). Eventually, the initial weight loss slows down or stops.
By this time most dieters struggle to maintain their diet program. And the weight slowly starts to creep up again. To make things worse, the decrease in metabolic rate will cause the body to live on less calorie intake. Every low-calorie dieting episode makes the body more efficient.
Another problem with quick weight loss fad diets is that the body becomes more efficient with each dieting event. The severe calorie limitation also brings about a loss of muscle tone. Common signs of this are flabby upper arms and sagging buns.
Alternatives to yo-yo diets
Instead of hoping for a rapid weight loss, take a more long term sustainable approach. Your goal should be for a modest weight loss. Decrease calorie intake by 200-500 calories a day depending on how much you have to lose.
Do not think of your diet as a temporary measure, but a healthy living plan.
Increase your level of physical activity. Take the stairs not the elevator, park far from the entrance or pick up on activities you enjoy such as hiking, biking or dancing.
Plan on eating frequently throughout the day. Eating frequent smaller meals will prevent you from overeating later on.
Emotional Overeating
Okay, maybe your problem is not yo-yo dieting. It is possible that you are a habitual eater. Example, eating junk snacks while watching TV.
Perhaps it is emotional. When you are stressed, you do not eat all day. Then when you get bored, you raid the refrigerator.
How to overcome habitual or emotional eating
It is time to examine what is causing you to use food to solve your emotional eating habits. Find an alternate to eating. Try taking a walk to clear your head. Invite your friends to a game of miniature golf on your birthday. Have healthy snacks at your place of work. You can grab these instead of the junk in the vending machine.
Try to manage hunger by eating several small meals a day. Remember that if you go hungry, you will make poor choices or you will tend to overeat.
Do not eat to 100% fullness! Yes, you can train your body to be satisfied at 60 percent capacity. It is okay to leave food on your plate. You are not helping poverty ridden countries by cleaning your plate.
If you know that you cannot stop at just one potato chip, get rid of it. As a matter of fact, just get rid of all the junk food that are detrimental to your goal.
Corny or not, do things to remind you of your goal. Put up a sign at your desk that say: A year from now, you may wish you started today. Maybe you can put up a refrigerator sign that says: When I cheat on my weight-loss goal, I am cheating on me.
Lastly, do not fall off the wagon. It is okay to overeat as long as you get back on track right away instead of punishing yourself and feeling miserable.
Rochester Gyms, Fitness Programs in Rochester and Rochester Weight Loss Programs dedicate their themselves to keeping you fit, healthy and trim.
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