How to lose weight
So you have tried countless diets, thought you were following them correctly, and you still can’t lose the weight you want. Sometimes you can’t see the forest from the trees. Its time to evaluate your diets and see if there are some mistakes you are making.
Your first step is to evaluate your diet and make sure it is a proven diet that is accepted as a good diet by health authorities. Currently, the most popular diets are low carb diets (like the Paleo diet), vegan and vegetarian diets, the Mediterranean diet, and the elimination diet.
Beware of fad diets that usually have an extreme side which can put your body out of balance. If there is no definitive research that shows a diet really works and won’t harm your health, skip the diet. Better to be safe than sorry.
Now let’s look at the three big reasons you might not be having success in losing that excess weight.
Not Following the Diet Correctly
This is the most common reason why people fail on a certain diet. They think they are following the diet guidelines, but in reality they cheat on the diet and don’t completely abide by the foods you should eat and the foods that are off limits. Any time you stray from a diet, even just a little, you are setting yourself up for failure.
When you start a diet you MUST stay true to the diet and don’t incorporate parts of the diet along with your old diet. If you are on a low carb diet, you need to limit your carbohydrate intake to the amount specified per day by the diet. Eating more that the limit of carbohydrates does not allow the diet to work properly for you. So forget the chips and french fries.
Don’t try and interpret a diet, thinking you can add different types of foods not listed for a specific diet. You must agree before you start the diet that you won’t add other foods or skip some foods that are in the diet.
Lack of Physical Activity
One of the keys for losing weight and keeping it off is to have a fitness program, not matter how limited it is. You must add physical activity to any diet to jump start your metabolism. You can lose weight on many diets without a lot of activity, but it will be more difficult and the weight loss can be inconsistent.
Start out with just walking several times a week to boost your metabolism. Then, depending on your physical condition, you can slowly add more conditioning to your program. Many people don’t realize that your metabolism keeps up at a higher level, even when you are done exercising.
The great thing about physical activity is it helps with any diet, so you don’t have to wonder if conditioning is right for your diet. It’s right for all diets.
Wrong Mindset
Some dieters go into a new diet with a mindset that sets them up for failure. You can’t start a new diet thinking you will try the diet for a week or two and quit if it doesn’t work. Many people are looking for immediate results and are too impatient to allow a diet to work for them.
These are the people who are on the diet yo yo, switching from one diet to the next, and never seeing any long-term results. Any diet you try should be followed religiously for an extended period of time. If you are following a specific diet and not losing any weight, then it is time to review your daily food intake, your activity level, and your time of day you are eating your largest meals.
Before you start on any diet, do your homework and see if there are any possible problems with the diet. Decide if you can follow the diet exclusively and monitor your results. You must have a positive attitude starting the diet.
Avoid extreme diets that don’t give you the proper nutrition you need, but instead starve your body of much needed nutrients. These are the diets that you will not stick with and you will usually gain back any lost weight plus more.