How many times have you started a diet in your life? If you want to lose inches, you have to do it the right way. The wrong way: Skipping meals or following an extremely low-calorie diet is not in any way, shape, or form the answer for losing any amount of weight or fat. Extreme calorie deprivation only sets you up for yo-yo dieting, or “weight cycling.” Your weight will continue to go up and down for the rest of your life. If you want permanent weight or fat loss, then listen to me.
I believe it’s lack of understanding about the right way to lose weight can set people up for big-time failure. Even if you do have success at the beginning on one of these extreme diets, the toll it takes on your body is not at all worth it. Extreme diets that promise big weight loss in a short amount of time cut out macronutrients like carbs and fats.This is horrible for your hormone balance and your metabolism. Read my post on The SECRET For Melting Away Fat Fast.
Why are you in this pattern of fasting, then slipping up, and then fasting again? Many times its because you desperately want to lose weight for a special occasion and figure that only a couple of weeks at 800 calories a day can give you results you want. It might work, but then what happens when you go back to a normal eating pattern? Yes, you gain it all back and sometimes even more! Look at what happens scientifically… while you weren’t taking in enough calories, your levels of T3, the thyroid hormone that boosts your metabolism, plummeted and you slowed down your metabolism. Your response to insulin has taken a hit also, so instead of glucose entering your cells, where it can be used for energy, your body lets it roam around in your blood, where it can cause trouble. Your sensitivity to leptin (it regulates appetite) is also reduced, so you’re never quite sure when to say, “Enough!” when eating. Plus, the hormone that tells your brain you’re starving,(ghrelin) shoots higher than ever. That is just the beginning of your problems. When you start gaining back weight, (and the percentage that do is high) you start the cycle of yo-yo dieting all over again. It gets more and more frustrating every time you do it.
It’s time to end this cycle, and the way to do that is not to “diet” but rather to make a lifestyle change. Shift your thinking from merely “cutting back” to simply eating proper portions of the right foods. Whole, nutritious foods will repair, nourish, and support every cell so that your body will work for you and not against you. Supplement your diet with Real Food Technology supplements to complete your nutritional intake AND Be good to your body and it will be good to you!
22. April 2010 at 8:32 pm
Beverly, Just this morning, I asked a member of my tennis team if she was on a diet because she looked as if she had lost some weight. She is taking a diet product along with only eating 500 calories/day. Then I noticed how tired and sluggish she was on the tennis court, in a clinic where the coach was pushing us to run and hustle for the ball.
Your suggestions make so much sense. Weight loss has to happen as a slow and natural result of a healthier lifestyle. There is no quick fix or magic formula to create this. It requires a decision, determination and persistence.
23. April 2010 at 6:50 am
That is SO unhealthy for her.It is going to really put her body in starvation mode so when she starts eating more her body is going to hold onto every calorie.Send her to my blog to read some of my posts. Wow, I would love to talk with her.
23. April 2010 at 12:15 pm
I think you are right. Making good lifestyle choices are the best way to get healthy and to lose weight. Learn to enjoy the process and stick with it with a passion from the core of who you are to succeed. Great Stuff…thanks!
23. April 2010 at 2:29 pm
Thanks Bruce. It is all a lifestyle change for better health.Everyone has a choice.
23. April 2010 at 3:34 pm
It seems that weight management is like any in life: business success, relationship AND our body weight. We MUST take responsibility for it. We have no one to blame but ourselves. All of these things are easy to do and easy NOT to do.
Great info Beverly!
Be Well,
Terry
Terry Petrovick´s last blog ..Getting Personal with Jenn Lawlor – A Vision For Success
24. April 2010 at 4:58 pm
Thanks Terry. We do have to be more responsible for our decisions.
24. April 2010 at 8:05 am
Great message to get out there Beverly! I dont think people honestly realize the hurtful effects of yo yo dieting. Love your passsion to teach people to make a lifestyle change- for good rather than these extremes here and there!
Julianna Brower´s last blog ..Complementary Strengths- Within A Tribe
24. April 2010 at 4:57 pm
Thanks Julianna, I hope people that really need to read this will stumble upon it.Education is the key to start making better choices.
24. April 2010 at 9:33 am
I have some very close family members and several clients who have yo-yo dieted all their lives, and now the struggle to lose the weight is near impossible. They have slowed down their metabolism so much from repetative caloric restriction, and of course their energy levels and mental state suffer at the same time.
Teaching people about long-term sustainable lifestyle changes is such an important message to spread! Thank you, Beverly!
Beth Allen´s last blog ..How My 2 Year Old Taught Me the Value of the Platinum Rule
24. April 2010 at 4:55 pm
Thanks Beth. Once you mess up your metabolism you have to make changes to get it working correctly again.Making lifestyle changes will make the difference.
25. April 2010 at 11:36 am
Hi Beverly,
Thanks so much for a great post. When I was younger “crash diets” were the way to go. Usually I only needed to loose a few pounds and this worked. My bad habits eventually caught up to me. We understand so much more now about food and our bodies and there is no excuse. But some people need more help. The ones that continue to struggle need to understand why they hold onto their unhealthy habits and explore how they can make those important changes. You are right, we need to focus on lifestyle changes and not diets.
Cathy Cresser´s last blog ..Budgeting for Financial Health
25. April 2010 at 12:54 pm
Thanks Cathy. Yo-Yo dieters are everywhere.If people would just be active and eat correctly and monitor themselves, things like weight would stay under control.
30. April 2010 at 11:01 am
I have always believe strongly that you should not “diet” but make healthy lifestyle choices. Great post, thanks for putting this great content out there!
Angela´s last blog ..The Road To Success Is Not Straight
30. April 2010 at 11:39 am
Thanks Angela.