If you have been dieting to lose some weight and improve your health, you are certainly not alone. Around forty-five million Americans start dieting each year with roughly $33 billion being spent annually on weight-loss products. And still, almost two-thirds of Americans continuously struggle with weight, and it has something to do with how they diet.
An overview of dieting
A majority of conventional diets can be defined by a set of main features:
- Weight is supposed to be lost too quickly in a defined period of time
- Foods are classified to be either “good” or “bad”
- Eating rules tend to be based on environmental cues
- Calorie income is considerably reduced
- Progress is being judged based on a number on your scale
Most people at some point in time have tried to get on a diet for weight loss, particularly in case of an upcoming vacation or some important event. If you ever followed such a diet, you must have felt hungry, tired, frustrated, and eventually discouraged. That’s because most diets tend to be short-term and are not healthy for our bodies.
Choosing a lifestyle change
The main thing you have to do to achieve weight loss is to start thinking in terms of long-term lifestyle changes, and you will have to follow them for the rest of your life. It is crucial to understand that weight management is a lifelong journey, and you will have to constantly work hard in order to maintain your weight. A short-term diet won’t let you achieve that goal.
Here is a behavior that you can stick to in order to make a lifestyle change for the long haul:
- Eating only nutritious and Whole Foods
- Practicing moderation instead of restriction
- Exercising consistently and on a regular basis
- Listening to your body to understand what you really need
- Losing weight at a steady and moderate pace (around 1-2 lbs per week)
- Measuring progress not just by a number on the scale
You will notice the difference
When you will start making long-term lifestyle changes in place of short-term dieting, a few things will become apparent. First of all, you are being kinder to your body, and so you are far less likely to experience extreme cases of hunger, feeling of weakness, exhaustion, and mental stress. Lifestyle changes will teach you to understand what your body is telling you, and you will notice that weight-loss despite being slower, is more permanent. Research has shown that people following short-term diets are likely to regain most of the weight they have lost or even all of it, and it can be very discouraging.
So, if you are attempting to manage your weight, try to focus on the long road that you have ahead of you. It is tempting to try losing a lot of weight quickly, but this is very harmful to your body and will most likely only result in weight regain.