...and all your weight loss won't happen in the first month. Let's face it. The ability to lose weight and keep it off is not easy. If losing weight were easy the weight loss industry wouldn't be making a fortune off of weight loss challenges. Probably the number one why people fail is they do not focus on long-term strategies for success. Achieving and maintaining your ideal weight is a lifestyle choice and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise really doesn't have your best interests at heart. This is why simple dieting doesn't work for maintaining, but only works as a quick fix, sometimes.
In the beginning of any weight loss journey, it seemed that the fat just starts to melt off. I remember my second week in Weight Watchers, I lost almost 6 lbs! The most I've lost in one week since then is around 4 lbs but that surely does not happen often. Typically, when I have a loss, I'm losing between .5 & 2.0 lbs a week, which is a perfect rate. Some weeks I gain. Some week I maintain.
For Christmas last year (2010) I received the Weight Watchers scale. This thing is awesome! You can program up to four people in this scale and it tells you your BMI, bone density % and water weight %. The problem with this awesome, high-tech scale is that I weight myself multiple times a day when before this scale, it was once a week, at my meeting. I've notice there are two ways that people who weigh at home during the week look at the situation. If you see a loss on the scale (a) you are proud that you've lost and you "treat" yourself to something you otherwise wouldn't. Maybe you treat yourself twice because you are really excited you did so well to lose, or (b) you see the loss and it motivates you to maintain that loss or keep losing to ensure a good weigh-in. I am guilty of both situations but I tend to lean more towards situation b. Thankfully.
There is another problem with weighing yourself throughout the week. What if you see a large gain? "...but how could I gain 3.0 lbs since yesterday!?!?" In the first week of owning my new scale, I swear to you I weighed myself 4-6 times a day. Not because I thought I'd keep losing during the day but because I wanted to see the differences. I'd weigh myself in the morning (undoubtedly the lightest you'll weigh all day), after breakfast, with clothes on, then off, after dinner and right before bed. Throughout the day my weight could fluctuate up to 4.0 lbs.
Unless you are able to handle the kind of situation where you weigh increases or decreases, sometimes dramatically, from day to day, I recommend (a) only weighing in once a week, at a set time and day of the week or (b) if you want to weigh yourself daily, do it at the same time every day. If you weigh at breakfast today, don't weigh after dinner tomorrow.
It's going to take a while, especially if you are at the beginning of your journey, to be where you want to be. I'm right on target to have lost 52 lbs in 52 weeks. (Fingers crossed) That breaks down to 1 lb a week for a year. There have been gains and losses throughout the year of up to around 3.5 lbs, so I like that it evens out to a pound a week, even though that doesn't seem like much.
If you choose to weigh yourself daily, don't be upset if the numbers are not what you expect. And don't let it slow you down on your journey. Remember, it takes time! If you wanted to be at your goal in a month you would go on a strict, unhealthy diet for a short amount of time but as soon as you bring back your regular foods, you will put it all back on and probably then some because you will feel like you've denied yourself. The key to maintaining and achieving your goals is to modify the habit you have and learn healthier ways to eat. Not to take foods out. It's very unrealistic to say you will never eat a hamburger again.
No comments:
Post a Comment