Losing weight is not rocket science, but there are plenty of mistakes to make. If you follow these rules you can avoid the pitfalls of Weight Loss.
- Do not under eat. With shows like "The Biggest Loser" on TV many people want to set unrealistic weight loss goals. You cannot lose more than 1-2 pounds per week for long and avoid hurting your metabolism. If you starve yourself then your body will react to protect you. It will slow down your metabolism and that makes it easy for you to gain weight. Do the math and figure out how to eat about 500 calories less than you burn everyday and you will consistently lose weight and not yo-yo like other plans.
- Don't over exercise. The same principle applies here. If you are already eating less than you burn and then add in an excessive amount of exercise you can quickly move from a healthy calorie deficit to starvation and accomplish the same negative metabolic response. Steadily build-up more work each week in the gym and you will avoid the plateaus and the yo-yo.
- Take your vitamins. When you eat less and exercise more you create a gap in your nutrients that cannot be made up without either eating more or taking vitamins. Obviously it would be best to know specifically what those nutrients are and take only those, but as a fail safe take a multi-vitamin and a protein shake everyday and protect that hard earned muscle.
- It's OK. Not every week is a great week, sometimes you may even have a slide. It's OK and even expected for that to happen. You can either give up, like many do, or use that as motivation to tighten up the screws and get that weight off next week. If you do improve your effort I think that you will find that you also improve the result.
- Seek Professional Advice. If you are frustrated then seek out the advice of an expert. Someone who does Weight Loss for a living, like a Nutritionist or a Personal Training, will likely know where you are missing and be able to help adjust your program so that you start seeing results again.
