Why does excess weight not go away so quickly and how to properly motivate yourself.
Losing weight losing weight strife. It’s one thing when you want to lose a couple of kilos by the beach season, and quite another if the goal is to get rid of several tens of kilograms for medical reasons. This path is not easy, and there are pitfalls on it – the heroes of the popular TLC project “I weigh 300 kg” and its continuation “I weigh 300 kg: what happened next?” So what difficulties lie in wait in the process of fighting overweight and how to avoid them? Let’s try to figure it out.
The first difficulty: the “help” of the hall
Overweight people have repeatedly heard from relatives, friends and first-comers that they urgently need to lose weight. These recommendations are distributed, it would seem, with the best intentions, in case a person himself does not know about the dangers of obesity for health, although in fact he knows this better than all the advisers put together. But as soon as you start losing weight, all your friends begin to try to feed you – again from “the best intentions.” “Come on, nothing will happen from one piece of cake.” “Tomorrow you will go on your diet again, and today relax.” Surely such phrases were heard by many losing weight from their mothers, grandmothers and girlfriends.
In this situation, there are two dangers. The first is to succumb to persuasion from the desire not to offend anyone and to leave the race. If you do this once, really nothing bad will happen. But then it will be more difficult to return to it – the next day you will want to succumb again, and then again and again. The second is to start avoiding meetings with friends, parties and any events where there will be delicious food, for fear of not resisting the temptations. This is fraught with new complexes and eating disorders. To avoid these pitfalls, focus on your goal – constantly remind yourself why you are losing weight, what it will give you. And do not refuse to communicate with friends and family – their support is very important.
The second difficulty: the numbers on the scales
You adhere to the optimal diet, exercise, but the readings on the scales seemed to freeze! Or, even worse, the numbers even went up a bit. It can demotivate – when there is no result, even the most persistent wants to give up. There may be several reasons why the weight does not go away. Firstly, muscles are heavier than fat, and if you focus on physical activity, then in the first stages it may turn out that the volumes become smaller and the body weight does not. The main thing here is not to stop at the start and continue to go to the goal, the result, expressed in kilograms, will appear a little later.
Secondly, it may only seem to you that you are eating right, but actually consume a lot of “invisible” calories. For example, you counted the calorie content of breakfast, lunch and dinner, but did not take into account a piece of chocolate in the morning tea, nuts that your colleagues treated you to, a bag of sunflower seeds in the evening on the TV. All this seemed to you such trifles that you did not even begin to take them into account, whereas such snacks by caloric value can outweigh the main diet.
The third reason is the so-called plateau effect, which sooner or later almost all losing weight face. Weight left, left, and then once – and stopped, although you are doing exactly the same thing. Unlike the first case, body volumes also do not decrease. You should not be afraid of the effect of the plateau: during this period, the body stabilizes, the body “gets used” to the new weight. The main thing is again not to panic and continue on your way. To get off the ground, you can change the type of physical activity, the training schedule, in consultation with the trainer. But what definitely does not need to be done is to get upset, sharply reduce the diet or quit everything.
Difficulty Three: Lack of Time
Modern life goes on at high speeds, and when you try to make time to take care of yourself, you understand that it simply does not exist. You do not have time to prepare healthy food for yourself, and therefore you buy a sandwich in the machine. You have no time to go in for sports, because you spend all day at work. You do not have time to go to a nutritionist or psychologist, because all the days off you get enough sleep after a busy working week.
In fact, there will be time if you correctly prioritize and carefully analyze your routine. No time to work out at the fitness club? Just go fast part of the way to work and back. No time to cook in the evenings? Take care of this on the weekend and prepare your own food for a few days in advance – at the same time save money, because it is usually more expensive to cook food from a cafe or a supermarket. By the way, you can immediately put it in containers, in the morning just put one of them in a bag and take it with you to work. Do not want to refuse to watch your favorite series? Look at it not on the couch, but on the simulator. Along the way, analyze how much time you spend on social networks, playing computer games or surfing the Internet. Why not spend it more profitably?
Difficulty Four: Psychological Problems
Sometimes it happens that overeating leads to excess weight, which in a sense performs a protective function. A person who has experienced a serious psychological trauma begins to “seize” his pain. This process can get out of hand – and with it weight. If the cause of obesity is such, then to get rid of excess weight, you must first get rid of traumatic psychological attitudes – of course, with the help of a specialist. Otherwise, the process of losing weight can have the opposite effect – new and new breakdowns will lead to the fact that the weight will become even more than the original.
This is exactly what happened with Erica Wall, the heroine of the program “I weigh 300 kg: what happened next?” The girl has been fat since childhood. This was facilitated by her whole family’s addiction to fast food and a sedentary lifestyle. As a result, at the age of 12, she weighed 90 kilograms, and then her weight exceeded a hundred. Under pressure from her father, at the age of 16, Erica underwent surgery to reduce the stomach, but soon after that she experienced a rape and began to seize the pain she experienced. As a result, the braces that were installed on her stomach flew out, and her body weight went up sharply. The operations were repeated, but the psychological trauma did not disappear. Erica continued to seize her, the staples fell out again, the stomach increased, and by the age of 44, the woman weighed 300 kilograms. Participation in the project helped her understand that surgery alone is not enough, and Erica Wall took up not only external, but also internal problems. Now she is systematically and purposefully losing weight by changing her lifestyle – she has already lost more than 100 kilograms.
Difficulty fifth: discomfort at the start
Like it or not, the process of losing weight is stress. No matter how you convince yourself that spinach is healthy, and movement is life, lying on the sofa at first glance is more pleasant than straining in the gym, and tasty food is not always healthy. Therefore, at the initial stage, the body will be sweaty, and the brain will yell: “Stop bullying!” Do not listen to it. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, yes, shortness of breath appears in the second minute, yes, I want to stop right now, but don’t give up. Later, you will get a taste and realize that movement can be enjoyable, and you can prepare many tasty dishes from healthy products.
In addition, discomfort at the start is due to the fact that a person is embarrassed to consult a specialist, be it an endocrinologist, nutritionist or trainer. This embarrassment is worth overcoming, especially when it comes to serious weight loss – independent experiments with diets without proper weight loss experience usually do not lead to anything good. Therefore, at the initial stage, it is very important to support someone who understands how your body works and what needs to be done to rid it of extra pounds without harming it. When it comes to health, amateur performance is inappropriate, therefore, if you need to lose weight to improve the physical condition of the body, be sure to do it under the supervision of a specialist. In a word, do not be afraid of anything and believe in yourself, and most importantly – start, and let the example of the heroes of the project inspire you “I Weigh 300 Kg: What Happened Next?”, Which airs on TLC on Wednesdays at 21:00. They could – and you can!