Lose Pounds and Stay Slim

It seems that every time I open a book or read an article on losing weight I find someone else writing about how ineffective dieting is.

The truth is that in order to lose weight you need to burn off more calories than you take in. It sounds so simple doesn’t it? ‘Does that mean going on a diet?’ You might ask. What I know is that if you are not losing weight at present and you want to lose weight in the future, you will need to make changes. You will need to change your eating pattern or your exercise routine or both. Not only that, but if you don’t sustain the changes on goes the weight again. This creates the ‘yo yo effect,’ and I’m not talking about the biscuit of the same name. That’s why diet alone can actually be counter productive; you make some changes, you get a result and then you put on weight again because the diet is not sustained. That can be discouraging.

Do you need to count calories and use food charts? This can be effective, but remember, losing weight in the short term is only one part of the equation. You need to enjoy your food and eat a balanced, healthy diet. That means protein, carbohydrate and a small amount of fat.

How can you reach the weight you want to be and also enjoy your life? Many people on a diet might say that this is an impossibility. I have read that you can lose weight instantly by eating only oranges and drinking water. That’s true, but how long could you keep that up, and how long will it take you to get fed up with oranges? I knew one girl who lived mainly on carrots and eventually her skin colour began to turn to a kind of pre-tan orange. Extreme diets can have undesirable effects as well as the required weight loss.

There are lots of slimming clubs out there like weight watchers, and they can be a great help. These offer dietary advice, you may get peer support and you are weighed regularly. If you are serious about controlling your weight you probably weigh yourself regularly anyway.

One of the problems for people who want to lose weight is that most people like fat. Do you know that by putting butter or margarine on bread you increase the amount of calories by around 80%? It is possible to significantly reduce the amount of calories by reducing your intake of fats contained in sugar, dairy produce and oil or fatty spreads.

A burger meal, for example, will contain half the calorific content if you take it without cheese on the burger, choose a smaller portion of fries and substitute a diet coke for a milk shake.

You can easily understand the basic principle. Check out what you are eating with this in mind and you could be on the way to controlling your weight without too much effort.

Exercise too can help, and if you can build this into your daily routine, by walking rather than driving or travelling by public transport so much the better.

These strategies are examples of finding small ways to adjust your life that are easy for you to maintain. There are many such adjustments that can be made depending on the individual. Some may take more effort than others, and that is where life coaching can help. A coach can help you to identify your goals, look at your lifestyle and identify the changes that will work for you. Rather than going on a diet you can be supported to make the necessary changes. There is the added benefit of knowing that there is someone working with you who cares enough to challenge you to find your way to a fuller, richer life, and to reach your desired weight.