The Work of Dramatic Weight Loss

The Work of Dramatic Weight Loss requires discipline but yields great satisfaction and many rewards. It is a long battle that begins after the weight is lost and continues with the almost equal effort necessary to maintain the weight loss.

The person desirous of losing dramatic weight has to be aware of two opposing forces. The brain does not like weight loss. The metabolism, as an agent for the brain, fights weight loss during and after the weight is lost.

How the Brain Preserved Us in Our Evolution

Early life on earth had two main activities, find food and reproduce. The early organism’s mechanisms were developed to use the energy consumed to maintain the life force and preserve that energy for necessary functions.

The brain has not changed on its basic responsibilities. Our various hormones are evolved to make us hungry so we search for food. We have satiety hormones that say we have eaten enough. These two monitors are the basic areas where people who are overweight are getting incorrect signals.

How to Begin the Weight Loss Regimen

Some of the leading questions for health coaches and nutritionists of their clients are do you eat only when you are hungry, do you know when you are full, do you only eat things you like? Addressing these three issues are an important first step in weight loss. The first week of a weight loss regimen should start with being aware of these three issues and addressing them.

Weight loss is not just arriving at a negative calorie balance which is fundamental. Weight loss routines should be sustainable and result in achieving normal weight and a new lifestyle that is healthy.

Starving is Not a Viable Strategy

One of the basic fundamentals is you cannot starve yourself for long term weight loss. The brain, as mentioned, is the primary caretaker of our well fare and the metabolism rides shotgun. As soon as we start starving the body, the metabolism cuts out services to the body to preserve the main body functions. It holds onto fat. It deprives immunity and digestion of energy to preserve the heart, brain, and circulatory systems. It starts feeding on muscle.

A successful weight loss regimen will reduce energy intake (food) and maintain or increase energy output (exercise). Reducing energy consumption by 500 to 1,000 calories a day will have dramatic affects over time.

Selecting the Right Foods for a New Lifestyle

What is important are the foods eliminated and the foods selected for consumption. More dramatic results will be enjoyed by eliminating foods with sugar, white flour, and cooking oils. Foods to be eliminated are pastries, desserts, cereals, white rice, sodas, energy drinks, alcohol, pastas, pizzas, and restaurant foods high in sodium and cooked in polyunsaturated oils.

So what is left? Lean meats, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, healthy fats, nuts and seeds. These become the basis of a diet that should be followed for a lifetime. Once weight is lost, the metabolism has been lowered to an extent returning to the diet that was followed previously is not possible.

Once the Target Weight is Reached

When the target weight is reached, the real battle begins. The brain wants us to regain the weight. The metabolism doesn’t give us much credit for exercise. We face the demons. What is helpful is if the process, we learned to eat healthy foods and eliminated our cravings. This should happen within a month or two of healthy dieting.

The best plan is eating a bland diet. The brain soon loses interest in high calorie dense foods. The brain loves chocolate cake and ice cream, but when we start dining on bland foods the brain reduces our cravings and learns to do without. This makes maintaining the weight loss much easier.

This is when exercise is needed to assist with energy burn. In the past, our exercise burned 500 calories and our metabolism would use the carbohydrate stores and then fat to fuel our body. After dramatic weight loss, the metabolism is more stingy with burning fat. It may also turn to muscle for fuel.

Build Muscle for Added Benefits

Building muscle after we have started dramatic weight loss serves a few purposes. It develops the sensors in the muscles that increase their glucose absorption. Glucose is made from carbohydrates. The muscle building increases our metabolism rate. Muscle building maintains our muscle so the body doesn’t use it for fuel. This is a problem faced by anorexics.

Stress reduction and adequate sleep can play a big role in weight loss. Stress creates cortisol which supports maintaining belly fat. Stress can induce us to eat poorly as compensation or rationalization for the problems we are facing. Lack of sleep produces cortisol which results in the issues just mentioned. They may lead to more sugar consumption, over eating, poor food choices, and alcohol.

Drinking more water becomes a cornerstone of losing weight. In fact, it has been shown that just increasing water consumption to a minimum of 100 oz a day can cause weight loss before even reducing calories. Water is your friend. Hunger is often our body’s cry for water. If we don’t drink enough, the body will search our food for water instead of using energy for digestion.

It is Time to Start More Planning

Weight loss requires more planning. We have to plan our meals. We most likely have to stop eating at drive-throughs. We have to create our food list and go shopping. We have to read ingredient labels. We want to avoid excess sodium and added sugars. We want to monitor how many calories we are getting per serving in packaged goods. We want to reduce the amount of packaged goods we consume unless it is frozen vegetables, fruits and lean meats.

Losing dramatic weight becomes a lifestyle. We will learn to love our lighter weight. We look and feel better in clothes. The fat drains from our face. We start to look healthier and more youthful. We feel better. It increases our capacity for oxygen uptake so we can exercise for longer and enjoy recreation. If we are exercising to build strength and stamina at the same time as losing weight, we become a whole new person.

I recently went through the process of losing 40 pounds and it is worth every minute. I will never go back and I love my new lifestyle. I thought I was healthy before and was a regular exerciser, but now that I am below my graduating high school weight, I am enjoying a whole new level of existence. You can too.

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Making Gratitude a Primary Goal

The Work of Dramatic Weight Loss

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