The 3 golden rules of weight loss
Picture the scene. It’s time to step on the bathroom scales to see if the first week of your new diet has paid off. Surely you’ve lost half a stone this week, or at the worst about 4lbs. You take a long, deep breath… one foot on… the other foot on… and the result… half a pound!! Half a bleeding pound?! After a few re-weighs and a tactical wee your weight still hasn’t budged!
“That’s it I’m giving up!”
You’ve probably heard experts say that hair loss is one of the side effects of crash dieting… what they forget to mention is that it’s usually because it’s been pulled out when your scales don’t tell you what you want to see! Fear not dear slimmer. These 3 golden rules of weight loss will not only save you from pulling your hair out, but will help to keep you motivated long enough to reach your weight loss target.
1) Manage your weight loss expectations.
Most people give up at slimming clubs because they don’t see weight loss results fast enough. You may have seen people lose 4lbs a week on celebrity fit club or in your glossy magazine, but they will have been on a crash diet and done 4 to 5 hours exercise a day… not exactly realistic! If you’ve got a job, a family and a social life, then the most you should expect to lose is about 1 to 2lbs per week, or even less if you’re already very slim.
2) Only weigh yourself once a week.
Our weight naturally fluctuates 3 - 4lbs a day, due to water levels, so weighing yourself daily will only frustrate you. Even if you weigh yourself weekly, prepare yourself for weight fluctations and don’t give up if you gain a bit one week. As a realistic target aim to lose 4lbs every 4 weeks, which is 1lb per week on average. It may not seem like much but it actually means you’re burning off 500 calories a day, the ideal amount for long-term weight loss.
3) Track your weight loss over time.
We know that weight can bounce up and down week by week, but if you look at your weight on a graph you can see a trend over time. This trend not only gives you a visual representation of your progress, but also tells you how many calories you’re burning each day. This is far more motivating that just looking at weight changes on a week by week basis. Click here to request a free weight tracker from The Slim Company.
Try to remember that the winners in the weight loss game aren’t the people who crash diet, lose 7lbs a week over two weeks, give up and put it all back on again. It’s the people who lose on average 1lb a week over several weeks and keep it off.
Liam
The Slim Company
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