Everyone sits down and makes plans to diet when they want to lose weight, but few people are actually able to stick to those plans. This is mostly due to a lack of knowledge about the needs of your body, the limits of your body, and your own personal mental blocks as well. Many people also underestimate the addiction of their body to certain substances and then are surprised when they don’t get the results that they want right away. However, there are a few hints that can help keep you on track, even if you have never stayed on track before.
First, don’t try and jump into something super drastic right away. Give yourself a month where you count the calories in the food you eat and begin to see just how much you are consuming. Remember it takes over 3000 calories to make a pound, but that it also takes a deficit of almost 500 calories a day from your bodies basic maintenance level to lose one pound a week. If you are 100 pounds overweight, this may mean your weight loss is a 2 year journey.
Secondly, try and eliminate foods from your diet that you have problems keeping away from. This may mean bread, potatoes, sugar, anything that you really struggle to keep out of your home. Don’t buy it, don’t eat it, don’t think about it. Go cold turkey on one item a month and break the addictive cycle. Most of the time these foods are going to contain refined sugar which is extremely addicting. You should notice a difference in your levels of health within just a few days and within a month your cravings for the items should go away.
Next, take the time to figure out your BMI (Body Mass Index) and TDEE (Total Daily Energy Expenditure). These are important numbers that will tell you just how many calories you need in a day and just how many you will need to burn to lose weight as well. As you get older, this number will actually go down so it is important to make sure that you are completely honest with any tool you use to figure these measurements. Recalculate them as you lose weight, making sure to change your information every 10 pounds or so. This will help prevent the dreaded plateau.
Understand that plateaus are normal and are usually not a sign that you have stopped losing weight, but that your body is beginning to adjust itself into a better shape. Take your basic measurements and check them if your diet seems to have stalled. You may find that you are losing inches or gaining muscle when you thought that nothing was happening.
Taking the time to really think about what you are doing when you make plans to diet will make all the difference between being able to make your goals and spending the rest of your life at the same weight. So do the right thing and take care of your body even while dieting.