Weight loss is one of those goals most of us set in January, to get on it right after the holidays, but usually fail to do so and just postpone it for the next year. Why is it so hard to lose weight? Well, there are several reasons, many of them psychological, and a few simply a bodily reaction.
The main issue we have is with hunger, creeping up on us daily and making us feel miserable. But this feeling of deprivation, which mostly follows hunger, can easily be solved in a few ways, and we’re gonna cover some of them.
Do It As A Group
If you have a lot of overweight friends this could be a fun way to lose weight together. Measure the lot of you together, or one by one if you don’t have a large enough scale, before you start the diet, and set a goal of a certain weight (for example 5% less) in a month or two.
With such a change of mass at hand, it is only possible to achieve such a goal if everyone is working on it, so that gives more motivation to everyone involved.
Boost Your Diet
The diet you decide to follow to lose weight can practically be of any kind, as long as it means taking in fewer calories than you spend. But in all fairness, when you drop the amount of food you eat you will probably also drop the number of healthy nutrients you intake too.
To combat this, consider adding something to the diet that can give you a boost of energy and vitamins, but that doesn’t contain a lot of calories. Easy to come by options such as a healthy smoothie delivery make this much easier, as you don’t have to prepare such a specific thing yourself. Other tasty alternatives, such as energy/cereal bars are also worth considering.
Plan For A Cheat Day
Cheat days give you mental relief from a strict diet and should be planned at least a few times a month. If you have a huge craving for otherwise forbidden foodstuff, such as sweets or alcohol, you should give yourself a bit of ease on it to make yourself feel less deprived.
Experts agree that cheat days don’t help us at all in terms of losing weight directly, but have a huge motivational impact on the diet in general. This bit of morale boost is what many of us need to look forward to in an otherwise hungry week.
Food Supplements And You
Having a balanced diet, whatever time of year or weight you’re at is a must. It’s a thing of basic health, and everyone should be aware of the food pyramid, as well as the body’s nutritional needs regarding micronutrients. You can look up the recommended amounts here.
Micronutrients practically don’t give us any calories at all, but greatly help in maintaining a proper and healthy organism. Their sufficient intake makes us feel more energized and happy in general, something that is good to counterbalance how we usually feel while losing weight.
Cardio vs Weightlifting
You may ask yourself: “But I don’t have to eat less, couldn’t I just spend more calories each day?” and you’d be partially right. Rigorous physical activity can be a key part of any diet, and you may as well continue eating normally if you perform some sort of aerobic exercise.
Both cardio and weightlifting exercises help in this regard, though cardiovascular exercises, that greatly increase heart rate and breathing for a longer period, are what gets the job done. We lose weight through our breath, by breathing out CO2, and whatever makes us breathe out more is better for the diet.
Find Constant Inspiration
Deprivation doesn’t only come from lack of nutrients or fatigue, but from a lack of willpower too, if we don’t see expected results. And unless we adopt a very extreme diet, which usually isn’t healthy and shouldn’t be done unless specifically told so by a doctor, we won’t see results quickly. Losing weight is a slow process, and patience is needed.
If you feel like you’re not accomplishing enough, try and find a peer who has done this before you, to be your guide through this process. It can be a famous person who has reported their results on social media, but also someone close to you, who you have personally seen change with the diet.
People in developed countries are becoming dangerously overweight and that is a serious problem. The decision to lose weight is the right one and there should be nothing stopping you from achieving that goal, and as we’ve seen – not even feeling deprived.