Success Comes With Time

I’ve worked with many people and all of them have the same goal.  Everyone wants to lose as much weight as they can in the quickest amount of time.  Whatever happened to slow and steady wins the race?  You know the story of the tortoise and the hare?

ACSM recommends one to two pounds of weight loss per week.  How can we obtain this type of weight loss?   Creating a caloric deficit and increasing our exercise is the best way to achieve weight loss.  What are the ASCM recommendations?  In order to lose one pound per week you must deduct 500 kcal from the diet a day.  If you wish to lose two pounds then deduct 1000 kcal per day.  This allows for 3500-7000 kcal deduction to reduce fat.  Here’s what happens to the people trying to rush their weight loss.  First they fall victim to someone that wants to sell them “shakes”.  If they drink a shake for breakfast, one for lunch and then eat dinner they will lose weight.  Right?  Yes, however this person learns nothing about eating healthy, good quality foods and as soon as they stop drinking shakes they return to their original weight.  Worse case they gain even more weight. 

Eating is by far the hardest part of losing weight.  Mainly because everything in life seems to revolve around food or drinks.  We celebrate with food and drinks.  Also we medicate with food and drinks.  The number one drug to relieve stress and depression is FOOD.  I get it!  I was depressed and I ate everything.  I was a binge eater.  When I felt down I would bake a pan of brownies and eat all of them.  How do we get our eating under control?  Keep a food journal. You don’t have to use a fancy app just write everything down you plan to eat before eating.  This will actually help with mindful eating.  You may be a little more reluctant to eat that bag of chips if you have to write it down before.  This will actually help you understand just what types of foods your body is craving.  Are you wanting a lot of sugar/carbs? 

Exercise to me is the easiest part of weight loss.  Although people have this misconception that exercise is what will make them lose weight.  It’s not!!  Your diet is where the biggest weight loss comes from.  The ACSM recommendation for ages 18-65 is to accumulate a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic (cardiorespiratory) exercise at least 5 days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise 3 days per week.  Strength training should be a minimum of 2 days per week, 8-10 exercises hitting all major muscles and 8-12 repetitions.  Are you meeting these requirements?

When losing high amounts of weight, typically the first thing that begins to go is water and muscle mass.  It’s important to begin an exercise program that includes resistance training to minimize the muscle mass lost.  Lean muscle mass helps increase the body’s metabolism and helps with losing weight.  No worries to the women afraid they will look like men.  I resistance train a minimum of 4 days a week.  I left very heavy and I’ve managed to avoid growing an Adams apple or look like the hulk.  LOL

If you are struggling with your weight loss and would like one on one personal coaching let me know.   I would love to help you.  I have a current client I started working with in April; she has lost 22 pounds and 21 inches.  This is over a four month time frame so as you see slow and steady wins the race.