Secrets of Permanent Weight Loss
Permanent weight loss is a goal that evades much of the population. In fact, only 2% of people who attempt to lose weight are able to keep it off for a year or more.
However, what’s interesting to note is that those who do keep the weight they lose off for a year or more almost invariably keep that weight off for good.
So, what makes the difference between success and failure in permanent weight loss?
Success or Failure with Permanent Weight Loss – The Choice is Yours
I see it all the time. New clients come to my studio fired up and ready to lose weight for good. They say they are committed, motivated, and ready to do what it takes to succeed at losing weight.
Two months later, they are no where to be found. What happens with these people who are seemingly so committed to permanent weight loss, but fail to lose weight?
It’s not my program – I know it works. It worked for me, and it works for 100% of the people who adhere to the workouts and nutrition program. Fighting Fit Boot Camp gets results.
No, it’s not the method… instead, it’s the fact that these people are only temporarily committed to permanent weight loss. You see, permanent weight loss requires a permanent decision to lose weight. A “pay today, play tomorrow” attitude won’t cut it. Neither will a lukewarm attitude toward your fitness and health.
Uh-uh. Instead, it takes a lifetime commitment to a lifestyle of fitness and health. And, it’s work. It’s work to get out of bed early to train. It’s work to spend extra time planning your meals. It’s work finding healthy choices when eating out with friends and family. And, it’s work to resist their attempts at undermining your progress.
The Head Game of Permanent Weight Loss
If you haven’t figured it out yet, achieving permanent weight loss is more of a head game than most people realize. What, with the constant bombardments of advertisements tempting you to eat unhealthy foods, and with your friends and family constantly working to undermine your efforts, it’s no wonder it’s such a mentally taxing journey.
Everyone who has ever gone on a weight loss program has heard this from a friend or loved one: “C’mon, loosen up a little. You have to enjoy yourself sometimes, right?”
You see, those people close to you who see you making progress are the first ones who want to sabotage your efforts at achieving permanent weight loss. Why? Because secretly, they either fear seeing you change, or they resent it. Maybe not consciously, but they do.
Think about it… they’ve known you as your same old fat self for how long now? And, they’re probably in the same boat, right? So, when you lose weight and change your life for the better, where does that leave them? You guessed it – seeing their own failure to change in you every time you get together.
And now you know why your family and friends work so hard to undermine your attempts at permanent weight loss. However, for many people who attempt to lose weight permanently, self-sabotage is an even greater danger.
Self-Sabotaging Your Weight Loss
Self-sabotage is a very common occurrence among people who attempt to lose weight. And, the reasons and triggers can vary greatly. Even so, most self-sabotage is related to a few common themes:
- Self-medication through food – Many people overeat or binge eat because of how it makes them feel emotionally. If you grew up in a household where food was used as a reward for good behavior, or as a panacea for all ills and wrongs, you probably fall into this pattern. Some people eat when they are nervous, stressed, or depressed. Others overeat to compound the emotional high they get when gathering with friends and loved ones. And, still others overeat out of loneliness. Whatever the “trigger” is that causes you to self-medicate with food, it’s important for you to recognize these patterns so you can head them off before they happen.
- Suspension of belief in the law of cause and effect – Still other people self-sabotage by suspending their belief in the law of cause and effect. They choose to temporarily believe that if they overeat today they won’t pay for it in the long run. To lose weight permanently, you must face the fact that it is your actions that determine your weight. Maybe at some point you’ve convinced yourself that you have a “slow metabolism” or “bad genes”. Regardless of the validity of these beliefs, the fact remains that it is ultimately your actions that cause you to gain weight, because your weight gain is a direct result of your own eating habits, regardless of your metabolism or genetic predisposition to gain weight.
- Self-loathing and the failure to believe in yourself – Yes, you can want to be thin and at the same time hate yourself and undermine your own efforts to lose weight. Overcoming any feelings you have that cause you to beat yourself up is often an important step toward achieving permanent weight loss. Beating yourself up over your weight, or over slipping back into old habits only compounds the problem. Learn to replace negative thinking patterns with positive ones, and replace negative self-talk with positive thought patterns. Doing so will do loads for your self-confidence, which in turn will make it much easier for you to stick with your exercise and nutrition program.
Permanent Weight Loss Means Doing It For You And You Alone
Finally, do it for the right reason. Don’t do it for someone else, don’t do it to impress someone, or for revenge, or to show someone up. Those emotions and motivations won’t last.
Instead, you have to make a permanent decision deep down that exercise and eating right are something you are doing for you. Commit to taking care of yourself and treating yourself right through regular exercise and proper nutrition.
That’s a motivation that will last, long after you’ve shown up at your old job or at that reunion four dress sizes smaller and 40 pounds lighter. And, that way you’ll continue to be motivated to keep the weight off for good, making permanent weight loss a permanent fixture in your life!
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Tips On Losing Weight
My Top 10 Tips On Losing Weight
If you’re looking for tips on losing weight, then this article is for you. Unlike most personal trainers and fitness instructors, I’ve actually struggled to lose weight and keep it off.
I used to be naturally skinny, but a string of injuries and a chronic illness wrecked my metabolism as well as my ability to exercise three hours a day (yes, I really did exercise three hours a day, for years in fact).
As you can imagine, I had to learn how to control my weight in spite of being limited in my exercise options and despite having a slowed metabolism. This makes for a tough challenge when it comes to losing weight.
That’s something that many trainers with naturally high metabolisms and the ability to exercise for hours on end do not understand (I used to be one of them). So, if you’re in that boat this list of tips on losing weight will hopefully help you in your quest to lose weight.
I’m going to list my best tips on losing weight here. Some of them may seem a little crazy, but trust me they are things I learned about the hard way. Also, some may seem like things you already know as common knowledge. However, if you’re not doing it then “I know that already” does you not a bit of good. If you see something on this list of tips on losing weight that you already know and aren’t doing, start doing it!
So, without further ado here are my top 10 weight loss tips.
My Top Ten Tips On Losing Weight
Tips On Losing Weight #1: Skip The Sugar
Among all my tips on losing weight this one seems the most obvious, but the problem is that most people think they’re doing this but they aren’t. Sugar signals your body to release insulin which stores excess calories as fat. It also contributes to inflammation, which in turn elevates cortisol, another hormone that keeps you fat. Skip all sugary foods except for a treat once or twice a week.
Tips On Losing Weight #2: Skip The Bread and Pasta
This is another really important one among my tips on losing weight. You see, even whole wheat bread can be fattening. Why? For one, it’s calorically dense, but that’s not the end of the story. Starches are mostly digested in your mouth by ptyalin, an enzyme-containing compound in your saliva. In a nutshell, ptyalin breaks starch down into sugars, which leads us back to weight loss tip #1. So, save your breads and pastas for a treat once or twice a week when you’re trying to lose weight.
Tips On Losing Weight#3: Eat More Fruits and Veggies… Especially Veggies
Fruits and veggies are just plain good for you. Also, the carbs you get from them are much more slowly absorbed than those derived from sugary and starchy foods. In short, you should enjoy limited amounts of fruits when attempting to lose weight, and as much non-starchy veggies as you want (note: this means skip the baked potato and banana if you’re trying to lose weight).
Tips On Losing Weight#4: Eat LOTS of Lean Protein
Among the tips on losing weight this one get the most resistance from women, since they think eating protein will make them fat. It doesn’t! Protein is lower in calories per gram than carbs or fat, and it has a favorable effect on your insulin when ingested with carbohydrates. Basically, proteins, fats, and fiber slow down the absorption of carbs into your blood, blunting the release of insulin. Since insulin makes you store excess calories as fat, this is a good thing. In addition, protein helps build lean muscle tissue, which burns more calories than fat. So, load up up lean cuts of fish, white meat, and limited amount of lean red meat.
Tips On Losing Weight#5: Eat More Fiber
As I mentioned in tips on losing weight #4, fiber slows the absorption of carbs into your body. In addition, a certain amount of calories remain bound to fiber and are flushed out of your system without being absorbed. Finally, fiber fills you up without adding much in the way of calories. So when it comes to green leafy vegetables, eat up!
Tips On Losing Weight#6: Get MORE Good Fats!
Good fats are unsaturated fats, particularly omega-3 fatty acids of the type found in fish. We get way too many omega-6 fats in our diets, and too few omega-3 fats. Your body needs fat, but you want to replace unhealthy fats with healthy ones. This helps reduce inflammation in the body, which in turn helps reduce cortisol, and some researchers even believe it lowers leptin resistance as well (leptin being the hormone that increases the amount of fat you burn – being leptin-resistant is bad for weight loss). So, increase your intake of healthy fats and cut back on your intake of unhealthy fats.
Tips On Losing Weight#7: Skip the Fried Foods
Okay, I just told you to cut back on unhealthy fats in #6 on my list of tips on losing weight. This is how you’re going to do it. Fried foods tend to be laden with unhealthy saturated fats. Moreover, they are often stuffed with trans fats, which wreak havoc on your metabolism. Finally, fried foods are often breaded, which ends up being a double-whammy (fat + starch = calories going straight to your hips, thighs, and tummy). Skip the fried foods.
Tips On Losing Weight#8: Cut Processed Foods From Your Diet Entirely
Processed foods are filled with trans fats, added sugar, and added chemicals – of which, we have no idea how they affect our bodies. Show me a person who eats all processed food and I’ll show you someone with a high body fat percentage. Even “skinny” people who eat a lot of processed food have high percentages of body fat. Take the extra time to eat food that is as close to its natural state as possible. You’ll feel better and the weight will come off easier.
Tips On Losing Weight#9: Eat Less, But More Often
Among the entire list of my tips on losing weight, this one seems to be the best known but least done. Eating smaller meals and portions but more often has a positive effect on your insulin, so long as those meals pay attention to the previous eight tips above. Portion control = calorie control, and eating more often has a stabilizing effect on your metabolism. Plan to eat 5-6 small meals a day to keep your metabolism higher and to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
Tips On Losing Weight#10: Drink Plenty of Water, Exercise, and Get Plenty of Sleep
Okay, so that’s three tips on losing weight in one. Drink at least 64 ounces of water a day, as studies have shown increased water intake may assist with weight loss. Exercise at least three times a week. A study of 160 people who lost twenty pounds or more permanently showed that 70% exercised at least three times a week. Finally, get enough sleep. Lack of sleep leads to increases in cortisol, which I’ve already told you can contribute to weight gain.
And that’s it – my top ten weight loss tips. Follow them and you will find it much easier to lose weight. I hope this list of top ten tips on losing weight help you in your weight loss and fitness journey.
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Crash Diets – Why They Don’t Work
Crash Diets Don’t Work – Here’s Why
Crash diets are a phenomenon that I’ve run into repeatedly in my fifteen years as a professional fitness trainer. Clients often come to me asking about the latest crash diets their friends are on, seeking my approval so they don’t feel guilty about going on it.
Or, worse yet they go on these crash diets without letting me know, and I only find out later when they come to me complaining that their weight loss program has stalled.
What many people don’t realize when they decide to do crash diets is that these diets mostly revolve around significantly cutting back on calories. While this may seem like the way to lose some weight quickly, crash diets can often backfire and lead to rebound weight gain once you start eating normally again.
Crash Diets 101
What’s interesting about most crash diets is that they often subscribe to crazy eating habits. Crash diets typically involve eating a very limited diet, or they revolve around eating a single food exclusively. For example eating only fruit, or only meat, or drinking only juice or lemonade for days on end.
Although these types of crash diets all have different gimmicks, in every single instance they are based on a single, outdated theory for losing weight. That is, they are based on the theory that excessively limiting calories will lead to significant weight loss. And to a limited extent, that’s true.
But here’s the rub… after a short while of limiting your daily caloric intake to famine levels, your body will begin to adapt to the temporary calorie shortage by lowering the amount of energy it needs. In other words, your metabolism slows down in response to crash diets, meaning that you will start to burn less calories. In addition, your body will release hormones that signal your cells to store any excess calories you take in as fat.
Been Working Out But Still Can’t Lose The Weight?
Eating too little is as bad as eating too much when it comes to weight loss. That’s why, when my clients come to me complaining that their weight loss has stalled, the first thing out of my mouth is, “How’s your nutrition?” Usually, what follows is a description by the client of the latest fad diet they’ve been on.
Most of these crash diets manipulate the dieter’s eating habits in order to lower daily caloric intake levels to 1,200 calories or less. The problem with this is that your body roughly needs ten times your weight in calories per day just to maintain that weight. And, that doesn’t include calories you burn through exercise, either.
For example, if you’re a 150 pound female your daily caloric needs are at least 1,500 calories per day. If you’re working out doing intense exercise for at least an hour each day, you can add 500 calories to that number. So, if your body needs 2,000 calories to maintain your current weight, and you cut your daily caloric intake down to less than 1,200 a day, how do you think your body will react?
Your Genes Don’t Know A Crash Diet From A Famine
Your genes are dumb. They have no ability to rationalize why you’re starving yourself of calories. Much like a simple computer, they can only perform functions and produce outputs that match their programming. And, your genes are programmed to deal with famine by conserving energy and storing fat so you’ll have reserves of energy in case things get even worse. Crash diets trigger this response just the same as a famine would.
Since crash diets essentially involve putting your body under famine conditions, your body reacts exactly in the way it has been programmed to in case of famine. It slows your metabolism down and stores whatever it can as fat. And, even though you may lose a few pounds during the first few days on your crash diet, your body will put that weight back on and then some once you increase your caloric intake again.
And of course, I shouldn’t have to point out that cutting your caloric intake back drastically for extended periods of time points to a serious eating disorder. Hunger and weight loss by starving can easily become an addiction, which is another really good reason why I suggest avoiding crash diets altogether.
So, What’s The Alternative To Crash Diets?
If you’ve been on crash diets and want to reverse the effects, begin with the following:
- For starters, eat balanced meals that consist of healthy ratios of protein, carbohydrates, and fats.
- Eat five to six small meals and healthy snacks a day, spaced about 2-3 hours apart.
- Eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables every day, at every single snack and meal.
- Control your portion sizes.
- Avoid fried food, processed foods, sugary drinks, snacks, and desserts except as a reward for your hard work once or twice a week.
- And, drink plenty of clean, filtered water each and every day.
Simply by following these few healthy eating tips, most people who have been under-eating, over-eating, or eating the standard American diet of fried foods and sweets will start noticing a gradual and steady weight loss of 1-2 pounds a week.
So, if you really want to lose weight and keep it off, get off those crash diets and start eating a balanced healthy one instead!
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10 Reasons Why Fighting Fit Boot Camps Help You Lose Weight
Regular exercise is essential for weight loss... it helps you lose weight and keep it off.
It’s not easy getting up early three days a week or stopping off after a long day at work to hit an F2 Boot Camp.
Even so, you know that all your hard work is helping you reach your fitness and weight loss goals… but how exactly does that work?
Want to know why you need to exercise to lose weight?
While the chuckleheads at Time Magazine may claim you don’t need to exercise to lose weight (a claim which amounts to nothing more than junk science), Fitness Magazine online recently listed the top ten reasons exercise helps you lose weight:
1. Exercise zaps belly fat.
2. Exercise controls calories.
3. Exercise keeps lost pounds MIA.
4. Exercise boosts metabolism.
5. Exercise trims inches.
6. Exercise curbs emotional eating.
7. Exercise creates a healthy chain reaction.
8. Exercise brings on the fun.
9. Exercise stops hunger.
10. Exercise ups energy.
Read the full article here:
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