Whenever a new year comes, most people often add losing weight to their list of resolutions. It is expected, of course following the holiday season that usually has a lot of people either eating more than they should or just indulging in what they already know is not good for them. Losing weight may be a goal for many but as the year progresses, a lot of people will start to experience challenges. Here’s how to lose weight and keep it off.
Watch your diet
Sticking to a calorie controlled diet has never been easy. There’s the temptation to eat tastier foods, which are unfortunately very high in calories, everyday. The decrease in food intake during the dieting process is also very hard for our bodies to immediately accept. In fact for some, the first few days of dieting will see them experience hunger even faster and more often. Recent studies show that humans poorly detect overeating. In a certain study, overeating by 150% of the recommended calorie intake per day did not even change the appetite of the participants on that particular day or on the next day. This goes to show how much the body fails to adjust to account for the extra calories consumed. That said, it is important to stay aware of how many calories you are taking in. This is because if you end up overeating a few times, you might end up either gaining even more weight or failing at weight loss. Research actually shows that the weight people gain over the holidays is often times maintained throughout the entire following year. Similarly, if you choose to overeat over the weekend, it might just cancel out the strict diet you have been under all week. You really don’t want that because it beats the purpose. By now you understand just how easy it is to overeat but this does not mean it is impossible to lose weight. In fact, it is better to be aware of this so that you make better choices when it comes to your eating habits.
Always exercise
Despite the fact that gaining weight is easier for our bodies compared to losing it, changing your lifestyle can help. Most people actually do not like exercising and will sometimes even overlook it. This is a mistake though because getting active and staying active will help you to a great extent in losing weight and maintaining the weight loss over a longer period of time. Exercise compliments a healthy diet and will help reduce the amount of hunger you experience through dieting alone. This is because, when you exercise intensely, there will be a reduction in the amount of hunger you will feel.
Be flexible
No matter what diet plan you go for, you will need to exercise some kind of flexibility. This is because it will require you, more often than not, to give up something you really like to eat. You might also find yourself in a situation that would require you to compromise the diet. For example, you could get an invite to an event, which may involve indulging in foods that your diet restricts, or one that will have you overeating. In such cases, you might have to eat less on the days before the event or after the event to compensate for the overeating. This is to say that we should constantly be mindful of what we eat, consciously monitoring our diet and lifestyle behaviors, in order to keep the weight down.
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