What is your most important weight loss goal?

Is it how you perceive that you are going to look?

Or are you more interested in having a healthy body?

In years past, possibly even today, girls wanted to grow up to look like their Barbie Dolls. Today, many want to emulate the popular models that can be found on Instagram any day of the week.  In either case, those dolls and internet models often have unnatural figures.

There is nothing healthy when physical appearance has been prioritized over health and intelligence.  But yet we can find this a majority of the time when people go onto diets. Too often, the weight loss goal is focused on vanity over health, and there is a price to be paid for this fallacy. The outward beauty often does not last when the body becomes unhealthy over the years. If you are over 40 years old, I guarantee you have run into someone who was a beauty back in school. Now, you wonder what in the world has happened to them. Sadly, you might even see this in yourself.

To the men reading this, you and I both know that we often have vanity problems too! Therefore, this article is not just for the ladies.

Now that winter has passed in the upper hemisphere, people are now beginning to think about how they are going to look at the beach. During the winter months, bodies can be covered with bulky clothes. But in the heat of the summer, bulges cannot be so easily hid. When we go to the beach,  our bodies are exposed for all to see. It is at this time of year when the winter doldrums are quickly fading away that our readership at David’s Way begins to peak.

People want  to be ready for the beach by Memorial Weekend at the end of May.  If this is your weight loss goal, by choosing vanity over health, you have already lost your battle. I’m sorry if that is a hard truth for you, but that is a simple reality. If you are over your ideal weight by 20 pounds or more, the best you can hope for is to look good by the end of the summer. Much more than that, and it will be next summer before your vanity needs will be met for the beach. If your skin has lost it’s elasticity, you are not going to look good in a bathing suit when you have loose and saggy skin. Loose and saggy skin is what happens when the significantly overweight attempt to lose weight too fast.

Your weight loss goal needs to be one of health over vanity.

You might as well get used to that reality, but that does not mean to not begin working on your weight.  Instead of focusing on how you believe you want to look, how about concentrating on losing bodyfat for optimum health instead? We never recommend that anyone ever try to lose more than one pound of fat per week. This amount, or even a half pound per week is far healthier than rapid weight loss that is usually brought about by extreme dieting.

Why rapid weight loss is not good for you.

The problem with fast weight loss is that it usually takes extraordinary efforts in diet and exercise . These efforts are often unhealthy and you are not likely to maintain them as a permanent lifestyle change. You need a lifestyle change that is sustainable for the rest of your life. Fad diets, weight loss hacks and extreme exercise ,might cause you to lose weight, but besides fat, you are going to lose lean muscle mass. By losing lean muscle mass, you are going to slow down your metabolism. This loss of lean muscle will only serve to make it harder to lose weight going forward.

if vanity is your priority, rapid weight loss will not make your body look healthy. Instead, you will find people asking you if you have been sick. The reality is, with rapid weight loss, you are not as healthy as you should be. Many people who go on rapid weight loss gimmicks and diets often malnourish themselves to lose weight. If your body is healthy, it will look healthy. If it is malnourished, that is how you are going to look.

With rapid weight loss, people often regain all of their lost weight, and then some. Rapid weight loss should only be done under the care of a doctor for specific medical reasons. If you do not have a medical reason to dump weight quickly, then put your vanity aside. Place your priority on getting healthy over looking good in the moment. You will be better off!

Benefits of slow weight loss.

Yes, it is difficult to remain motivated with slow weight loss since it takes month, or even years to achieve your goals. However, with slow weight loss, you will be much healthier and happier with yourself once you achieve your goals. You have to understand that your body can only burn so much fat within a week. After this, it has to resort to burning lean muscle tissue which is not a good thing.

Eating healthy is living healthy, it’s a lifestyle, a philosophy, a way of interpreting things. It’s  an attitude of being the best you that you can be. Your weight loss goal needs to be one of health over vanity. When you are healthy, you will feel healthy. A healthy body will result in a healthy appearance. Choose health over vanity, you will be more satisfied with your outcome once reaching your goal.

Why Rapid Weight Loss Can Be Bad

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