Is frustration your biggest obstacle with losing weight?
Are you not losing as fast as you would like, or maybe not losing at all?
For every obstacle you may encounter with sustainable weight loss, we at David’s Way to Health and Fitness can help you. Brenda Sue and I can help you because we have also been in your shoes. There is nothing you can bring up as an obstacle to weight loss that either one or the both of us have not also encountered. We can advise you all day long, but in the end, it is going to be up to you to implement what is necessary in order to lose those unwanted pounds. No magic pills, fad diets, or gimmicks are ever going to bring you healthy and lasting results. Frustration with weight loss is natural for all, but you can overcome it.
One scenario we often encounter from our followers is they are getting frustrated with their lack of progress – yet when we query them about their daily habits, they are not actually doing all that is necessary to lose their weight. When it comes to healthy, and lasting weight loss, you have to be all in – otherwise you are only setting yourself up for future failure. Are you aware that ninety five percent of all dieters regain their weight and then some. This occurs because no matter what they may think, they have not gone all in for their themselves.
What does it mean to be all in for oneself?
Going all in means you will leave no stone unturned in your journey for weight loss. Frustrations will come and go, however you will have to understand that you must be steadfast. To be steadfast in your weight loss endeavor means that you are going to have to make some lifestyle changes. If you believe that lifestyle changes are not necessary, you can welcome yourself to the ninety five percent of diet failures.
I was reading today where a young lady was frustrated about her lack of weight loss even after fessing up to the fact that she was not holding herself 100 percent accountable for the foods that she was consuming. She was of the mind that the exercise she was doing each day should suffice for any extra calories she had eaten by the end of the day.
The first problem is that she was not holding herself fully accountable for everything that she eats. Most people vastly underestimate how many calories they consume in a day, especially when they drink a good bit of their calories.
“Scientists, physicians and counselors have often blamed overweight people as trying to fool others — or themselves — about how much they are eating,” said Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics at Cornell, and author of “Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think.” He noted that studies have reported that overweight people underestimate their calorie intake by 40 percent, compared with normal-weight people who underestimate their calorie intake by an average of 20 percent.
Think of the ramifications of underestimating your caloric intake by forty percent.
Because we all are prone to underestimating how many calories we consume, it should be obvious why it is important to weigh, measure, and track all that you eat! Which is the larger frustration – weighing, measuring, and tracking your foods, or not losing weight as you desire? Weighing, measuring, and tracking is going all in by 100%. Anything else is only going to lead to future frustrations!
This young lady’s second problem is that she naively believes that she can exercise away those extra calories. While this is true, it is also true that people vastly overestimate how many calories they burn through exercise and other activities. I hate to break it to you, but you are not likely burning near as many calories as you might believe.
Do yourself a favor when it comes to exercise and forget about calorie burn—focus on the other health benefits of exercise instead. Some people eat more after exercise simply because they’re hungrier, but others tend to eat more because they believe they burned more calories than they actually did.
Studies have found that popular activity trackers may overestimate calorie burn by up to 93%.
Let’s say you burned 350 calories through your activity according to your device, and adjusted your calorie intake accordingly. A 93% overestimation means that you’d be eating 326 more calories than you needed. This will certainly derail your weight loss efforts and may even cause weight gain. For this reason, we tell people to figure out how many calories per day they need to lose, or to maintain their weight, and forget about adjusting them for your activity.
If you are not losing weight, you can know you need to adjust your calories downward if you are in weight loss mode. If you are gaining weight, you know that you need to adjust your calories lower. We recommend 500 calorie increments for adjustments. Weight loss occurs when you consistently burn more calories than you take in. This is mostly accomplished through diet. While exercise has so many amazing health benefits—ranging from disease prevention to socialization to improved mental health—studies show that it’s not as effective as diet for weight loss as most people believe it to be.
The folly of continuing to eat poor food choices.
Some commercial weight loss programs allow for you to continue eating your favorite foods. They tell you that you can do this and still lose weight. While it is true that you can lose weight, you are more than likely to regain what you have lost when you do not change your nutritional lifestyle!
Simply put, if an alcoholic or drug addict should never be able to expect to be capable of random use of their vices – you need to consider that you are not any different from those folks when it comes to your comfort foods.
The American Society of Addiction Medicine, the nation’s largest professional society of physicians dedicated to treating and preventing addiction, now embraces a broad definition of addiction, which encompasses not only drugs and alcohol but also “process” addictions such as food, sex and gambling. Why? Because of the effect all of these substances and behaviors have on the brain. (2)
Large, commercial weight loss businesses, that take in millions of dollars each year from their customers know that alcohol, drugs – and to a lesser extent processed junk foods – flood the brain with the feel-good neurotransmitter dopamine. They know that dopamine affects the regions of your brain that govern pleasure and self-control. Over time, the function and structure of the brain change and dopamine receptors are reduced, making drugs, food and other substances less enjoyable but still desperately desired.
Choose your frustration!
Would you rather be frustrated because you can’t lose weight, and then keep it off?
Or, would you rather be frustrated in quitting some foods altogether, and then be able to enjoy better health and successful weight loss?
Can you bend over comfortably and tie your shoes?
Is climbing a flight of stairs too much for you?
Would being able to walk your child around a zoo all day be worth more than sugar filled treats in your diet?
How many more frustrations do you want to live with when you peer into the mirror, or look down at your bathroom scales? If you want to know how I know about these things, it is because I have personally experienced them all.
If you are tired of the frustrations that come with weight loss, you can simply follow our FREE and EASY plan here at David’s Way to Health and Fitness. It has been my pledge from day one that we will never charge our followers and subscribers a single cent, we believe in the value of your health and well being over personal profit.
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(2) Psychology Today