Successful Weight Loss -- Maintain A Healthy Weight

How do you start a successful weight loss program?

You might ask yourself, "What is the best way for me to reach a normal healthy weight?"

The answer is easy -- if you are willing to do whatever it takes to lose weight.

Imagine you were a machine. You didn't have likes and dislikes. You didn't have problems. You were a machine that could be programmed to do whatever needed to be done.

Then the answer is simple. The best way to start a successful weight loss program is to have:

Give your body time to adjust

Why a small calorie deficit and not a crash diet? Because your body needs to get used to changes.

Why a mild increase in exercise and not a crash exercise program? Because it takes a while for your body to adjust to heavier exercise.

The problem? Efficient fat storage.

If you are overweight it is because your body is busy storing fat. Now you go on a diet. And you want your body to break down fat and burn it up.

Well, you are not very good at breaking down fat.

It takes certain processes in the body, certain enzymes, to break down fat. Your body is good at storing fat. It is not good at breaking it down. Let's take a look at why this happens and what you can do about it.

Starvation diets

Here's a typical scenario. You go on a very-low-calorie diet. You essentially starve yourself. And what happens?

You lose healthy, lean mass instead of fat. Why? Your body is not ready to start losing fat.

It has to build up the enzymes and mechanisms that it needs to start really burning fat. And that will take a few weeks.

But if you starve yourself you can burn lean muscle for energy. And that is the last thing you want to have happen. If you do that you won't be able to maintain a healthy weight.

Cardio exercise

Remember now, we are imagining you don't have any likes or dislikes -- and that you will do whatever it takes to lose weight.

So you increase your activity. You have to do something to get the blood pumping.

This includes any activities that get you breathing and get your blood flowing. It can be walking, running, swimming, biking. It is whatever gets your heart rate up and gets your breathing up and gets your body moving.

Resistance exercise

With your cardio you also need to do some resistance exercise. Resistance exercises are the ones that fill your muscles with blood and stimulate muscle growth.

The easiest resistance exercise is weight training. If you haven't done weight training you might think it's too hard for you.

But weight lifting is the easiest exercise. It's the exercise that anyone with any fitness level or disability can do. Why? Because you can adjust the weights from heavy down to almost nothing.

If you can only lift a can of soup, then lift a can of soup. It's still weight training.

Other exercises like pull-ups and pushups work too, if you are strong enough to do them.

Start easy

But these exercises, just like the diet, should be mild at first. Why? Because if you are out of shape you can't exercise really hard at first.

If you try to exercise too hard you will just kill yourself off. You will be sore, and miserable, and you will give up. And you won't get to your normal healthy weight that way.

Will it ever get easier?

Dieting and exercise can be difficult at first. It can be quite an adjustment.

But after a few short weeks all of that will have changed.

The exercise will get easier and easier. The new food patterns, where you are eating the right amounts of the right foods, will get easier and easier.

Your body will start getting more efficient. And since you will be providing higher quality energy sources with your better food choices, you will have more pep and vigor.

And before long you'll get to a normal healthy weight for you and be able to maintain it.

A new life

When you start a truly successful weight loss program you are starting a new life.

So you see, the hardest part of your new program, and the hardest part of your new life, is the beginning. After that it gets easier. That is why you want to go slow at first.

But remember, we were imagining you were a machine without likes and dislikes. And that ignores the human aspect.

Likes and dislikes

Do you hear yourself saying this?

Well, just realize that this is what is keeping you from finally losing those extra pounds.

So if you want to reach a normal healthy weight, and maintain a healthy weight, start with the steps we've outlined here. Your patience will be rewarded.

And remember, perseverance equals results.

Are you ready to lose weight?

Your next step is to get a copy of the book, Dr. Dan's Super Weight Loss Plan.

It has everything you need to get to a good weight and to stay there.

Popular articles: