Have You Given Up on Weight Loss? by Greg Landry, M.S I receive several email messages every day from people who have given up on weight loss. They are at wits end and they don't know what to do. They've "tried it all" and they believe it's impossible for them to lose weight. Many of them have lost weight and gained it all back, and more. Some of them have struggled with losing weight all their lives and have never been successful with it. One lady from Alabama wrote to me last spring, "I have been trying to lose about sixty pounds for over 23 years. I quit! I'm resolved to the fact that I will be fat for the rest of my life" How saddening that comment is. but I'm happy to tell you this lady, with a little guidance, is now 65 pounds lighter than she was one year ago.. and she has some muscle tone. Needless to say, she no longer believes that she'll be fat for the rest of her life. I tell you this simply to illustrate the fact that you don't have to give up on weight loss. YOU can lose weight, but you have to be willing to do what it takes.. and here's what it takes! If we look at people who have been successful at weight loss *and* maintaining that loss, a couple of things are very apparent. These two factors are present in the lives of most of them.. 1. They do some form of aerobic exercise 5 to 7 days per week. These people aren't exercise wimps! They know how critically important this is to their weight loss/ maintenance and they get out and do it! They average 45 minutes per day with the range being 30 to 90 minutes per day. This not only burns lots of calories, but, perhaps more importantly, it elevates their basal metabolic rate. 2. They do some type of weight training 2 to 3 days per week. This has a tremendous affect on basal metabolic rate and muscle tone. Success at maintaining a weight loss is much higher in people who have weight trained while they were losing weight versus those who haven't. Now, obviously, healthy eating habits are also very important. However, most of these people say that their exercise habits seem to dictate their eating habits.. meaning that if they can be consistent with exercise, their eating habits seem to fall into place. I've had many clients tell me that their daily exercise puts them in a "healthy" frame of mind and helps them to make better food choices. Bottom line; when they are exercising consistently, their eating habits are better. I firmly believe that a major factor in most peoples frustration with weight loss is that they haven't been told the truth about exercise. You see, twenty minutes, three days per week isn't going to cut it for weight loss. If you're serious about weight loss, then you have to get serious about exercise. -It's all about changing your basal metabolism through exercise. -It's about looking at exercise as a part of your daily routine, just like brushing your teeth. -It's about viewing exercise as something you're doing to get healthy and feel great! "If you *vigorously* pursue fitness and health, weight loss will happen"(tm) copyright 2004 by Greg Landry, M.S. |
