Don’t follow fad diets, instead make a lifestyle change.

If you want to lose weight, don’t go on a diet. Don’t think of what you are doing is a diet. The term diet conjures up the idea of temporary.

To be successful in the long run is not to do something that is temporary but permanently. What is required is a lifestyle change.

I started using both the Lose it! App and the testosterone booster at the same time. My start date on this journey was August 29th, 2017.

The week previously I had set up an appointment with a nutritionist but she was so busy the earliest I could see her was in 6 more weeks. By the time my appointment was approaching I had already lost 10 pounds, so at that point I decided to cancel the appointment. She may have been able to give me some pointers, but I felt I could learn a lot of what I needed on my own. Besides I was losing weight for the first time in a long time.

The first thing I decided is that I did not wish to follow any fad diet. Since the key to weight loss is eating less calories than you burn then my goal became learning moderation.

The Problem with Fad Diets

A lot of times fad diets tell you to eat a lot of tasteless food and ban you from eating foods you may like. Most fad diets give long explanations that sound convincing why you should follow their plan, but really in the end all they are looking for is your money in their pocket.

Some fad diets can even be harmful if taken to the extreme because the lack of proper nutrition and energy the body needs.

Most of these diets are also unsustainable meaning they may work for a short period of time to help you lose weight but you can’t live on that diet the rest of your life.

What happens when you lose the weight with one of these diets and then get off of it? You have no means to sustain your body at the new weight and immediately you start gaining again. This is the cause of the yo-yo syndrome so many people suffer with their weight going up and down over the years.

I’ve also heard that losing and gaining weight over and over is just as bad for your heart as just staying overweight.

Make a lifestyle change

What is needed to take the weight off and keep it off is a lifestyle change. Losing weight is not about starving yourself or eating horrible food, it is about educating yourself about what you can eat, when to eat and most importantly how much you eat.

In an earlier post I talked about what to do when eating out. Hopefully you can take some pointers from that.

In the next few sections I hope to give some pointers that I learned as I went through my weight lose journey. Hopefully you will find some things you can use for yourself.

As you make the changes necessary to start losing weight you might find yourself motivated to keep it up, but motivation fades over time.

Hopefully you keep doing these things until they become habits. Once they become habits that is when you have changed your lifestyle. At that point you know you won’t ever be the same.

Once your good eating becomes a habit, you won’t want to go back to your old lifestyle. You may even start looking back on the way you use to eat and find it hard to believe you were that foolish.

What is it that is keeping you from changing your lifestyle?