One of the 1st basic step that you have to do when you decide to plan a diet is to set a goal weight. For most, that goal will be their 'ideal weight', but for many, that 'ideal weight' may be exactly the wrong weight for them to be aiming for. Years of dieting or being overweight have the physiological effect of moving the body's concept of the 'ideal weight' from what is truly considered ideal. The 'set point' is the weight at which your body naturally feels most comfortable.
If you've been overweight for a very long time, or if you've consistently 'yo-yoed', your body may respond to your initial diet plan by lowering its metabolism because it believes that you are starving to death. This slowing leads to discouraging plateaus that often knock people off their diet plans entirely, and lead to regaining all or part of the loss weight.
Instead of aiming for an 'ideal weight' that calls for you to lose weight steadily for months or even years, 2nd step you need to do is aiming for shorter-term attainable goals of diet plan. Since the bulk of diet research shows that most dieters lose weight steadily for about 12 weeks, then hit a plateau, that's the number that they suggest you aim for. The diet plan strategy that many have found works best for them is one of alternating periods of weight loss and maintenance, each lasting 8-12 weeks.
While aiming shorter-term diet plan, you need to choose a realistic amount of weight that you plan to lose in 8-12 weeks. Figuring that the most reasonable and healthiest weight loss rate is 1-2 pounds per week, so 30 pounds in three months is not unreasonable. Keep patient and consistent doing your diet plan until you reach that goal, or for 12 weeks, whichever comes first.
Then, the 3rd step is switching to a maintenance diet. Why switch to a maintenance diet at that point? In part, you're giving yourself a 'breather', a break from more restrictive eating, stricter diet plan. The other part, though, is that you're re-educating your body and letting it establish a new 'set point' continuing your diet plan. Once you've maintained your new weight for 8-12 weeks, set another diet plan’s goal, and move back into weight loss mode. By giving your body a break from 'starvation', you'll have overcome its resistance to losing more weight, and be back to dieting for 'the first two weeks' - the weeks that most people lose weight more rapidly.
From this step, you'll also give yourself a chance to 'practice' maintaining your new, healthier weight. Researchers have found that more than half of the dieters who take off significant amounts of weight do not maintain that weight loss once they go 'off' their diet plan. By practicing weight maintenance in stages, you'll be proving to yourself that you CAN do it, and removing a powerful negative psychological block.
This step-by-step-diet-plan will work with any long-term weight loss diet, no matter the focus. You'll find it much easier to do if you choose a diet plan that has concrete 'phases', like the South Beach or the Atkins diet plan, since the weight loss and maintenance phases are clearly laid out for you to follow. Regardless of the diet you choose, though, by alternating between weight loss phases and maintenance phases, you'll teach yourself and your body how to maintain a healthy weight.
If you've been overweight for a very long time, or if you've consistently 'yo-yoed', your body may respond to your initial diet plan by lowering its metabolism because it believes that you are starving to death. This slowing leads to discouraging plateaus that often knock people off their diet plans entirely, and lead to regaining all or part of the loss weight.
Instead of aiming for an 'ideal weight' that calls for you to lose weight steadily for months or even years, 2nd step you need to do is aiming for shorter-term attainable goals of diet plan. Since the bulk of diet research shows that most dieters lose weight steadily for about 12 weeks, then hit a plateau, that's the number that they suggest you aim for. The diet plan strategy that many have found works best for them is one of alternating periods of weight loss and maintenance, each lasting 8-12 weeks.
While aiming shorter-term diet plan, you need to choose a realistic amount of weight that you plan to lose in 8-12 weeks. Figuring that the most reasonable and healthiest weight loss rate is 1-2 pounds per week, so 30 pounds in three months is not unreasonable. Keep patient and consistent doing your diet plan until you reach that goal, or for 12 weeks, whichever comes first.
Then, the 3rd step is switching to a maintenance diet. Why switch to a maintenance diet at that point? In part, you're giving yourself a 'breather', a break from more restrictive eating, stricter diet plan. The other part, though, is that you're re-educating your body and letting it establish a new 'set point' continuing your diet plan. Once you've maintained your new weight for 8-12 weeks, set another diet plan’s goal, and move back into weight loss mode. By giving your body a break from 'starvation', you'll have overcome its resistance to losing more weight, and be back to dieting for 'the first two weeks' - the weeks that most people lose weight more rapidly.
From this step, you'll also give yourself a chance to 'practice' maintaining your new, healthier weight. Researchers have found that more than half of the dieters who take off significant amounts of weight do not maintain that weight loss once they go 'off' their diet plan. By practicing weight maintenance in stages, you'll be proving to yourself that you CAN do it, and removing a powerful negative psychological block.
This step-by-step-diet-plan will work with any long-term weight loss diet, no matter the focus. You'll find it much easier to do if you choose a diet plan that has concrete 'phases', like the South Beach or the Atkins diet plan, since the weight loss and maintenance phases are clearly laid out for you to follow. Regardless of the diet you choose, though, by alternating between weight loss phases and maintenance phases, you'll teach yourself and your body how to maintain a healthy weight.
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