If you have become overweight it is likely that at some point you will have been tempted to go on some sort of diet plan to lose those excess pounds. You may have even joined a gym and got started on an exercise program as well only to stop it again when the results did not seem to come quickly enough.
The problem with short term diet plans and short-term exercise is that they do not work for a long-term problem. If you have become overweight it is because your lifestyle has allowed you to get that way and a short term diet plan is not going to fix the problem. Your lifestyle is in fact supportive of your weight gain and another diet plan is not what you need.
Another diet plan is not going to cut it
Whether it is from eating the wrong types of food and too much of them or not doing enough physical activity excess body fat does not jump on you overnight. It may have taken some years to accumulate and it is not going to come off in a month or even six months on some ‘get thin quick’ diet plan.
But the good news is that the answer to the problem lies in your lifestyle. It took a certain lifestyle to gain excess fat weight and it will take a different lifestyle to take it off and a diet plan is not part of it. It is the change in lifestyle not the diet plan that will get you success. Being in good shape is the result of what you do and do not do every day in the way of eating and activity levels and this will likely mean you will be eating more food than you would on any diet plan.
If you fix the habits and actions that have caused the weight gain them the excess weight will come off automatically. Your new diet plan will mean making changes to the way you eat and how you exercise. Those changes may take twelve or more months to not only to implement but repeat them often enough so they become new habits. Just like your old habits that have allowed you to become overweight.
But be assured these changes are so much easier to live with than any restrictive diet plan that reduces your energy levels so you do not feel like being active anyway. If things are too difficult for you to implement and stick to you are likely to fail repeatedly and end up going back to square one time and time again.
The two things that you need to implement are step one – a proper strength training exercise program 2-3 times each week to rebuild and re-tone your muscles as this is the only way you can improve your metabolic fitness. This means that fat burning/storing hormones are in balance so body fat can be burned up for energy within the muscle cells. Weak flabby muscles have low energy requirements so get them toned up and watch the excess fat slowly but surely disappear.
Think of your new diet plan as not eating less but eating better
Next is step two – your new diet plan is one that will have you eating small meals every few hours throughout the day. Each of these meals should have a portion of protein to keep your metabolism stimulated and burning fat. The balance of the meal should be made up of vegetables. You will actually be eating way more food on this type healthy eating plan than you think you should be but this is to put coal on your metabolic fire and get it burning fat at the optimum rate.
Keep in mind that losing weight and improving your metabolic health is an ongoing process. Your new healthy diet plan and exercise regime is one that is made up of hundreds of tiny steps each one building upon the previous one. Each healthy meal and each workout is just one of those small steps. But before long they add up to big results.
So, stop looking for that ‘get thin quick’ diets plan and start making the changes you need to make so you can lose that excess fat weight and more importantly – keep it off. You will you look and feel so much better and this will spur you on to keep making the effort to continue making the changes you need to make to make weight loss ‘stick’.
Note: If you found the content in this article useful, please check out my home page where you'll find more information about my No Excuses Body Makeover program: