With close to two thirds of us overweight to one degree or another it is no surprise that many people would love to lose weight. Yet for most of them it is not something that is going to happen any time soon. They eat what and however much they want all year round and prefer sitting watching television or using a computer over being active and exercising.
Then suddenly one day they realize they have a special event coming up in a couple of weeks and say “I need to lose 20 pounds, what is the fastest way to do that?” Somehow many of us have got the idea that losing weight is a one-time event. We go on some sort of diet, suffer for a few weeks and we are rewarded with a slim trim body again and the slate is clean.
Quick fixes don’t work for losing weight
Well, if you think of weight loss like that you have a hard lesson to learn. It is these current attitudes to losing weight that could be likened to bailing water out of a leaky boat. But, the boat is taking on water at a faster rate than one is able to bail it out so a change in both attitudes and strategy is needed for losing weight.
Losing weight by natural means – healthy eating and proper strengthening exercise so we become healthier, stronger and fitter seems too hard for many people these days. They are not keen to have to work for that flat stomach or those trim thighs. After all, we are busy and live hectic fast paced lives and when it comes to losing weight, we want immediate results. We do not want to exert ourselves, work hard or put ourselves out in any way but we want changes right away.
The problem with someone who has become overweight is that they have also become unhealthy. The chemical balance in the human body can become ‘out of whack’ and you become a fat storage unit instead of a fat burning one.
The cause of this is not enough muscular exertion, eating the wrong types of foods and too much of them. These are the things that slow our metabolic motor (our metabolism) and fuel created from the food we eat cannot be burnt up as the muscles have low energy requirements from being allowed to become weak and flabby.
Losing weight means getting healthy first
So, for losing weight the only possibility of achieving this is to restore health and take a sluggish metabolism and boost it so it can not only burn off the excess fat weight it can keep it off as well as then it would be burning more fuel (calories) around the clock.
To boost the metabolism to do this cannot be achieved without the active participation of its owner. It will mean 2-3 sessions of strength training exercise each week with some effort put into it. If this sounds too hard then the only other option is to remain in an overweight body that not only is spoiling your appearance, it is placing a huge mental and emotional burden on you as well as setting the stage for serious disease somewhere down the track. The very worst thing of all is that you have to live your life in a feel-bad body that you hate. Nothing could be worse than this I am sure you will agree.
The message here is there is no easy way of losing weight. You will have to re-tone your muscular system and restore metabolic health so your fat storing and fat burning hormones get back into balance. Going to the gym and doing a strength training program a couple of times each week is not so much to give to get your life back. Keep your eye on the prize not the price.
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