subject: Strategic Weight Loss [print this page] Among the first things that you will do when you decide to shed weight would be to set a target weight. For many, that goal will be their 'ideal weight', but for many, that 'ideal weight' may be precisely the wrong weight for them to be aiming for.
Years of dieting or being overweight have the physiological effect of shifting the body's idea of the 'ideal weight' from what is truly considered ideal. The 'set point' is the weight where your body naturally feels most comfy. If you have been overweight for a very long time, or if you've consistently 'yo-yoed', your body may respond to your initial weight reduction by lowering its metabolism simply because it feels that you are starving to death. This slowing results in frustrating plateaus that often knock people off their diets entirely, and bring about restoring all or part of the lost weight.
Instead of aiming for an 'ideal weight' that calls for you to shed weight steadily for months or even years, many experts recommend seeking for shorter-term achievable objectives. Because the bulk of diet research shows that most dieters shed weight gradually for about 12 weeks, then hit a plateau, that's the number that they suggest you reach for. The strategy that numerous have found works greatest for them is one of alternating periods of weight loss and maintenance, each lasting 8-12 weeks.
Choose a practical amount of weight that you can shed in 8-12 weeks. Foreseeing that the most reasonable and healthiest weight loss rate is 1-2 pounds per week, 30 pounds in three months is not unreasonable. Diet until you achieve that objective, or for twelve weeks, whichever comes first, and then change to a maintenance diet.
Why switch to a maintenance diet at that point? In part, you are providing yourself a 'breather', a break from more restrictive eating. The other part, though, is that you're re-educating your body and allowing it create a new 'set point'. As soon as you have maintained your new weight for 8-12 weeks, establish a different weight loss objective, and move back into weight loss mode. By giving your body a break from 'starvation', you will overcome its resistance to losing much more weight, and be back to dieting for 'the first 2 weeks' - the weeks that most people shed weight more rapidly.
You will also be providing yourself a chance to 'practice' sustaining your new, healthier weight. Experts have found that more than half of the dieters who lose significant amounts of weight do not maintain that weight reduction as soon as they go 'off' their diet plan. By practicing weight maintenance in stages, you will be proving to yourself that you can do it, and removing a strong negative psychological block.
This will work with any long-term weight loss diet, no matter the focus. You'll discover it a lot simpler to do if you choose a diet that has concrete 'phases', such as the South Beach or the Atkins, because the weight reduction and maintenance phases are plainly laid out for you to go by. Irrespective of the diet you choose, however, by alternating between weight loss phases and maintenance phases, you'll teach yourself and your body how to maintain a healthy weight.
by: Hazel Knox.
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