Every person that needs or wants to lose weight has a specific dietary pattern unique to them. How many calories each person needs to eat, and the foods chosen to get the calories vary significantly. One thing we know about weight loss is that over restricting the diet doesn’t work.
You’re actually better off eating the occasional dessert than starving yourself. It’s impossible to maintain a starvation diet without, well, starving. The fitness lifestyle requires consistency and patience. It also requires a degree of common sense. How long can a person realistically spend on a 1,000 calorie a day diet? Sure, you can lose weight on 1,000 calories a day but its not all fat weight. If you start burning muscle due to caloric restriction, you’re already cutting your weight loss short.
Anyone can starve themselves for a few days or weeks. It doesn’t work long term though. If you want to lose weight you also want to keep it off. Yo-yo dieting doesn’t work long term. What does work is figuring out the right combination of nutrition and exercise that works for you.
There’s a learning curve involved. It can take months or years to ultimately reach a fitness lifestyle you can maintain. It’s possible though. A long-term plan is required. Short term, restrictive diets don’t meet the criteria. Are you really going to quit eating desserts forever?
A picture of a celebrity went viral recently because the person got into terrific shape for a movie role. After several months of heightened nutrition and workouts, the celebrity reached an incredible level of fitness. The fitness level had been maintained for nearly a year. The celebrity appeared on a popular talk show where the host of the show provided several tasty desserts. The celebrity hadn’t eaten a dessert in nearly a year. After the first bite into a delicious piece of pie, the celebrity couldn’t stop eating. By the end of the show, the celebrity had bitten into 6 different desserts. Clearly the diet was very restrictive.
It’s ok to have a dessert sometimes. It’s ok to have some fat in your diet. Restricting yourself from anything pleasurable is a sure recipe for disaster. Splurging then starving isn’t the answer. Finding a balance between your body’s needs and your mental and emotional satisfaction is the answer.
Start with journaling. Write down what you eat and how you feel. Figure out what triggers you positively or negatively. The more you can learn about your lifestyle and its strengths and weaknesses the more you can create positive change in your lifestyle.
The fitness lifestyle is a lifetime pursuit. Find your balance and enjoy yourself while you’re doing it. Isn’t that what its all about?
