weight loss cardiff answers:
Well – it both simple and complicated……
Let me try to cover specific issues:
Drinking Water – does not help you to lose weight per sé; instead, what it does is
1) make it easier for your body to metabolize (burn) fat
2) make some people feel more full and so they eat less
However, practically speaking you will not burn fat UNLESS your body is burning more calories than you are consuming. If you are consuming more calories than you are burning each day, you will not lose any weight – you will, instead, continue to gain weight.
So the first thing to realize is that to successfully diet you need to burn more calories every day than you consume every day. In reality, if *occasionally* (say, one or two days a month) you eat more calories than you burn, you will not ruin your weight-loss program. However, most people find it pretty difficult to return to their diet after a day of failing to live according to their diet. If you do NOT have an iron-clad will, I do not recommend taking “days off” of your diet (I take one day off a month, and it usually turns into 3 days! – but then I do get back on the diet)..
And that brings us to an even more important point: the reason most people are unable to lose weight (I am no exception! – I have been dieting pretty successfully for several months now) is because they desire to eat more than they desire to lose weight. If weight loss is unimportant to you, you WILL fail to maintain your diet. You NEED to remind yourself every day that your goal is **much more important** than the fleeting enjoyment of indulging in too much food. *Every* time you want to eat more than your diet allows, you NEED to remind yourself of this: that your goal is more important. Whether you are doing it for health (me), for appearance, or even for longevity (also me – look up resveratrol if you want to learn about how its possible to age much more slowly by dieting), you have to FORCE yourself to ALWAYS remember and believe that your goal is more important than the enjoyment of high-calorie food or drink. Successful dieting is primarily a matter of having sufficient motivation; if you do not have the motivation, you will (sooner or later) return to your current habit of eating more calories than you burn.
I guess the second most important point, then, is to not lose your motivation if you *do* fail on a particular day. The best attitude, of course, is to refuse to ever deviate from your diet. I’ve managed to do that for several months at a time – but not more than that. The second-best attitude is the “get back up on the horse that threw you” attitude. If you ever fail in your diet, your reaction should be “by golly, I’m not going to let that stop me tomorrow no matter what!”
SO – motivation being addressed, the *mechanics* of losing weight still need to be addressed: how to make sure that you consume fewer calories than you burn? Obviously you need to eat fewer calories, to exercise more, or – recommended by just about everyone – do both.
I, too, am unable to afford a gym (which is unfortunate, as I am a gym-aholic when the opportunity presents itself). However, one of the best ways to exercise is *simple walking*, and it is a type of exercise that very few people dislike. (If you have a dog, so much the better!) Remember, though: if you add aerobic exercise (like walking) to your diet program, it is something that you have to do EVERY day. Otherwise, on the off-days you’re probably going to be gaining weight that your losing during the on-days! Many people do laps in malls very early or late (because they’re air-conditioned and not subject to rain / snow). If that is not available to you and rain or snow might keep you from exercising, consider an exercise bike (my favorite), or a rowing machine (much better as exercise because it works on most of the muscles more-or-less equally, but pretty expensive for a good unit).
Remember: if you are really averse to all types of exercise, you can still lose weight by eating less – but you will be able to eat more if you exercise – and you will be more healthy and look better – so consider how much you dislike exercise carefully.
Eating fewer calories: is what it is. You need to find a daily calorie “allowance” that causes you to lose weight at whatever exercise level you choose and STICK TO IT. There are several ways to do this.
One of the best (but most tedious) is to count every single calorie that you consume. Doing this makes you get very involved at each and every meal in your diet – which is good, because it makes it less likely that you’ll overeat during that particular meal – but it is painstaking.
Another way popularized a few years ago is to count fat grams instead of calories. (I have never tried this method). This is much easier because fat grams are measured (usually) in single digits while calories are measured in hundreds. The problem: this method was so popular a few years ago that nearly every type of “indulgence” food that you can imagine now comes in a fat-free variety – a HIGH CALORIE and very tasty fat-free variety. The way that the “fat grams” method works is that fat grams are a pretty good estimate of how many calories any particular food has – IF it is not the fat-free variety of food. Once you start chowing down on fat-free ice cream and fat-free sweets and fat-free cheese in a fat-grams-counting diet, you’re back to gaining weight without ever breaking your diet.
For me, the simplest method is an unorthodox one: I have *always* found it *much, much* easier to skip a meal than to eat less at all meals. I particularly benefit from skipping lunch (eating that tends to make me sleepy), but at one time I was successfully eating *every other day* (and eating very well on those odd days) – and I lost literally all my excess fat by doing so. That will probably *not* be recommended by most physicians, but it is probably not actually medically dangerous (many people around the world have no choice but to do that).
A less harsh system is to not eat one or two meals every day – and, of course, all snacks must be eliminated in any case (unless you can stand to eat those tasteless rice cakes, or pickles, or something else as a snack that has little or no caloric value. Pickles are actually pretty good, for me, who likes salty snacks best.) In any case, when you eliminate snacks and meals it’s very important that you *not* eat extra during the meals that you do eat. I’ve found that I am actually *less hungry** and *eat less* at dinner if I skip both breakfast and lunch. If I eat either breakfast or lunch, I tend to overeat at dinner.
Avoiding high calorie foods altogether, or limiting yourself to only your favorites in very small amounts very strictly – is good practice. If you’re a Snickers fiend, for example, you might want to have a “snickers day” every week where you eat one and only one small Snickers bar. Some people like to think of this as a “reward” for sticking to their diet all week, and if that works for you, go for it. Of course, if you follow that “reward” mentality, you also **have** to DENY yourself the reward if you fail your diet that weak. Many people find that the reward of their favorite food at the end of the week helps them to stay on their diet during the week – but you HAVE to have the willpower to deny yourself the “reward” when you fail your diet if you are using the reward as motivation to stick to your diet. I don’t use rewards in my diet.
One of the best “filler” foods (tastes good, low calorie, fills you up) is popcorn – but I’ve always liked popcorn a lot. You HAVE to use an air popper (saves about 450 calories per **bowl**) or use diet microwave popcorn (which is much more expensive and has not-a-lot more calories but is definitely tastier). A bowl of kernel popcorn (1/4 cup of popcorn) from an air popper is enough to fill most people up and has about 320 calories. Add a tablespoon of butter (which is actually too much for many people – I use only 1/2 tbs) and it is about 450 calories. If you can stand to replace a meal with a bowl of air popped or diet popcorn every day, that can really save you calories.
Conclusion:
MOTIVATION is the most important thing. Force yourself to be convinced that your goals are much more important than the enjoyment of eating (it is, after all, true). Under no circumstances should you stop dieting if you fail in your diet one day. Do NOT let holidays or parties sway you from your diet unless it is ONLY for ONE day. Falling off your diet intentionally for one day requires a very strong will (motivation) to return to your diet the next day.
Eating fewer calories than you burn EVERY DAY is the 2nd-most-important thing. Whether you do that by no exercise and eating a lot less or by lots of daily exercise and eating a little less or something in between is up to you. Consider carefully if using a “reward” will work for you. Avoid all high-calorie foods. Skipping specific meals EVERY DAY is (for me) the easiest way to reduce daily calorie consumption.
Jim
