It's easy to start a Weight Loss Journey, the idea of losing weight and getting lean down to the sexier version of yourself is quite exciting in its own. Isn't it? With all sorts of expectations about what you have to do to lose weight, how you’ll feel along the way, and when you’ll be satisfied with the results.
Losing weight is all about trial and error — and learning from your mistakes along the way.
In the beginning everything seems fine and imagining the end results of your fat loss journey is quite exhilarating. You are motivated to keep grinding and keep pushing yourself to the next limit. But there's a caveat! your weight loss won't be effective if you get under the trap of certain things, which we will learn in today's post.
Weight loss isn't that easy as it seems to be. Today in this post we are going to take a look into "Things nobody will tell you about Losing Weight".
15 Things Nobody will Tell you about Losing Weight
1. You don't have to live in the Gym
When I first decided that I want to trim down and lose weight, the first instinct in had was getting a gym membership. I had this notion that you have to grind yourself for hours in the gym if you want to burn fat and lose weight.
To see some results you don't necessarily have to own a gym membership, a 20-30 minutes workout is more then enough. I most definitely would have started working out at home, if I knew this earlier.
2. Portion size matters - Even for healthy foods
Most people mess this thing up and don't see the results they want. You always have been told that "in order to lose weight start eating healthy". Well this advice is good but it doesn't clarify most things such as what and how much to eat, because people most often stuff themselves with healthy foods, thinking they are eating healthy so they will lose weight but that doesn't happen just like that.
You have to control the portion size of those "Healthy Foods". Let's say you are eating peanut butter which has around 100 calories in 1 tbsp and you are eating 10 tbsp a day thinking it would help you lose weight. Those 10 tbsp peanut butter will add up to 1000 calories. This much would be enough to easily kick you out of your caloric deficit. To much of a good thing could be a bad thing, Remember moderation is the key.
3. Not cutting the junk
Think about it and tell me what is more effective, cutting out on certain things like junk, sugars, chips, etc. or including healthy foods into your diet. Which one do you think would be more conducive to lose weight?
Well if you are smart enough you would definitely go on with cutting on junk / bad foods. Because if you don't and keep adding the healthy foods then it wouldn't take long to kick you out of the caloric deficit zone.
So don't just rely on adding good stuff, first try to cut down on bad stuff and then add healthy foods in limit.
4. It's not just calories in Vs calories out
Weight loss is not as simple as it seems, if you cut down on your calories and stay in a hypo caloric state (burning more calories then you consume). You would certainly lose weight but what do you think, would that be a healthy one.
That's where the importance of healthy foods comes in. You have to consume enough fruits and vegetables to compensate for your vitamins and minerals loss. Because being in a caloric deficit makes you deprived of essential minerals and vitamins which would hinder with your fat loss goals.
5. Tracing macros can help
Eating is a full-time job — and you have to commit to it if you want to lose weight. You even have to set alarms to remind yourself to eat snacks throughout the day. I spent so long believing 'eating less = skinny' when really it’s 'eating right = lean'.
So, don't starve yourself in order to burn belly fat and don't go on to the other side and eat ravenously. Just be in the middle and track those macros and calories, it will definitely help you hit your fat loss goals.
6. The scale isn't the bottom line
I wish I would be patient with my fat loss journey and keep the scale away and not totally relying on that. Because what you see in the scale are just numbers and numbers don't tell about your biology, they don't necessarily tell you how much fat you have lost from your body or how healthy you are or are you depriving yourself of any essential nutrient which will down the road be an hindrance to your goal or lifestyle.
If you step on the scale and see you have lost 2 pounds in a week and the next week you don't see the change in the numbers. That's where you get demotivated and start to starve yourself for the sake of hitting a certain number in the weight scale. But the reality is far different then what you see, you might be losing fat weight but with that you must have gained some muscle mass which is a good thing. So that might be the reason for your weight loss plateau.
7. It should be sustainable
If you are thinking you can do some crash diet to shed some pounds then my friend you are wrong. Take this from me, if you are doing something, some kind of a diet which is totally extreme and not practical though then you are going to hit a wall. This wall is very real wall and you can't perpetuate your "xyz extreme diet" to lose weight.
So, don't count on things which are too hard to sustain, try things on your own and do what works for you. Eat what you can continue to eat without running away from it. Because in the end we all are different and what works for me may not particularly works for you.
8. Be healthy first to lose weight
It might be counterintuitive but you have got to be a healthy person first if you want to lose weight and not the vice versa. Because being skinny doesn't make you a healthy person by default but if you are healthy then you will automatically lose weight and look great.
That's the beauty of being healthy, you look amazing, feel great, you are more energetic and strong. So by being healthy first, you get the best of all worlds.
Don't focus on losing weight and look slender but try to stay consistent with being a healthy person. Adapt some healthy habits, workout more often, eat nutrient dense food, move your body more and be active.
If you become healthy then a lot of toxins and bad stuff that had been building up are now getting off of your body and this alone will do the wonders to make you lose weight and burn fat.
9. Focusing on cardio only
Have you been doing long walks on treadmill lately, because this was the only thing I was relying upon to lose weight. If you are not doing strength training and coupling it with High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) then you are losing results on the table.
Cardio will help you burn calories but doing that alone is not an efficient way to burn off fat. You will have to include strength training with your cardio. Cardio will help you lose weight but strength training will actually make you much more attractive looking.
Strength training helps you tone down your lose skin and build muscle, and remember that the more muscle you build the more fat you are going to burn.
10. You can't out-train a bad diet
Yes you heard me! you really cannot out train a bad diet. If you are thinking that you may eat whatever you want throughout the day and burn off all those excess calories by hitting a great workout session, then the answer is, No!
If it would be that easy then everyone would have it, right?
Losing weight have to do with both nutrition and exercise. You cannot rely on either one of them to get your desired results. You have to work with a plan and include everything which will work as a conduit for your goal.
11. Losing weight is not everything
I wish someone had told me that…it didn’t mean that I would be happy. Losing weight doesn't automatically makes you happy or fixes your life problems. If you are losing weight to solve your life problems and you will be happy ever after then note it down "it ain't gonna happen".
If you want to lead a happy and cheerful life then aim for becoming a healthy person, weight loss alone won't get you out of your predicaments.
12. It's a lifestyle
You are never totally done with your health. If you aimed for losing weight and getting healthy and fit then it won't end on the day you reach your goal.
In order to sustain that you have to work day in and day out. You don't magically remain fit.
Remember being fit and healthy is not a goal, its a journey which continues throughout your lifetime.
13. You are always learning
Growing up, I was never educated on proper nutrition, fitness or how the body actually worked. In school, the only thing I ever learned about food was the five basic food groups. So I ate whatever I wanted, drank soda like it was going extinct, and was nearly 20 pounds overweight. In order to lose weight, I basically had to teach myself everything.
14. Your goals will keep on changing
You hit your first goal and lost 5 pounds and now what? you want to lose 5 more pounds but the same things, same strategy you executed in your first attempt won't be much effective this time. You have to work with a game plan here. If you had been eating 2200 calories to lose weight, now you have to drop your calories even more to sustain the fat burning results.
There are always some tweaks that you can do to achieve your goals.
15. Be Consistent
Want to lose weight? you have to be consistent with everything you do. Don't fall for some fad diets and impractical ways to lose weight, which are very hard to keep up with.
Remember you don't see results in just a day or two, if someone is telling you that you can actually do it and you are believing them then either they are very good salesman or you might be lazy and want to get everything without putting in any effort.
Eat healthy, exercise regularly and be consistent, subsequently you will burn fat and lose weight and become the best version of yourself.
The Bottom Line
Take care of yourself spiritually, emotionally and mentally, and the physical will follow. Loving and accepting myself allows me to find peace. Obsessing over what I look like now as compared to what I looked like before stalls my efforts at maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
Losing weight is 100 percent about a change of mentality. Sure, getting together an eating plan that works for you and figuring out how to properly do a pushup is important. But it’s a moot point if your brain doesn’t drastically change…If you nourish your body, and exercise out of a place of self-love, you will find motivation, inspiration and self-acceptance
Just keep pushing yourself, keep doing stuff, hit and try but never stop. Sometimes you will fail sometimes you will succeed but you will always learn new things which are worth the time and effort you will put in.
I hope these points will take you a step closer to your goal and help you become the healthy version of yourself.
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