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Posts Tagged ‘how to lose the last 20 pounds’

If you are trying to lose weight and have reached a point where no matter what you do those last few pounds will not come off, you are not alone.   You wake up everyday and you go through your familiar routine of weight loss efforts to no avail.  You exercise and you watch what you eat and it seems that no mater what you attempt to do you are making no headway on losing those last twenty pounds.  You have reached a point in your weight loss attempt that you are starting to feel as if you will not be able to lose anymore weight.  You are starting to think that maybe your body has settled into what is the weight you need to be even though it is not the weight that you want to become.  If you have been trying to lose those last 20 pounds and have tried and tried to shed them
with little success there actually is a fairly simple and a somewhat radical solution.  That solution is to stop the diet plan for a week or so and eat the choices that you have been avoiding.

You have been doing all in your power to lose those last few pounds and have hit the proverbial wall.  The method here is rather sound even though some may consider it a radical idea.  You have reached what some call a plateau and the frustration level is not only manifested in your body but also in your thinking.  What has happened is that your body has become accustomed to the daily exercises and the daily consumption of specific and routine foods.  Your body is built to withstand many dire circumstances and the physiology of the human is designed to fight off starvation as long as possible.  As you try to lose weight your body “believes” it is fending off total starvation and fights to keep each and every ounce of fat that it has stored.  A rather simple and effective solution which is also enjoyable is to indulge in a few days of diet vacation.

Take a week or so and stop exercising and start to eat a few of the items that you have deprived yourself from enjoying.  Eat some chocolate or wash that pizza down with a Pepsi and take a few extra pieces of bread, have a chunk of cheese. A good example of this would be to do what you do on a cruise. This”diet vacation” will trick your body into thinking that the famine is over and we have survived another day.  Your body will quickly adjust itself and your metabolism will begin to shift and adjust also with the addition of more food and less exercise.  After a few days of enjoyment, which does not need to exceed seven, you can then jump right back into your familiar routine.  You will be shocked at how easy it is to gain weight back but do not dwell on this fact.  The very fact that your body gains weight so easily just points to more validity of the statement that your body is trying to prevent what it perceives as starvation.   At the conclusion of your “vacation” you then go back to your exercise routine  and your food choices that will carry you to that desired weight.  After the initial shock of the weight gain you will be able to drop weight fairly quickly and soon you will have pushed through that plateau.

There is a hidden danger to this approach and that is that you will be unable to pull yourself out of the weight gain mode.  The fear is that you will become so embedded into the mind set of eating that your attempt to lose those last 20 pounds will be forgotten.  This concept of eating to lose weight really needs to only be attempted after you have tried and tried to lose those last few pounds and your frustration level has started to endanger your weight loss motivation.  It would be a complete shame of effort and self esteem to be chugging along for a year trying to lose weight only to give up and start eating and then never complete the weight loss journey.  The only way for this plateau buster idea to work is if you get right back on the diet bandwagon. After you go on your week of metabolism altering journey you will not only cause your metabolism to shift, you will also see a shift in your emotions.  You may even learn that the foods you once enjoyed were not as much of an enjoyment anymore.  You may learn that all that fried food causes acid reflux and the soda leaves you with an unsettled tummy.   You may not like the feeling of overeating as much as you thought you
once did.  As you travel through your week of eating you may realize that you no longer like what you thought you were missing.  At the end of this little experiment you may not only realize that you were able to lose those last 20 pounds but you may also be shocked that you do not miss the soda and water is what you now really enjoy.  You may not only be able to break through that plateau by churning up your metabolism but you may also realize that you have become a healthier minded person.  You may realize that you missed those daily walks or that you really no longer missed those bowls of ice cream.  You may realize that you have grown out of the old you and the new you has taken hold.  You may have learned that not only could you lose those last 20 pounds but somewhere along the way you were no longer on a diet but were now actually on a “live-it”.

When you are trying to lose weight you must realize that not everyday is going to be a day of weight loss. Some days you will think you are doing it all right and the next trip to the scale you are shocked to realize you gained weight. There will be days you will see results and you will tend to get discouraged. The point I want to make clear here is that losing weight is not and you should not let it all be scale based.

Even if you go through a period of minimal pounds on the scale being lost you need not despair. If you are truly doing what needs to be done you will be losing inches off of your waistline. As you progress in your attempt to lose weight you will become healthier and that health improvement is what weight loss really needs to be about. If you are trying to lose 20 pounds do not give up when the scale seems to be fighting back. The whole point about weight loss should be perceived as a health gain and not about pounds being lost. If you choose to be healthy the weight will get lower and your health will improve.

Do not get discouraged when the time comes that you are having a hard time to lose some weight. If you just keep plugging it will all happen for you one day in the not too distant future. By not giving up on yourself you are bound to succeed once you realize your only competition is yourself. If you need some encouragement for the final push, eDiets is a great place to go. Whatever you do just give yourself a break and chill. Just keep plugging away and do not give up.

So you trying to lose weight and that last 20 ponds it is starting to be elusive. Maybe you are starting out on your weight loss journey and need to lose 100 pounds. Regardless of your goal you need to do one thing and only this one thing will make it all happen for you. The single most important thing you can do to lose weight is eat less calories in a day than you burn off during the day. With that being said you must take it from the back of your mind and bring it to the front of your conscious thought each and every moment of your day.

If you go into the big burger shop and order a double cheese burger with bacon and all the fixings, even the healthy tomato on top will do you little good. In order to lose 20 or even 100 pounds you need to burn more calories than you eat. It is that simple! No comes the difficult part. The part that slips up most people is the fact that you need to exercise. What is recommended by oodles and oodles of people is that you do cardiovascular exercise at least 30 to 60 minutes a day at least 4 times a week. The problem is that all too many people get into a rut and do the same exercise everyday. Monday they walk the treadmill. Tuesday they walk the treadmill. Wednesday they walk the treadmill. Thursday they walk the treadmill. Friday they are bored and stop exercising.

When you start an exercise routine do not let it get routine. There are actually two reasons for this statement. The first one is obvious, YOU GET BORED! The second (and actually more important reason) is that you need to trick your metabolism. Your body is no dummy, so when the weight loss gets tough you should shake up your exercise routine. What is really meant is that if you do the same cardiovascular exercise every time, your body will adapt and actually start to resist the weight loss.

What you need to do is more like this. Monday walk the treadmill. Tuesday use the elyptical. Wednesday go for a bike ride. Thursday you do something else. What you are doing is that you are messing with your metabolism in a positive way which will help you shed those pounds you are trying to lose.

One important aspect of cardiovascular exercise is that you need to raise your heart rate. I do not suggest you cause yourself a heart attack (go see a doctor before you start any weight loss program) but you need to go through a routine of increasing your heart rate and then allowing it to recover, all while exercising. This stress and recover cycle is very important in not only your health but also in your weight loss.

You really should consider either joining a health club or purchasing a bike or some gym equipment if you decide not to join a health club. In your decision to buy equipment you may opt for some inexpensive equipment or some top of the line equipment. If you decide to buy something you will still need to combine it with a mixture of other exercises. Bikes, Treadmills, Health Club, stair steppers or an elyptical or just plain old walking shoes. A guy or a woman, walking is still great for your health. Whatever you decide to do will require you burn more calories that you eat. It is that simple. If you choose to do nothing, chances are that choice will take a few years off your life, but hey!, it really is your choice. What ever you decide to do I wish you all the best and a long healthy life!

God Bless,

Mr. Keith