Why Permanent Weight Loss Takes More Than Dieting

It’s no secret – permanent weight loss takes dedication. Dieting is one component of it, but dieters oftentimes rely on the latest fads to fight an age-old problem. Being overweight can impact your psychological and physical health. To get back in shape, dieters who want real weight loss have to make it a multi-pronged effort on both a mental and a physical level that can be quite challenging.

In order to achieve any weight loss, you have to consume fewer calories than you burn in a day. When you’re overweight, you’ve basically become accustomed to eating much more food than you need to live. Weight loss is often foiled when dieters manage to control themselves for a while, only to become ravenous later in the day (due to their ‘old’ appetite) and ruin all their progress.

This, however, is not a sign of weakness; it’s quite natural. Because your body is accustomed to more calories, you get hungry when you actually need no food. This is one of the most common ways that weight loss is foiled. It’s also important to remember that after a while, your old pre-diet hunger will fade as your body becomes accustomed to the new, proper, amount of food you are feeding it. If you can ride out the initial hunger pangs, you’ll find that your natural appetite soon reasserts itself, and you’ll be able to eat properly without feeling hungry.

Weight loss also requires exercise. Dieters who add a workout—it doesn’t have to be a brutal one—to their routine fare much better than those who do not. Weight loss is fostered by increasing physical fitness, which increases your metabolism. It also gives you more energy, furthering the cycle of weight loss. If you can add a good, sensible workout at the gym, dieting will prove more effective.

Weight loss is never easy, but learning a bit of self-discipline and some good exercise routines can really help in your effort at weight loss, no matter how much weight you need to shed.