Weight Loss Strategies

What’s your goal weight? For most, that goal will be their 'ideal weight', but for many, that 'ideal weight' may be exactly the wrong weight for them to be aiming for.

The 'set point' is the weight at which your body naturally feels most comfortable. If you've been overweight for a very long time, or if you've consistently lost and re-gained weight, your body may respond to your initial weight loss by lowering its metabolism because it believes that you are starving. This slowing leads to discouraging plateaus that often knock people off their diets entirely. This can lead to regaining all or part of the weight.

Many experts now recommend aiming for shorter-term attainable goals. Since the bulk of diet research shows that most dieters lose weight steadily for about 12 weeks, then hit a plateau, that's the number that they suggest you aim for. The strategy that many have found works best for them is one of alternating periods of weight loss and maintenance, each lasting 8-12 weeks. That way, when the plateau hits, you’re not knocked off balance mentally.

Choose a realistic amount of weight that you can lose in about three months. Figuring that the most reasonable and healthiest weight loss rate is 1-2 pounds per week, 30 pounds in three months is possible. Diet until you reach that goal, or for 12 weeks, whichever comes first, and then switch to a maintenance diet.

Now you're re-educating your body and letting it establish a new 'set point'. Once you've maintained your new weight for 8-12 weeks, set another weight loss goal, and move back into weight loss mode. By giving your body a break from 'starvation', you'll have overcome its resistance to losing more weight, and be back to dieting for 'the first two weeks' - the weeks that most people lose weight more rapidly. Pretty cool, huh?

You'll also be giving yourself a chance to 'practice' maintaining your new, healthier weight. Many people gain back their weight because they never re-educated their palate along the way. By practicing weight maintenance in stages, you'll be proving to yourself that you CAN do it.

This will work with any long-term weight loss diet. Regardless of the diet you choose, though, by alternating between weight loss phases and maintenance phases, you'll teach yourself and your body how to maintain a healthy weight. And that means you can get rid of your “fat” clothes once and for all!
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