Slow & Steady Wins the Race

If you've been thinking about losing weight, you've probably been sucked into quick weight loss "scams". You've heard them all, "Lose 10 pounds in 48 Hours!" or something to that effect. But do you want to know a secret? They really do work! I know, because I've tried them and they have worked for me! But the thing is, they are, at best, TEMPORARY measures. The pounds lost are not fat loses, but FLUID loses. And, as quickly as the weight was dropped, so can you expect the weight to be regained!

But if you're serious about losing the weight, nothing beats patients and perseverance. At most, you really can't expect to lose much more than 2 pounds a week. It's simply impossible to lose much more than that. If you do, you're sacrificing muscle loses. And do you know what happens when you lose muscle? Your metabolism slows WAYdown! And when your metabolism slows down, so does your need for food! When you lose muscle, you need less food to maintain your already too high body weight, so you now need to eat EVEN LESS to drop your weight even more!

Are you beginning to see the cycle you've created? Scary isn't it?

So, if you're really serious about losing body fat, and keeping it off, the ONLY way to do that is to CHANGE THE HABITS that got you the body you currently own. Sorry if that simple truth hurts, but the truth is usually pretty simple. But if you're ready to make some simple changes, the weight will certainly drop off. Maybe not as fast as you'd like, but over the long haul, you'll have change you can live with for a life time.

Activity: You must remain active while "dieting." This will keep your metabolism from slowing down after restricting food intake (or better still, making healthy CHANGES to your diet without restricting food "mass"). Try to get in at least 30 minutes of vigorous activity per day. Keep a journal--don't guess! Brisk walking 30 minutes a day is good. So is mild (or strenuous) weight lifting. Did you know jumping rope can burn up to 1,000 calories per hour? It's a great habit to get into!

Diet: Have you ever tried keeping a journal of the foods you eat throughout the day? This can be pretty revealing--and embarrassing! If you do, and you're faithful to you journal for even a week, you'll quickly see where the weight is coming from. Once I saw that I had a habit of eating 2 "Little Debbie" snacks EVERY DAY (600 calories) as well as a "small" bag of potato chips (300 calories) EVERY DAY, in addition to my regular meals, it was easy to see why I was 30 pounds overweight!

The truth is, once I was honest with myself, I could easily see I was consuming 1,500 UNNECESSARY calories EVERY DAY. Cutting out these unnecessary foods alone accounted for the 2 pounds a week in weight loss without any major changes in diet.

Sometimes the answers we seek are right there before us waiting to be seized. Do these simple things and you'll be amazed at the change.

You can find more excellent weight loss tips at http://www.rs39.com/weightloss

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