While the desire to shed the pounds quickly is definitely strong, it's incredibly important that throughout your quest you try and maintain a healthy weight loss. Those individuals who choose to go on crash diets will lose weight, however not only is the weight loss not likely to stay off, but these crash diets are also going to severely affect their health status and metabolism.
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Whenever you see a diet out there promising to help you lose ten or more pounds a week, automatic red flags should be raised on not only the safety of this approach, but also how well it will actually work.
If the truth was told, even if you ate absolutely nothing for an entire week straight, you still would not lose 10 pounds of pure fat a week, so claims such as these are completely unrealistic.
You may lose a good amount of water weight - there's no doubting that, and it could amount to ten pounds when combined with muscle glycogen losses as well, but rest assured, once you come off your starvation fast, that weight will come rushing back on to your body.
Therefore, here are some simple tips you need to keep in mind so you can maintain a healthy weight loss.
Always Include A Variety of Vegetables
The largest portion of most diets will usually be vegetables and possibly fruits (depending on the individual plan). If you're currently on a weight loss plan that restricts the amount of produce you're able to eat, you want to rethink that plan.
Vegetables are pretty much 'free foods' as far as calories are concerned (with the exception of possibly corn, peas, and potatoes), so you should be able to eat them to your heart's content.
Not only that but they are loaded with potassium, which will help you maintain your energy for exercise.
Don't Eliminate Carbs Entirely
While low-carb diets definitely are all the rage right now, completely eliminating carbohydrates from your daily diet is a big mistake.
Unless you are following a very specific keto plan set-up, which is an ultra low-carb diet but actually changes the type of fuel your body runs off of, you need carbohydrates to function.
You may be able to cut them out for three to four days, but it's almost guaranteed that after that, you're going to be craving carbohydrates so strongly that it becomes almost impossible not to include some in your diet.
A better approach is using a more moderate carb intake, so you both maintain your energy levels and keeping sanity in check.
Carbohydrates do not limit your ability to lose weight if the weight loss plan is set up properly.
Plan For Cheat Days To Maintain a Healthy Weight Loss
Finally, the last thing you must consider is your psychological relationship with food. When we diet, we often start playing mind games with ourselves and some of us actually become somewhat 'fearful' in a sense of certain foods.
You really must watch this because in the long run it can set you up for emotional eating problems associated with binging or other eating disorders down the road.
If you plan and schedule in cheat meals and days into your diet, you will help yourself maintain a good relationships with food and you will see that realistically, one meal off your diet is not going to undo all the hard work you've put in.
You can most definitely still have great results with your weight loss plan when including cheat meals and cheat days.
So, be sure you keep these points in mind so you can maintain a healthy weight loss. Taking short-cuts, eliminating too many foods, and trying to starve yourself thin will all backfire in the end, so it's much better to just avoid this in the first place.
Losing Weight is Only Half The Battle
It might sound unbelievable to many of us that over 85 percent of people who lose weight by the popular weight reduction methods, in fact end up gaining all of it and sometimes even more back by the end of a few months after losing it. WHY IS THIS SO? It is hardly around 10-12 percent of people having lost weight effectively, who continue to remain in shape even after a year and more. However, there are simple tips that can help maintaining the your shapely figure after you have lost the extra pounds from your body.
# 1 EAT LOW FAT FOODS
Firstly, you should make sure that whatever you eat has low fat content in it. There are a number of products that claim to be low fat but they might turn out not to be what the claim to be. Hence, you should not buy any such food before checking for the ingredients and ensuring that they are not only low fat but low calorie as well. You should also make sure that you have all your meals and do not skip how to keep weight off after keto them while on your diet. This is especially true for breakfast. Skipping meals will halt the fat burning ability of an increased metabolism in its tracks. So don't skip meals.
#2 DRINK WATER
It is not always that you should focus on your diet and not on what you drink. For an effective weight loss, you need to make sure that you have a large glass of water and if you need something flavored, you should go for green tea instead of cold drinks or alcohol. You can also go for a glass of fresh fruit or lime juice. Just make sure you're not drinking too many calories with certain kinds of fruit juice.
#3 EXERCISE
You should also keep in mind that exercise is one of the prerequisites for losing weight and once lost maintaining the newly acquired shape of the body. If you do not have enough time to go to gym or a health club, you can get fitness dvd's available in the market and do some workouts at your home itself. However, if you completely dislike exercising, you should at least go for a morning walk or increase your mobility in other ways like taking stairs instead of elevators, whenever possible.
#4 A GOOD MENTAL ATTITUDE
One of the psychological factors that can help you attain your goal is by staying positive about the weight loss. Enjoy the idea as a step forward to staying healthy, instead of seeing it as an obligation for losing weight. Once you are in love with the process of weight loss, you will continue working towards maintaining your shape in the long run. You will also stay encouraged to avoid junk food and focus upon balanced diet.
#5 BE ACCOUNTABLE, GET A PARTNER
Last but not the least, find a partner whom you can work out with or go for a morning jogging session. This would not only keep you motivated towards your weight loss program, but also ensure that you are pulled out of your lethargy time and again for your exercises and stay conscious about what you are eating and drinking. However, if you can't find a permanent partner, you can seek support from your family or friends or join an online forum on weight loss, so that you can share your experiences and gain from others experiences.