The Benefits of Aiming for Gradual Weight Loss

One of the most frustrating aspects of losing weight is that it seems to take ages. You go to all the effort of cutting out junk food and embracing a healthier diet, reducing your portion sizes, eating fewer snacks and doing more exercise, but for what? You step on the scales and discover you've lost a measly pound. You wonder whether it is really worth continuing onwards since if you only lose a pound a week, it will take a considerable period of time to reach your goal weight and impatience can sometimes get the better of you.

However, you have to get it into your head that the best way to lose weight is at a gradual rate. The only way you're going to lose large quantities of weight quickly is by undergoing weight loss surgery or by putting yourself on a very-low calorie diet, both of which are rather drastic steps to take. Nobody wants to put themselves through the trauma of surgery if they don't have to, whilst very-low calorie diets are not generally known for their long-term success. Starving yourself to lose weight clearly isn't the answer, especially when it isn't only fat that you will be losing.

You weight loss will also come from water and muscle mass. Once you stop dieting and go back to eating what you consider to be a normal diet, you could find yourself gaining back all the weight you lost rather quickly. If your body has been starved for a considerable period of time, it is obviously going to want to make the most of the extra calories being fed to it. You may decide to go on a diet again in the future, ending up stuck in a cycle of losing and gaining weight, so that eventually the body becomes reluctant to shift the extra pounds.

Aiming for rapid weight loss will only lead to disappointment in the end. You can't expect to be able to lose seven pounds every week and so it would be better to strive for one or two pounds. It might take you longer than you had hoped to reach your weight loss goal, but at least you won't have to starve yourself to get there. Plus, you will have a better chance of keeping the weight off, since you will have a period of time to grow accustomed to a new routine of healthy eating and regular exercise.

Indeed, most people want to lose weight quickly so that they can get back to 'normal' as soon as possible, but if your version of normal is to eat too much and do very little, you basically have to re-programme yourself, anyway. This takes time and so you would be better off aiming for gradual weight loss, so that you can prepare yourself for a lifetime of calorie control. You may not want to have to count calories forever, but it is preferable to finding yourself in the position of needing to lose weight again!