Is it a Waste of Time to Try to Lose Weight?

If you're overweight you face an increased risk of developing certain health conditions, including heart disease and diabetes, which is why it definitely isn't a waste of time to try to lose weight. The trouble is that many people lose weight by going on a crash diet and then gain it all back again as soon as they go back to eating normally. Of course, you're bound to think that it's a waste of time trying to lose weight if you end up just as heavy, if not heavier, after coming off a diet. It is therefore important that you go about weight loss the right way.

It might be tempting to tell yourself that it's a waste of time trying to lose weight and that you'll only end up as heavy as before, because this gives you an excuse to avoid tackling the situation. However, this will not alter the fact that you're miserable about being overweight or that your health could begin to suffer if you continue to pile on the pounds. You therefore need to be positive about the opportunity you have to lose weight and to keep it off, rather than dwelling on past failures and trying to convince yourself that you will always be fat.

If you've gone on diets before in order to lose weight, only for the weight to return with a vengeance, this clearly isn't the path you want to take again. Instead, you need to find a way of embracing lifestyle changes that will facilitate weight management. You have to learn to get the right balance between the number of calories you consume and the number of calories you burn, so that you can lose weight or maintain a healthy weight, depending on whether you have reached your goal yet or not. This is better than trying to more-or-less starve yourself for weeks at a time.

By getting used to counting calories and increasing the amount of activity you do, you should be able to lose weight without too much difficulty. There will no doubt be the occasional slip-up, but it won't take you long to recover and to get back to it. You may not lose weight as rapidly by taking this approach as you would by going on a crash diet, but you will have a better chance of keeping it off. Your body won't end up in starvation mode and desperate for extra calories and you will be in a more appropriate frame of mind to exercise control over your eating.

Losing weight can increase your life expectancy and reduce your chances of developing a multitude of serious health conditions, so trying to do something about your weight is a good use of time, rather than a waste. Losing weight can also give your self-esteem boost and make you feel more confident in yourself, which is also a positive thing. It is never a waste of time to try losing weight, but you obviously have to approach weight loss as in a sensible way, with a view to keeping it off in the long run. If you aim to lose weight too quickly, you may be happy with the initial results, but then be disappointed when you regain every pound you lost.