7 Important Weight Loss Tips

7 Weight Loss Tips

Weight loss is the main thing on the mind of almost everyone who goes to the gym in the build up to summer, but so many people get it wrong.

Weight loss isn’t difficult, nor is it complicated. Just follow these weight loss tips to help you understand the process – it will save you a lot of heartache.

1. When it comes to Weight Loss, CONSISTENCY IS KEY.

Weight loss doesn’t happen overnight – it takes a while. You have to be consistently doing the right things. Over the years I have had helped many personal training clients lose weight and the most successful are the ones who have been consistent with the simple things. To lose weight, you don’t have to do anything special, you just have to do the right things consistently.

Weight loss tip: Make your daily routine fit with your weight loss goal. Make preparing your own food a part of your daily routine – it helps you keep control over what you are eating.

2. BEHAVIOURS, NOT ACTIONS ensure weight loss.

What’s the difference between behaviours and actions? Well let me put it this way. No prisoner was ever let out of jail early for a single good deed. They are released for good BEHAVIOUR over a longer period.

Behaviour is a long term thing. When it comes to weight loss without doubt the clients who lose weight and keep it off are those who change their behaviours, not their individual actions.

Weight loss tip: Eating one super-healthy meal won’t see you lose much weight. Eating slightly-lower calorie meals and exercising consistently will.

3. Weight loss is NEVER LINEAR.

For some reason we have been programmed to expect weekly, consistent weight loss. It doesn’t work like that! I have seen clients lose 14lbs over 3 weeks then put a couple of pounds on, despite still being consistent. It happens. It’s normal. Get over it. There are hundreds of reasons why weight fluctuates, but remember weight is not the only measure of whether or not a diet and exercise programme is working for you.

Weight loss tip: Focus on the trends, not the fluctuations. Assess weight monthly rather than daily or weekly.

4. Remember IT’S ALL ABOUT YOUR HEALTH.

Somewhere in the aesthetic obsession that is modern fitness, too many people have forgotten about their health, valuing vanity over the function and fitness of their body. To steal a point from the interesting Gary Taubes book Why We Get Fat: And What to Do about It by Gary Taubes Reprint edition (2012), weight loss should be seen as ‘weight correction’.

Weight loss tip: A healthy body is a lean one, so focus primarily on becoming healthy and weight loss takes care of itself. Nourish your body properly, move it often and remarkable things happen!

5. Live a little. YOU CAN HAVE CHEAT MEALS!

A major reason for failure when it comes to weight loss is the client setting themselves unrealistic aims, expecting themselves to go without any of the favourite foods and never enjoying a reward. That isn’t a weight loss approach, it’s a punishment. There are definite reasons for cheat meals – in fact they can be good for you, but only when they have been earned. Phil Learney has written a great two-part article on cheat meals…

Weight loss tip: Remember you can eat cheat meals, but they do have to be a earned. Learn how to cheat on a diet without destroying your results.

6. Control your emotions!

I have seen a woman step on the scales and have her (great) day ruined simply because she has gained a pound in weight. WHAT?! Remember there is no proof that this weight gain is fat – it may be water, heavier clothes, muscle etc, but when you focus on weight loss being the only measure of success, it will make you go crazy, as weight loss is NOT the only measure of progress, nor is it ever linear (see tip 3!)

Weight loss tip: Realise weight loss is a journey and there will be good and bad days. Accept it, don’t let the stress damage your progress even further and strive to improve where you can.

7. Be REALISTIC with what is possible!

Thanks to ridiculous infomercials selling ‘amazing’ products, the public have been misinformed. The reality is you CAN achieve incredible, quick weight loss but you wouldn’t like what you would have to do in order to achieve such dramatic results. For most of us, we have to be realistic and look at weight loss as a slow and steady journey. If the approach you have to take to lose weight is dramatic, chances are you won’t stick to it for long.

Weight loss tip: Using the monthly weigh in tip (number 3), aim for around 7-10lbs per month of weight loss. Two consistent months of this will see you dropping 14-20lbs in a couple of months – anything more is a bonus!

For more detailed information on how to lose weight, check out these sections of my blog…

• 1. Weight loss and nutrition.
• 2. Exercise and health.

If you are based in Stockport or Cheshire and would like to know more about my personal training services, get in touch!