Losing Weight the Healthy Way

I personally dislike using the term weight loss because it’s not fully accurate nor are the techniques always healthy, what I mean by this is that there is more to getting fit than simply losing body weight.

I realise that peoples goals can be very different. Individual goals may range from simply losing a few pounds to reducing their body fat percentage considerably. Whatever your goal, it is important to focus on the healthy part of weight loss.

Weight loss is not bad but it’s healthy weight loss that we should keep our focus on. If we focus too much on our actual weight it can lead some people to focus on the scales, and this is not necessarily the best way to judge if we need to lose some body fat.

Our weight can change day by day by several pounds or kilograms depending on various factors. Such factors as how much we have eaten that day, how much exercise we got, how much we drank and the current weather and temperature to name a few. It is important to keep in mind that if our weight goes up or down it doesn’t necessarily mean that our body fat has actually increased or decreased.

Another thing to keep in mind is that if you improve your eating habits and begin exercising on a regular basis you may increase the amount of muscle mass you have, which may add a few pounds to your body weight. (A slight increase of weight on the scales is not always a bad thing!) sometimes a little extra weight is healthy.

How to tell if we are overweight?

The best way is to simply take a look in the mirror, or give yourself a little belly fat pinch test. Keeping track of our weight can be helpful, however try not to rely on it too much, or get obsessed with the scales.

Some people weigh themselves constantly, and if they don’t see a good reduction, or even worse they even gain weight, then that can be massively demoralizing. Possibly leading them to completely give up their efforts or even causing depression.

It would be beneficial if people just forgot about their actual body weight completely. Focusing too much on our weight can lead to bad habits, including extreme unhealthy diets such as staving oneself, which is obviously not good.

Remember to always include the word healthy in weight loss, or replace it with fat loss which is much more accurate to our goals.

Reasons so many struggle with losing weight

Ignorance – a pure basic lack of knowledge could be a possible reason. Simply not understanding the benefits or the potential side effects of not maintaining a healthy weight.

Easy access to junk foods – junk foods are so easy to pick up and most are cheap. It has never been easier to get hold of a chocolate bar or a bag of crisps/chips or something along those lines.

The government is partly responsible for allowing such easy access to these foods. In the UK almost all of the vending machines in public places consist of chocolate bars and crisps/chips.

The government complains about the strain and expense on the health service from health problems caused by being overweight, yet we are not seeing much change to the access of these foods.

The way we think – we live in a very instant gratification world. Often people are not thinking about the consequences of their actions but rather just aiming for that instant fix, to feel better or get pleasure from what they eat.

The most important reason for eating is staying alive and providing our bodies with the nutrients it requires, this is why we need to consume, basic and simple. However in much of the world this understanding or way of thinking has been lost.

These days in much of the world food is equal to pleasure, pleasure and instant gratification rule! this has happened because in richer counties food is in abundance and so easily accessible. The way we think doesn’t just apply to food and diet, it also applies to exercise as well. For many people exercise seems like an unpleasant thing, when they think about exercise they relate it to boredom, pain and general unpleasantness.

There is some truth to this, however there are many feel good benefits that come from exercise, most are just not as instant or obvious, again it comes back to the instant gratification culture that is so dominate.

This is a very difficult one because for this point to be useful it would require a change of thinking, and as most of us know change is not easy. It also requires us to consider that the way we think about food and exercise is wrong, and this is something that many people are not willing to do.

Why is it so difficult? because of the way we think, which is partly caused by our modern day societies and easy access to cheap junk food, advertising, and of course there is always an element of personal responsibility.

Obesity is becoming a real problem here in the UK costing the government an ever increasing amount in health care costs. The government needs to change things before this problem will improve. Cheap junk foods need to be less accessible and controlled, with an increased amount of healthier well priced alternatives.

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