Losing weight can change your life, but it is also worth acknowledging that for many people it will be a process that has a lot of ups and downs to contend with, as well as unexpected challenges to overcome.
The best way to get the results you want from your weight loss journey is to go into it with realistic expectations and an awareness of some of the factors that will influence your chances of success, so here are just a few considerations to keep in mind.
Changes you make have to be sustainable
Lots of people get sucked into so-called ‘yo-yo dieting’, where they will follow a new fad and lose weight for a brief period, only to pile the pounds back on in the long run because of the diet they have adopted is unsustainable.
The answer, then, is to avoid going all-out with major dietary changes; unless you think that you can comfortably eat in this new way indefinitely, the improvements you see will not stick around forever.
Most people who have success with weight loss aim to make small but manageable changes to their diet, whether that simply means cutting down on portion sizes without altering the types of meals they eat, or whether that involves working out more frequently to burn off more calories than normal while maintaining their usual diet.
Supplements can help
Healthy eating is definitely a good way to lose weight, especially if your current intake of food is focused on fatty and sugary items which can easily be swapped out for a less harmful alternative.
However, if you want to go a step further then there are lots of natural supplements to consider taking. Aside from vitamin-based supplements, which are good for general health, choosing products with branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) could be helpful. So what does BCAA do to your body? The short answer is that it could increase your metabolism and also boost the benefits you see from any exercise you do.
Obviously, you should consult a medical professional if you have any concerns about adding supplements to your diet, and if you get the go-ahead then it could be just the edge you need to succeed.
Setting small, regular goals is best
While there is nothing wrong with having a specific weight loss target that you are ultimately aiming to hit, it is easy to get disheartened if you keep eating healthy and exercising and yet you crawl towards your end goal very slowly.
You can stay motivated and happy if you also add a lot of interim targets, even if they are not directly associated with reaching specific weights. This could just be exercising for 10 more minutes each day over the course of a week, or preparing a homemade meal instead of ordering take-out at the weekend.
Variety will keep you interested
One of the biggest weight loss hurdles to overcome is working out how to avoid becoming bored with your new routine, especially if you are making dietary changes and you are concerned that your new meal plan will be bland.
Investing in a good cookbook, especially one which focuses on vegetarian and vegan cooking, could set you down the path to a world of new culinary wonders, and adding them to your repertoire rather than chowing down on just a handful of tasteless low-calorie options is sensible.
Similarly, if you are upping the intensity of your exercise routine, try to vary the types of workout you are doing, mixing in team sports and other fun activities so that you actually look forward to getting a sweat on.
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