For most people, achieving long term fat loss might sound challenging, especially if you’re struggling starting your fitness journey. Here we’ll guide you through a list of tips to know what to do and avoid to achieve this goal.
Establishing the Why
There could be many reasons why someone would like to lose body fat. It could have been a suggestion from a doctor or a desire to increase the quality of life by moving with greater ease. Regardless, it is important to establish that personal connection with the goal in order to serve as a reminder throughout the journey. Like all great hero myths, undergoing changing eating and movement patterns is a journey. It will require a retrospective outlook at times to stay committed. Speaking of commitment, RDN Kristiana Todini said “There’s no right or wrong level of commitment to living a sustainable lifestyle.”
In this full of comparisons social media culture, it’s essential to understand that your journey is yours and yours alone. From a molecular standpoint, each person has a varied baseline one body may be comfortable at single-digit body fat while another is in homeostasis at twenty percent. There are many genetic factors that determine how our body is composed (within the balance of fat and muscle). From how we eat, and how we manage stress to how our metabolism works. These are factors that we cannot change. What we can do is make the best out of our situation and live the best version of ourselves through foods and habits that make us move better, feel happier, and most importantly are sustainable for a long life.
Avoiding the Yo-Yo Diet
Due to the comparisons, we make amongst one another thanks to social media, we look for drastic change within short periods of time. The yo-yo diet is a reference to a diet and lifestyle change that leads to temporary results that cause the person to rebound to where they started. Most popular diets or nutrition plans fit the definition of a yo-yo diet. Avoiding this trap will not only lead to long-term goal attainment and retention but a deeper understanding of how your body reacts to foods, movement, and healthy habit patterns.
I’ll admit the appeal of yo-yo dieting is alluring. It means results are given sooner rather than later. However, its draw takes advantage of the emotional attachment we have towards the attainment of the goal. Whether fat loss or more muscle. As a coach faced with a client that wants to lose thirty pounds, my goal is to lose the weight and keep it off forever. We do this by not looking at food as the enemy, but as a cultural experience and tool to help them live their best life.
Building a Healthy Relationship with food
Different foods have been associated with varying cultures and are a quintessential feature of being a human being. Breaking bread has been the earliest setting in which social-culture exchange takes place. Food is not just food, but an expression or reflection of the culture and people within. It’s important to enjoy food instead of looking at it as an enemy during your fitness journey. Take the time to find the delicate balance of enjoying food while attaining your goals, and fat loss will come over an extended period of time so you may continue to live your best life over an extended period of time. The frustrations behind attaining a goal and losing it as quickly as it was acquired are frustrating. Take your time. Be gentle with yourself. And look towards being the best version of yourself today, tomorrow, and in years to come.