The summer is only a stone throw away and you want to look good in some skimpy clothes, and why not? Why should you be wearing jeans and long t-shirts during these hot months? But you’re not happy with your weight and size and worried about how you’ll look. Before I continue I would just like to point out something my 4 year old daughter said to her dad once “dad not everyone is perfect, but everyone is beautiful” I think those words are so true and you should never forget them, even if they came from a 4 year old.
However I still hear you say “I need to lose weight for summer”, I completely understand, you want to be in the best possible shape you can, and I encourage you to do everything you can to reach that goal, after all it can only do good for your confidence and your health. But there are limitations to what you should do; just keep reading and you’ll understand what I mean…
The following paragraphs were taken from The Corsair written by Christina Sziatinszky.
How To Lose Weight Not Just For Summer
Though health experts recommend slow weight loss for optimal results, many summer dieters adopt fad diets and cleanses that promise drastic weight loss in short amounts of time.
The Master Cleanse entails drinking only water with lemon juice, maple syrup, and cayenne pepper for 10 straight days. In the Cabbage Soup Diet, all a person eats for 10 days is cabbage soup. The Cookie Diet consists of cookies that contain a “special amino acid formula to assist with weight loss” every few hours, says registered dietitian and Santa Monica College nutrition professor Yvonne Ortega.
Though these diets may yield quick weight loss, Ortega does not recommend relying on them to lose weight in the long run. Most fad diets are not meant to keep weight off, so a person will likely gain back the pounds they lost once they resume their previous eating habits.
“The key to success is maintaining the weight loss,” says Ortega. “If you maintain the weight loss for one year, there is a high chance you will not gain it back.”
According to Ortega, weight loss consists of both decreasing caloric and fat intake, especially saturated fats.
Dieters are often advised to avoid empty calories such as candy, french fries, potato chips, and other fried foods, and resist the urge to drink soda and alcoholic beverages, which are all packed with hundreds of calories that provide little to no nutritional value.
“It is recommended that a person strive for a one-to-two-pound weight loss per week, or 10 percent of their body weight in six months,” she says, explaining that this approach is the healthy, long-term alternative to fad diets.
In order to maintain weight loss, Ortega says that dieting alone is not enough, as fat must be burned and muscles strengthened. Typically, a person must burn more calories than they consume per day. There are 3,500 calories in a pound, so a deficit of 3,500 calories must be created to lose a pound.
“Exercise is critical to [weight loss] success and overall health,” says Ortega. Original article here.
Not only eating cabbage soup for 10 days I imagine would be tortures, but then to pile the weight back on again, I don’t know about you but this doesn’t sound like an attractive weight loss solution to me. I think I’ll continue eating my low fat nutritious meals and aim for a few pounds off each week, like suggested.
As for exercise, most days I do 20 mins of Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred, It’s a very intense workout where 20 mins is easily compared to your average 2 hrs at the gym. Still I feel I should be doing more, I did started running for an hour in the morning but couldn’t keep up the momentum.
To get me running again a friend recommended I read Born To Run by Christopher McDougall, So I’ve got myself a copy and look forward to reading it this evening, hopefully it will be the motivation and inspiration I need. If I feel it’s worth mentioning, I will write a review on it in a day or so… We’ll see.
So what about you, are you going to skip the faddy diets this summer and stick to healthy eating, accompanied with plenty of regular exercise. Do share your plans in the Facebook comments section below, and because you’ve read the article this far, I’m guessing you enjoyed the read, so why not give it a “Like”.
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