1. Understand Safe Weight Loss
Maintaining a healthy weight is important to help prevent diseases such as heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes. Being overweight puts you at greater risk for many medical conditions and can create unnecessary stress on the joints. Losing weight is hard work and should be done slowly so the body can adapt to the changes. Unless you are under a doctor's care, you should not lose more then 1 to 2 lbs. per week. This is a safe amount of weight that will allow your body to slowly adjust to the changes and you will be more successful at keeping it off. Losing any more weight then that can lead to severe health problems. You need to make sure you are eating a well balanced diet in order to maintain good overall health.
2. Know the Consequences
Your body needs protein to survive. It is a major component of all cells, including muscle and bone. You need it for healthy growth, development and to strengthen your immune system in order to fight off infections. If you do not get enough protein in your diet, your body will begin to break down the muscles and other organs to get it. So you end up not losing fat but actually harming your body. The second problem is that when you gain the weight back, it is usually in the form of fat rather than regaining the lost muscle.
3. Know the Ramifications for Your Bones
If your diet is deficient in calcium and vitamin D, you are putting yourself at risk for osteoporosis. Osteoporosis is a condition where the bones become frail and are more susceptible to fractures. Fractures can happen due to a fall, however you can also develop small compression fractures in your spine from just bending or moving the wrong way. Another issue is that osteoporosis may be present without any symptoms. You only know if you have it by getting a bone density test. So while you may be losing weight, you may also be unknowingly loosing bone and may need to go on medication to rebuild it.
4. Understand the Consequences for Your Heart
Your heart is responsible for pumping blood and oxygen throughout your body. When you gain or lose weight, your heart must adjust to accommodate more or less body weight. Since your heart is a muscle, rapid weight loss or constantly losing and then gaining weight can place a lot of stress on your heart. As your weight changes so does your blood pressure and heart rate. You may also experience irregular heart rhythms and eventually heart failure. It is actually better for your heart to maintain a set weight then to continually gain and lose weight.
5. Know That Weight Loss Is Hard to Maintain
Most people who try rapid weight loss programs usually end up gaining the weight back, and sometimes they gain back more then they lost. Since rapid weight loss programs severely restrict your diet, they are not something you can stay on for long periods. Many people end up feeling deprived. Inadequate nutrition can also leave you feeling tired, moody, depressed and anxious. Eventually this will lead to not only breaking the diet, but binging on the foods that have been restricted. You may end up giving up on your program completely and returning to unhealthy patterns of overeating.
To successfully and safely lose weight and keep it off takes hard work and commitment. You need a combination of diet and exercise and a gradual change in lifestyle habits. You need to develop an eating plan that will not only be for 6 or 8 weeks, but one that lasts the rest of your life. If you are unsure of where to begin, consider seeing a Registered Dietitian (RD). RDs are licensed by the state to practice nutrition and can work with you to continue to eat the foods you enjoy, and at the same time learn techniques to maintain a healthy weight
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