BY NADIA POPOVA
Frustrated When You Regain Weight?
It is infuriating to put on a dress and realize that you can’t zip it up properly. It’s disappointing when this happens, and you realize that you have regained all the weight you worked so hard to lose. You become full of rage and call yourself hateful words such as “pig”. Please resist that urge. Many women gain back the weight they lost. Some women gain it back because they stop paying attention to their eating and exercising habits once the weight is gone. Others took part in an unattainable diet and did serious damage to their bodies.
If you want to lose the weight again and keep it off this time, you need to make it a point to lose weight in a healthy manner. You also need to seriously evaluate what worked and did not work when you lost the weight the first time.
Here is what to do if you regained the weight you worked so hard to lose.
- Forgive Yourself
It is disappointing and frustrating to be back at square one, especially when you worked hard to lose weight. Glaring at the dress that doesn’t fit will not make the extra weight go away. If it did, losing weight would be effortless. Cursing yourself will not make the weight go away either. All it will do is leave you feeling miserable or irritated. Neither is a good mindset for getting your motivation back. Frustrated with yourself though you may be, you have to forgive yourself if you want to lose the weight again. You have to accept that you made some mistakes, and now you need to re-lose the weight. Take a deep breath. You have proof that you can do this. You lost weight once. You can lose it again.
- Learn Why the Weight Came Back
You have gained your weight back. Why? Did you start ordering takeout every other night? Did you remember exactly how much you loved a few glasses of wine at night to unwind? Did you start justifying having that extra serving of cream and sugar in your morning coffee? Did you stop going to the gym? Did you lose weight specifically for an event and then stop paying attention to your habits when it was over?
Weight does not just appear. It creeps up slowly, and it has to come from somewhere. If you have gained weight back, you need to think about where that new weight came from. You cannot correct the problem until you recognize the problem. If you ate poorly, you need to make some healthier food swaps. If you stopped exercising, you need to start scheduling in your weekly workouts. If you went on a starvation diet, you need to understand how badly you damaged your body and metabolism.
- Evaluate Your Old Methods
If you have regained the weight you worked so hard to lose, the odds are- you want to get rid of it again. In this case, you need to think about how you lost that weight the first time. Did the pounds seem to just melt effortlessly off your body, or was each ounce a struggle to shed? This will help you know what to expect as you work to re-lose the weight.
Think about what your mental state was like when you dieted last time. Did you feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of each day that you stuck to your plan? Did you adjust to your new routine, and after a brief drop, did your energy levels return to normal if not higher levels? This is what should happen when you lose weight in a healthy manner. You will be tired or have low energy for a short period as your body adjusts to burning more calories than you ingest. When you lose weight in a healthy manner, however, you are not running at a massive caloric deficiency. Running a caloric deficit of just two to three hundred calories is more than enough to lose weight at a reasonable rate – but it should not leave you feeling run down and sluggish after you adjust.
If you lost weight at a rate of more than two pounds a week or spent your whole time dieting feeling light headed and tired, you need to change how you lose weight. Losing too much weight too quickly will send your body into starvation mode and can irreversibly damage your metabolism. This makes it almost impossible to keep your weight from creeping back up. This is a common problem with fad diets or diets that promise to help you lose ten pounds in a week by drinking special “shakes” or ingesting “herbal pills.”Losing a large amount of weight quickly makes the body believe that it is in a state of famine, and your body is starving. As such, your metabolism plummets as your body does everything possible to stretch the meager fuel it has to survive the famine. Your body is an incredible machine meant to keep you alive in the harshest conditions.
As well as looking at your eating habits, you need to think about your exercise habits. While working out every day for an hour will definitely help you lose weight, it is unlikely you want to spend that much time in the gym for the rest of your life. Start a workout routine you can keep up with even after you have lost the weight. Working out three to four days a week for thirty minutes is reasonable for most women.
- Make a Plan
Once you know what went wrong and what to avoid, make a plan for losing this last round of weight. Think about what you can reasonably handle in your life, and choose a reasonable timeframe. Do not expect to be able to stick hard and fast to your plan every day. Build in some time for backsliding and for extenuating circumstances. If you have a crazy week at work, you may not get to the gym as often. If your friend’s birthday is coming up, expect to join the rest of the party in eating cake and drinking beer. Make sure your plan is a healthy plan as well. It can be tempting to lose weight quickly and then try to “fix” your metabolism later. This is not how the body works. You need to accept slower weight loss, and keep your body healthy. Eat good, natural meals instead of heavily processed foods.
- Prepare for Lifestyle Changes
If you want to keep the weight off once you lose it, you will likely need to make some lifestyle changes. These could be cooking more often instead of living off take-out, or getting up an hour earlier so you can get in a workout before work. Make whatever changes you need to in order to continue living a healthy lifestyle even after the weight is gone. Do not wait to make changes until after you lose the weight. While you are trying to make the lifestyle changes necessary to keep the weight off, it will start creeping back up on you, and soon, you will be right back where you started.
Gaining weight back is frustrating, but there is no reason you cannot lose it again. Make it a point to lose weight in a healthy manner, and make some lifestyle changes. Work your plan, and treat your body right. Do that, and you should fit back in that dress in no time.
Much love, Coach Nadia / Send Me A Trainer
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