Losing weight is difficult. If it was easy, none of us would be overweight. Psychological and physiological factors all play a role in a persons weight. Even though your success with weight loss depends on many factors, there is only one way to lose weight. Its not a secret.
To lose weight, you must burn more calories than you eat or absorb. There are various ways to do this.
Lifestyle & Habit Change
A lifestyle change is really a permanent change rather than a short-term ‘diet.’ It isn’t a shake, a pill, or
10 lbs in one month. It involves changing the food in your pantry, changing your restaurant choices and what you do from morning until night. Ultimately, you need to change your outlook from short-term to long-term.
A lifestyle change should do both of the following:
- Lower the amount of calories consumed.
- Increase the amount of calories burned.
The best place to start a permanent change is with a nutritionist and a fitness trainer. But most of us can’t afford a personal trainer and a nutritionist. Check out the sample menus from the FDA’s Choose My Plate initiative. For basic fitness advice and great articles to get your workouts started check out the Mayo Clinic’s website. These are great places to start a permanent change.
Surgical Weight Loss
There are a number of different procedures that result in weight loss. They all do one or both of the following:
- Restrict calorie intake by limiting the amount of food you can eat.
- Reduce the amount of calories absorbed by re-routing the digestive tract.
Some weight loss surgeries can also reduce hunger by removing part of the stomach thought to be responsible for a hunger inducing hormone.
Medications
Some medications do work. They either reduce absorption of foods or they speed up your metabolic rate. Because new medication is constantly being released, please talk to your doctor about effective pharmaceutical options to lose weight.