Most of us have experienced restricting diets that we have gone on for a certain period of time to lose weight to fit into our last year’s dress to attend a wedding party or another function.
Yes, you will lose weight on those diets but, it is almost impossible to keep that weight off longterm. Studies show that 90 percent of people who lose weight on restricting diets gain it back within 1-5 years.
When you diet often, you restrict yourself from eating certain products for longer periods of time. Our body does not get all the nutrients it needs from such a depriving way of eating. In a long run, we start having vitamin and mineral deficiencies in our body such as magnesium, Vit A,C,D,E, and omega 3 fatty acids that are essential for our body to function properly.
Getting on and off restricting diets, cutting calories and depriving our body of needed nutrients can lead to increased weight loss problems as well as can make us more prone to chronic diseases.
Furthermore following this manner of eating we fall into a constant yo-yo effect. We lose weight by dieting, while we are starved and deprived of foods. Once we are done we eagerly get back to our usual eating habits and that results in a quick return to the previous weight. Soon we start all over again.
Sounds familiar?
These types of restricting and depriving behaviours are not only bad longterm for our weight loss, but also have a huge mental impact on us. They create a controlling relationship with food, ultimately leading to eating disorders. Eating disorders very often are not very obvious to us. They could be not eating enough, bingeing late at night after restricting ourselves all day, feeling guilty about every calorie, eating to avoid feelings or obsessive thinking about food while restricting ourselves from eating.
These kinds of relationships with food can not be healthy for us physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually.
So what can we do then? We all want to have our perfect healthy and fit body that we feel fabulous in.
Before we start embarking down the dieting route, it is very important to shift our mindset about food.
We need to tune into our body’s needs more and heal our relationship with food.
Listening to body’s cues for hunger and fullness is a very important part of it.
We need to eat for body’s physical needs and nourish it properly with balanced meals.
Ask yourself:” Am I really hungry? Is it my stomach that is calling for food or is it my emotions talking? How can I address those emotions without having to ignore them and prevent eating over them while I’m actually full?”
Making those little changes by tuning in with your body and listening to its cues is the first step in succeeding with weight loss and never having to worry about it again.
Then, we also make sure we feed our body nutrients it needs to function optimally.
With that awareness, we make small changes, one at a time in our daily habits.
That is the best recipe for longterm weight loss success.
If you have been struggling with weight loss and you would like to talk about it, apply for a free consultation call with me. I would be happy to help.