Are you a weight rebounder?

Have you ever been one of those people who lost weight, hit your goal, then gained it back?  If so, did you ask yourself why?  Were you paying attention throughout your journey to a healthier you or were you just going through the motions?  Did you make any changes to your behaviors or just cut out a food or macronutrient group?  Did you take diet pills, do exhaustive cardio and drink fancy powders that claimed to help you “melt fat”?  What good is it to do a diet to just gain the weight back?  It causes frustration, loss of confidence and self-esteem, and in some instances it can even be more detrimental to you than if you would have maintained the weight you were.

Yo-yo dieting is rough on the body and the mind not to mention it can affect your emotional health as well.  Often times, people get so hyper focused on just losing the weight, that they forget to pay attention to the healthy habits they are potentially and hopefully forming along the way.  By keeping your head in the game and staying present and accountable in your journey you offer yourself a unique approach to success and ultimately sustainability.

You hear many say that you need to find your tribe or a community.  While support is a great asset to possess this is not the number one indicator to success.  The number one indicator of success is you, 100% you!!  

You are all you “need” to be successful in your health journey.  No one is discrediting the power that a community can provide.  Or how the support of those closest to you can be very empowering.  I personally, just want you to know that you can achieve goals without any external support. 

Can coaches, doctors, therapists, personal trainers, and others help – absolutely.  Having help will allow you to achieve your goals in a more linear fashion (than just throwing a dart and going at it alone).

Expectations are a huge player in self-improvement goals.  Make sure you have both short-term and long-term goals, especially if you have a lot of weight to lose.  If you cannot set up reasonable expectations and goals then ask someone for help.  The average dieter loses 5-10% of their initial body weight.  For example, if you weigh 200 pounds, set a short-term goal to lose 10%, then you will have lost 20 pounds, and this is a most excellent first goal to achieve!!  Plus, it is enough to affect or even alter some health factors like high blood pressure, joint pain, type 2 diabetes, and more.  Now, hang out here a bit – don’t just jump into another round of fat loss.  Depending on how much weight you need to lose and how long you have been dieting can help you determine your overall strategy.  If you have over 25 pounds still to lose and have been dieting for quite some time (>6 months) then maybe eat at your new caloric maintenance for 2 – 4 weeks then go for another 10%, and repeat; chipping away a little bit at a time.  If you only have a few pounds left to lose (5-10 pounds) and have been dieting for greater than 12 weeks, then take 1 – 2 weeks maybe and then go for that final round to drop the rest. (*above are only suggestions of course) 

Taking this approach to weight loss allows you to make sustainable change – because it breaks it up into small achievable goals that will help you grow confidence and self-esteem along the way – thereby giving you the belief in yourself that you need (aside from any external support or validation).  This is also a healthier approach to fat loss, not just from a mental and emotional place, but also biologically.  If you have been at that 200 pounds for a while, then to your body, this is its set-point and where it wants to be.  If you lose to much too soon then the body will begin to panic a bit (so-to-speak) and want to slow you down.  By breaking up your goals into 5-10% increments you can help shut that down per se, allowing fat loss to work for you, not against you.   

Unfortunately, whether you lose the weight quickly or slowly the odds of weight rebound are great.  Even more so, if you have made no behavioral changes, cut a macro-nutrient or food group, took diet pills, etc., just to name a few.  You must be diligent in your endeavor and continue to pay attention to what you have done to achieve your results if you want to stay there.  The average dieter loses the desired pounds and begins the “gain back” within 12 months.  Long-term maintenance of weight lost requires a behavioral change – there is no way around it.  If you do not change the unhealthy practices that got you to where you are (or were if you have lost your weight and are reading this now) then you will return to those previous behaviors and the weight will return.  Usually, the weight returns fully within 2 years and often times people gain back more than they originally lost.

People undervalue their abilities when it comes to personal change.  I am not talking about wanting to be a professional athlete and you possess no natural talent or skill.  I am talking about personal change – changes to your health, well-being, and fitness, things of this nature.  Sadly, some do not even have health goals, think they are not worthy to have them, or have never even given it much thought until the doctor opens the door and says, “we need to talk.”

Metabolic conditions and diseases such as high blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol (hypocholesteremia), type 2 diabetes, overweight or obesity are not requirements to aging.  They are conditions acquired due to the lifestyle in which you lead.  Sure, genetics do play a role, but genetics do not doom someone to these myriad of diseases. 

Lastly, be mindful of chronic stress (mental, emotional), poor or inadequate sleep, frequent consumption of fast and convenient foods, or even eating too many so-called “healthy foods” like processed protein bars, chips, and such, as everything you consume plays a role in your day-to-day.  Lifestyle is more than just what you do, it is how you do it, and how you apply it to everything to your life.

Need help to make a sustainable change?  Fill out the coaching application and join us too at Dynamo Nutrition & Fitness on Facebook (www.iamdynamo.com).

Reference

Hall, K. and Kahan, S. (2018). Maintenance of lost weight and long-term management of obesity. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5764193/