Losing weight can be an emotional rollercoaster – usually you’re feeling great and seeing positive changes or your frustrated and patiently waiting for results. The key factor that we’ve seen impact the most clients is consistency. The people with the most success and long-term success approach each day as an opportunity to improve their eating habits and their relationship with food. It can be difficult but it’s important to look at more than just that pesky number on the scale.
If you’re just starting, it’s not abnormal for your body to take a while to show you the results of your efforts. While most diet programs guarantee fast weight loss, real and sustainable changes take time!
There are definitely instances where you will need to ditch that diet though. We’re hoping to help you decide if the diet approach you’re taking is one you should keep, or one you should ditch.
When to KEEP it:
Most of our clients have been educated to eat more fiber – from fruits, vegetables and whole grains. It’s very common to notice an increase in weight due to the increase in fiber. Fiber adds bulk to your stool (aka poop) and the rapid change can sometimes cause some “traffic jams” in your GI system. This can lead to some bloating and and increase in “weight”. Make sure you’re drinking plenty of water to help keep things moving.
Although some diets might encourage losing 5+ pounds per week, a realistic and sustainable weight loss target is closer to 0.5-2 pounds per week. This is going to ensure that you’re eating enough to help maintain some of your muscle mass. If your diet encourages you to look at the big picture and assesses your average weight loss you should keep it!
If you feel great, your clothes are fitting better, you have more energy during the day, you no longer feel the need to eat your arm at 4pm – these are all signs to stick to what you’re doing despite what that scale says.
When to DITCH it:
Chances are, if you’re not seeing results or feel like crap, the diet may be a “fad” diet that is not what your body needs. It could also mean that it requires some tweaking and personalizing to you. Keep in mind – what works for someone might not be a good fit for you. Just because your friend lost weight doing keto doesn’t mean it’s a good fit for your body.
If you’ve cut out major food groups, feel like you’re eating close to nothing and hungry with no results, chances are, cutting out more food and calories isn’t going to help. What often happens is you’re constantly thinking about food, and often end up overeating.
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