Goal Setting Secrets to Avoid Sabotaging a Calories Loss Diet
Posted on November 6, 2008
Filed Under Food |
One of the most common mistakes that people make when it comes to weight loss is setting unrealistic expectations about how much weight they need to lose and how fast they can lose it. Setting unrealistic weight goals is really sabotaging your calories loss diet and your efforts to lose weight. That is why it is important to have some tools you can use to set realistic weight loss goals for yourself.
Experts in weight loss say that a healthy weight loss rate is one to two pounds per week and that is not a lot. If you tell yourself that you must lose ten pounds a week or that you want to lose fifty pounds by summer you are not being realistic. If you set unrealistic goals and then fail, you will be tempted to go off your calories loss diet, thinking that you are a failure, so utilize these techniques to make sure that your goals are specific and achievable.
Reduce the outcomes you expect of your weight loss if they are unrealistic because dropping a pound or two each week is a success that you can enjoy and continue to achieve. Celebrate this drop in weight, stick with your calories loss diet and stay focused on continuing to reach this gaol on a regular basis. A slow and steady weight loss is a great way to stay motivated and this keeps you committed even when your weight loss may slow down for a time.
View your weight loss as a percentage of your body weight not only in pounds, as weight loss is a wider experience than just the pounds you lose. If you weigh 250 pounds now, a healthy weight loss for you would be 10-20% of this, around 25-50 pounds and this would put you into a healthy category that your doctor would be pleased with. So include as part of your goal setting, accurate weight loss goals that take into account your body weight now and a realistic weight determined by a health professional.
Measure your weight loss in different ways to see the full impact of healthy eating and exercise on your body shape and include in your goals these different ways of charting your weight loss. The measurements you read on your scales do reflect your weight loss but so does the size of your waist, your hips and your chest. Sometimes you will find the loss of your body mass plateaus for a time but your body measurements continue to diminish so make sure both of these forms of measurement are part of your goals.
Include the number game in your weight loss goals to lose weight safely, healthily and to keep it off permanently with a recommended weight loss of 1-2 pounds each week, so that to lose 20 pounds will take you around 10 weeks. Determining a weight loss per week may seem constraining but if this weight loss rate is realistic you will be able to reach it and it will help you remain committed to your calories loss eating plan and your exercise routine. The journey towards permanent weight loss and good health is a reflection of the hare and the tortoise story where the slow and steady hare reached his ultimate goal!
Try to reduce your daily calorie intake by 500 per day either by exercising more and burning more calories or by eating less. Use a calories counter to estimate the changes you need to make to bring about this calories loss each day and use it to determine the foods that you can continue to include in your menu. Losing weight is a numbers game so get familiar with those numbers and how to use them to lose weight.
Set short term goals, but think of long term goals so set weight loss milestones and celebrate when you reach them. Buy yourself a new book when you lose 5 pounds, or a new dress when you hit 10 pounds lost. But even as you are celebrating each milestone, keep focused on the big picture and how much weight you want to lose in total. You need to celebrate your progress along the way but also stay focused on the big prize at the end because this will make your persistence to bring about a consistent calories loss worth the effort.
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These are some really good weight loss tips. It’s nice to see an article that promotes healthy weight loss and not some get skinny quick program. The best program I’ve found so far for meeting my weight loss goals is the Structure House system. It’s easy to understand, easy to implement and easy to sustain. Dr. Musante discusses the problems with being overweight and transitions to action steps that result in weight loss without feelings of deprivation.