No More Diets

How can I stick to any weight loss program or diet long enough to see results?


Mmmh - this is the age old question because nearly all programs will work if you keep them going.

The trouble is that most of them are pretty tough to manage especially if you have any sort of social or family life!

If you live alone and never go out or have work commitments then you would probably manage much better but then no one would ever notice your new shape except you!

To increase your chances of success…

1. Choose the Right Program

Choose a weight loss program or diet which is going to be as easy as possible to fit into your current lifestyle and which offers some flexibility to cope with the type of situations you can’t avoid.

If you choose one with a meal plan - make sure you like the food. If you choose one with an exercise requirement make sure you’re not going to hate it within a week and that you have time to fit in the necessary workouts.

If possible choose one (like my own weight loss program) which has guidelines rather than rigid rules and meal plans.

2. Have the Right Attitude

Have an attitude that you are in this for the long haul - that you are not going on a diet but adopting a healthy lifestyle for the rest of your life.

That way you are less likely to choose a plan that you can’t keep up for two weeks never mind a few months.

What changes are you prepared to make to your diet and you activity levels that will help you lose weight and keep it off forever?

3. Work on Your Motivation

Make sure that your motivation is solid before you begin and keep working on it every day.

We are all highly motivated the first day of a new weight loss program or diet - it’s the day after and the day after that which count most and make the difference between success and failure.

Take my free weight loss motivation course if you need some help with this area .

4. Mental Rehearsal

Think about where you have gone wrong in the past and work out strategies to cope with those same situations when they occur again (which no doubt they will).

Imagine yourself dealing with each situation in a different way and keep repeating this mental picture until new ways of coping with this type of scenario are fixed in your mind.

When the situation occurs in real life you are then much more likely to behave in a way which supports your weight loss goals than you have in the past.

How do you Lose 10 kg (22lbs) in a Month?

I wish I was able to wave my magic wand and give you a plan which would do just that. I tell you, I’d be a millionaire if I could.

But you really can’t lose weight that fast without doing a “Biggest Loser”and dedicating your whole life to losing weight. And my take on that is that there’s no point in even trying because:-

a) you’ll ruin your skin losing weight so fast
b) you’re not learning how to change your lifestyle so you’ll put it right back on again
c) you may be permanently damaging your metabolism so that you put weight back on faster than ever
d) you’ll probably fail anyway unless you have a huge amount of motivation - like a camera stuck in your face the whole time.

Best way to lose weight is sensibly, I’m afraid - a little amount each week while permanently changing your eating habits so that you lose weight AND keep it off.

I have lost 10 lbs in the last 3 months. I am now at a healthy weight according to my BMI although I would like to lose 10-15 more. My question is, why when I look in mirror do I feel like I look exactly the same as I did when I was heavier? Especially my stomach feels like it sticks out and is untoned even though I have been doing stomach exercises.

Those BMI weights are just a guide for what makes a healthy weight for an average adult. Most of us look better in our clothes and feel better when we are slightly lighter than BMI (while the more muscular types will look good at a weight higher than the average BMI). It’s a case of finding out the best weight for you - the one that is both healthy and makes you feel good.

A 10lb weight loss spread over your whole body will have a subtle effect on your shape but is rarely enough to make a difference which is very noticeable to others unless you are already very slim.

Re your stomach - at times, your rounded tummy may be due to bloating, water retention or excess carbs. Just look at your tummy after a high carb meal versus a lighter one and see the difference. If you are still carrying excess fat however, it’s one of those facts of female life that it tends to gather in one place (and generally in the place where we don’t want it to gather). If you tend to put weight onto your stomach it will be the first place fat goes and the last place it will leave. This is where the final few pounds of effort will probably make a difference especially if you keep up the toning exercises. Make sure to always do toning exercises properly to really work your muscles deep down (and to avoid straining). Pilates and yoga are great for tummy firming if you would like to have a go at them.

Also don’t expect to get a completely flat stomach. Women’s tummies (especially if you have had kids) are usually a little curved - that’s quite natural - and just as lovely as the washboard flat stomach of a teenager.

I’ve already lost 52 pounds, but I’m having trouble with the rest. I would be grateful for any tips and especially motivation. I sometimes think about giving up and just settling with my current weight as it is still better than before. I seem to have lost my motivation and I need a good kick in the pants, so to speak.

Far from needing a good kick in the pants I have to tell you that you are very special. Do you know how hard it is for most people to succeed at losing 52 pounds? Please see this huge achievement for what it is and reward yourself for how much you have done so far (just don’t choose a food reward!)

However I have to warn you that the most dangerous time is now, when you have come so far and still have a way to go. This where it’s easy to slide back into old habits and put the weight right back on again. How heartbreaking is that?

If you are finding it hard to keep on losing it may be that you are just bored with your food and bored with your exercise routines.

It is probably not you who needs to change but them! Remember that food quantities need to be readjusted as you lose weight especially if you have lost a lot - it takes a lot of calories just to keep 52lbs alive and ticking over.

Rather than adjusting portions downwards again and feeling hungrier take the opportunity to hunt out some new recipes that will excite your taste buds as well as kick start your weight loss again. And try some new activities too so that you are not bored with the same old routines.

This is the time to inject some new life into your efforts so that you enjoy the process as well as the sense of achievement.

How can I get over my plateau (I’ve bumped up my exercise intensity and my weight won’t budge)?

It’s quite normal to get stuck in a weight loss plateau when you are in it for the long haul - and it is a major danger point - so many people give up at that time. You know how it is - you start full of enthusiasm and really tackle weight loss head on and then a few weeks later despite making a great effort the dial on the scales refuses to budge.

There are quite a few potential reasons for a plateau:-

Maybe you don’t think you are making any less effort but actually you are paying a bit less attention to your eating habits in terms of portion sizes and food choices. Maybe you have got a bit more lax about following your plan and some of your old habits have crept in.

OR

Maybe you have lost weight and you haven’t adjusted your eating habits accordingly. Every pound of extra fat means you have to carry an extra pound of fat around all day. A person who loses weight generally needs fewer calories unfortunately.

OR

Maybe you have been TOO strict with yourself and your metabolism has slowed as a result. Your body thinks you are starving and is conserving fat as much as you can. This generally happens if you are eating more than 500 calories fewer than you need each day (and if you are doing a lot of exercise you may need to adjust the standard daily requirements for your activity level). Maybe your body has even reached the level where it will resist weight loss because you at the healthiest weight for you. If you were trying to reach super model proportions this might very well be the case.

OR

Maybe as you have been exercising so much you have been replacing fat with muscle. Muscle makes your body firmer and more compact plus it burns up more calories even while you are resting but it also weighs more than fat - so you can actually become leaner AND heavier at the same time. This may be happening to you.

Whatever the reason, if you definitely still have weight to lose (and you’re not trying to make yourself unnaturally thin) you have two choices when faced with a weight loss plateau.

You can give up and let the plateau defeat you

OR

you can make an extra effort to continue to get in shape by checking that your food consumption and exercise levels are fine for the weight you are currently at - neither too high nor too low. Then you need to be more vigilant.

Giving up serves no purpose. But if you carry on eating more healthily and moving your body the scale will eventually continue to move and you’ll continue to build the shape you deserve ounce by ounce and inch by inch.

How do I get more motivated to work out…I start for a week and then stop.

The only real answer to this is to find something you love to do so that nothing will stop you doing it.

I think we torture ourselves too much by thinking that nothing less than a full gym program will do when we would do far better to get active with dancing or skating or skiing (or whatever else floats our boat) - something that will not need so much willpower to keep up.

If you insist on trying to do a program which is a chore rather than a pleasure then the only way to motivate yourself is to do it for long enough to feel the benefits before you let yourself stop.

I took up running this year against my better judgement - I knew I didn’t like running at all but it was for a charity race. I simply had to get my running clothes on and get out of the door three times a week. What helped initially was having the race to aim for and a training program to follow. What helped later was the fantastic feeling I got when I came home from a run. (And I did enjoy the race in the end!)

How do you stay motivated when you start to feel deprived of all the good-tasting stuff?

It really depends on how you are losing weight.

If you are following a weight loss program where you have rules where foods you love are forbidden then you can start to crave the good stuff more than you ever did before.

This takes iron will-power especially when the food you love is on offer in a restaurant or at a friend’s house. (You aren’t tempting yourself are you, I hope, by keeping the food around at home…?)

You may want to practice pausing at the moment you are tempted and remind yourself why you want to lose weight and what it means for you - run through the end result in your head - and then compare that with the momentary pleasure of the food.

But I tend to tackle this issue by working on removing the feeling of deprivation altogether.

In my program I have my clients tackle this problem by encouraging them to :-

a) eat the food they love, to buy the very best and to eat it in small portions, sitting down, very slowly, enjoying every moment. If you really taste the food, eat it when you are hungry and “know” you are consuming it - then a small amount is much more likely to satisfy you than if you stuff down a huge portion guiltily by the fridge.

b) find new healthy satisfying recipes and foods so that over time the food they love and the food that does them good get closer together. Healthy food does not have to be wall to wall salad and cottage cheese - there are loads of fantastic real food dishes which taste great, fill you up and satisfy your hunger for the good things in life so that you’d never know you were trying to lose weight.

These two approaches take away every sense of deprivation - the sort of diet mentality where you can’t have this and you can’t have that … until you come off the diet, eat it all again (in large amounts) and put the weight back on.

How do I find the will power not to eat from 2pm until supper at 5pm?

I’m not sure which program you are following because I don’t think that’s a sensible rule for most people if you mean that you’re not allowed anything to eat at all. It’s a particularly difficult one because it is quite normal to get hungry mid-afternoon especially if you have had a lunch with a lot of carbohydrates and not much in the way of fat and protein. It’s the time when low blood sugar tends to hit and we feel in need of a boost to raise our flagging energy.

In my program I would advise you to have a light healthy snack mid-afternoon to keep you going until dinner if (and only if) you are physically hungry. If you do this it means that you are more likely to

a) make sensible choices for dinner
b) have the energy to prepare and cook something
c) keep your metabolism ticking over

Now if the problem is that you are not eating for hunger but are falling prey to the proximity of the chocolate machine or the cookie jar that’s another matter…

For this willpower IS required…a few things which might help - maybe others can suggest more things which help them

1. have a healthier snack on hand and ready-prepared so that you less likely to succumb if you get hungry/need a boost
2. avoid having unhealthy foods to tempt you at home (or keep them well out of the way and out of sight) and avoid the area with the chocolate machines at work
3. keep a record of how often you manage to resist (e.g. a chart with stars or ticks) and reward yourself when you reach 100 with something you really want but are willing to deny yourself until you earn it
4. make yourself pay a forfeit whenever you give into the urge - money to a charity you don’t like, having to walk off all the calories you ate after dinner etc

How do you flip the mental switch so that you do what it takes to stay healthy?

The more I work with those trying to lose weight and become healthier the more I see that until you are ready to change - nothing WILL change. The determination to make things different is what counts in all success but particularly in weight loss where there are so many temptations to lead you astray and you have to be focused to stay on track.

For most people the change where you go from a state of not really being bothered to do anything except in a half-hearted way to being really determined happens due to some incident or sudden realization about what you’re doing to yourself.

So I agree that there is some kind of mental switch.

But I can’t tell you what yours is because it is different for everyone. And it’s based on your motivation for doing something about your weight, your food habits and your fitness levels.

Some people have their moment of change when they see a picture of themselves in a swimsuit. Others when they catch sight of themselves unexpectedly in a shop window. You may get your moment of change with a poor result at the doctor’s office. Or by finding that you really don’t like not being able to keep up with your kids any longer.

If you want to generate such a moment then you can try thinking about all the reasons why you don’t like being overweight - how is it harming your health, your looks, your confidence? What else is it costing you in terms of happiness? Think about all the incidents where you feel your weight has had a negative effect.

Are you prepared to put up with that? Forever? Are you prepared to let things get worse and worse as you sink into an unhealthy old age? (Because that is what will happen unless you do sopmething about it).

Even then…

Despite suddenly thinking “Enough is enough. Things have got to change.” many people still give up without improving their health enough to make a difference or slide back into poor habits after achieving an improvement.

To avoid that slide back towards weight gain and ill health keep reminding yourself daily (hourly if you have to) why you are doing this (keep a written list of all your reasons for this purpose) so that you keep yourself on track.