When someone tells me they’ve lost half a stone in a week, I get suspicious.
Why?
Well, it seems a lot plus I’m not exactly sure what they’ve lost. Is that half a stone pure body fat loss? Maybe it’s water weight or even muscle tissue?
And…what have they been eating (or not eating, more to the point) to lose that much?
Do you recognise this pattern:
• You hear about the latest super diet
• You need to cut down on your calories to about 1000 calories a day
• You have 2 or 3 juices a day plus a ‘standard’ evening meal
• You may have a supplement pill or pills to take (to ensure you get the essential vitamins and minerals)
• You feel brighter, more alert, energy levels are up, weight is coming off
• 3 or 4 days in, you start to get hungry but you stick with it
• Day 7 and you get on the scales – oh my goodness, you can’t believe it as you’ve lost 7 lbs – you are absolutely ecstatic
• You tell your friends – they are ecstatic for you and want to know your secret
• You continue with your diet
• You get to day 10 or 11 and suddenly the scales are broken – they are broken because your weight is the SAME so they MUST be broken, right?
• Day 12 you feel a bit down and start to feel really hungry – there’s NOTHING to eat – only a vending machine at the end of the corridor
• You can’t, you mustn’t, you DO – you get some chocolate and it tastes FANTASTIC – it’s the best chocolate you’ve ever tasted
• You get a sugar rush and adrenalin is pumping – you want some more sugar so another pound coin goes into the machine
• Day 14, you get on the scales and you’ve GAINED weight!
• All that effort for weight GAIN – yet another diet that hasn’t worked
Is this a familiar pattern or is it just me making up this stuff?
I see or hear this all the time I’m afraid and you know, it doesn’t have to be like this. You need to break this pattern. You need to AVOID dieting. Full stop.
Any calorie-restricted diet will mean a loss in water, a loss in muscle tissue and probably NOT a loss in body fat.
Worse still, less muscle tissue will mean a lower metabolic rate, which means it will be even more difficult to shed your body fat. The body will ‘think’ it is starving so will hold onto its fat stores.
A good weight loss is probably 1-2 lbs per week – as a general guide.
So, what should you do instead?
Eat food!!!! Stick to one-ingredient foods, cut out processed foods and sugars, eat lots of protein, limit your bread and dairy intake, cut down on alcohol and coffee (have them as treats), don’t cut calories too much and start an exercise programme.
Exercise will help to BUILD your muscle tissue, will help to BURN your body fat and will make you feel more energetic, stronger and fitter.
Diets NEVER work in the long term, trust me on that.
By the way, if you’re interested in an exercise programme, you may be lucky as I have a new ladies-only group fitness programme starting on Wednesday 23rd July in Newburn.
Details here: GROUP FITNESS