Weight loss would be so much easier if people focused their efforts in the right place. Here’s the best way to lose weight that everyone forgets about.
Most Weight Loss Tips Don’t Fix the Problem
I’m a big fan of weight loss tips, as every once in a while I read one that helps me to think about my fitness lifestyle in a different light. Read enough about weight loss and fitness, and you begin to start developing your own philosophies on the subject.
Not only that, but I find these tips highly motivating. At worst, they remind you of certain aspects of fitness that you might have forgotten about. At best, they can inspire you to push forward and change your life.
However, while most of these tips are beneficial, they still don’t address the problem of weight loss, and therefore are ineffective when used alone.
Everything Tries to Treat the Symptom
That is the problem. Nearly every one of these weight loss tips tries to attack the problem by treating the symptom. Weight is a symptom. Whether it goes up or down is an effect of your lifestyle habits.
Because of this, it makes very little sense to make weight loss the focus of your weight loss program. Instead, we need to focus on what causes the weight loss and treat the actual problem – a faulty lifestyle.
Focus Your Efforts on Creating a Healthy Lifestyle
What we need to do to effectively lose weight is simplify every decision in our life to a basic question. What is that question? Is what I’m about to do going to make me healthier?
That question is going to get right to the root of the problem. Each time you answer yes to that question you are shifting the momentum towards achieving a healthy body composition.
Think about that for a second. Had you asked yourself that very question during the period of weight gain you experienced, you would have noticed that the answer to the question would have more times than not been no. You gained weight as a result of mindlessly answering no.
That’s because weight gain is a side effect of living an unhealthy lifestyle. Just the opposite also holds true – weight loss is a side effect of living a healthy lifestyle.
Take the Emphasis Off Weight Loss
To create a period of sustainable weight loss we need to take the focus off of weight loss and instead put it on trying to be healthier. When we do this we begin to change our body from the inside out.
Ultimately, we should be trying to figure out how to be healthier, instead of trying to figure out how to lose weight. The latter will always leave us in a period of transition. The former will help us work towards creating a new healthy lifestyle, and in return, we’ll receive all the mental and physical benefits that come along with one.
Weight Loss is an Involuntary Action
Contrary to popular belief, we do not control our weight loss, at least not in the technical sense. We indirectly influence it with our actions, but we don’t physically tell our bodies to send fat loss hormones throughout our body to mobilize fatty acids, and then tell them to burn them for fuel. That is an involuntary action undertaken by our body.
So why try to control it? Wouldn’t it make more sense to let your body do as it may, and instead focus on the actions we take in our life that make us healthier both mentally and physically?
These are the things that are within our control. These are the things that empower us.
Once you’ve actually created that healthy lifestyle, influencing your body composition becomes as easy as eating less or eating more. The roots have already been established. Eating less is then a much less overwhelming concept to implement.
The next time you find yourself getting frustrated at your lack of weight loss, take a step back and remember the big picture. Refocus your efforts on creating a healthy lifestyle, and weight loss is sure to be a positive side effect.
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Totally agree! Creating a healthy lifestyle is the only way to lose weight and keep it off.
Love the article – makes a lot of sense. I’m going to try thinking of my actions as something that makes me healthier instead of obsessing about weight loss all the time. 🙂
Hi Kiala, I think that’s the key to sustainable weight loss. Good luck!
Another fantastic article! Keep em’ coming! I share a LOT of your articles over on MFP to those who are struggling and not eating enough, etc. Great advice.
I don’t have a thyroid and feel that so much of what my weight does is dependent on my dosage and my levels. Just one more element adding to my ability or inability. Sucks because I kill myself at crossfit 3-4 days a week and eat clean. Probably need to eat more, but can’t handle the scale going up. Throwing out the scale is not always an answer. I’ve gained 5 lbs in the past week as my medication is bring brought down. My levels were way too high. Likely it’s water, but what if it’s not? Sometimes I feel like this is out of my control.
Hi, So I have gained like 20 lbs in the past 2 months. Had my thyroid tested and TSH is 1.41.range is (.10- 5.50) total T3 is 138(50-170) and free t4 is0.9 (0.8-1.7) So I don’t think its hypothyroid. Could it be low grade hypothyroid. I eat only about 1100-1200 calories a day and I am 5;2 140 lbs 30 yrs old. What is wrong with me? I exercise 5 days a week light weights and cardio for about an hr to an hr and a half. I know my calories are low but why am I still gaining. Could it be a food intolerance? I am getting increadibly depressed d/t the weight gain to the point of not wanting to see anyone or have anyone see me? I feel like I am completely out of control with my body. Any suggestions on what I should do?
If you are truly eating only 1100-1200 cal and exercising that much, you could be in starvation mode. you seriously could be eating too little. 1200 is the lowest you should go, and however many calories you burn in exercise, should be how many you add to that 1200 cal. for instance if you work out for 30 min & burn 300 cal, you should eat an additional 300 cal so you don’t go into that starvation mode. try it for a week and see if it boosts your metabolism. another thing to try is eating more meals each day, but healthy meals. start with a good breakfast, 2-3 hours later, have a snack of a fruit and a nut. then have a small portion at lunch, protein, carb and veggie, and then snack again like the morning snack. then have a good dinner. its kind of following the Advocare 10 or 24 day challenge. it works and jump started me into a healthy loosing streak when I was stuck. If you are still gaining, it has to be your Thyroid, and you may need medicine to help control your levels. if they aren’t stable, you can easily gain.
It is odd that you’re gaining on that many calories, especially 20 pounds in 2 months. Are you sure you’re measuring and counting everything you eat every single day? Have you started taking any new medications or had any life changes recently? I would personally see a Dr, as things just aren’t adding up.
Makes sense! I am generally very healthy but I am rarely right where I want to be with my weight. It’s very frustrating, and I do think about that 5 to 8# I really want to drop and keep off a lot. It is very frustrating! Maybe if I stop focusing on the pounds and just think about optimum health it’ll help!