With all the current trends to get everything as fast as is humanly possible, there is one aspect of life where the opposite is the best course of action. This is in losing weight, especially when your primary focus is on exercising to achieve the long term, healthy and gradual loss of weight that this method can bring to you. There are many benefits to going this route, not least of those being you get to end up with a truly great looking body once you get there!
Speed Kills!
Yet with the obvious sensibility of taking things slowly and methodically, there are still far too many people who are hell bent on wanting to shed all their excess weight as soon as they can or sooner. To that end, they often opt for some form of extreme diet and hope for the best. Others will at least have seen the sense in exercising as well as dieting to lose weight but they still go at it like their life was about to end! Unfortunately for some, especially those that are very unfit to begin with, they could actually get what they wish for.
Taking up an exercise program that is designed for people who already have a good level of fitness when you are very unfit, because you think it will fast track you to a lighter body can potentially leave you with the risk of heart attack. It really can happen and does happen! This is why losing weight fast is not a good idea in any way you can try to justify it. It is far better to first sit down and work out your goals.
Setting Weight Loss Goals
You should start with an easily attainable goal for your first month at least. For instance, the experts agree that a one to two pounds a week rate of weight loss is the most desirable from the viewpoint of health. It is also important from the point of allowing your body to get used to the new lighter weight and loss of a small proportion of its fat store. This is not just important, but vital if you want to continue a sustained loss of weight and ensure that once you have lost all the weight you wanted to lose that it is maintainable in the long term. Start your exercises slowly, make sure you do your pre-exercise basics such as warming up, stretching etc and gradually build up the amount of exercise you do each day.
Once you have reached your goal for the first month, then you can set another for the next month. You do this for each subsequent month and you will be pleasantly surprised at how it all adds up over several months to a great level of weight reduction coupled with a much firmer, fitter looking and better toned body!
Sticking to Your Weight Loss Plan
The toughest part of any plan for losing weight is in sticking to it for the long haul, especially in the early stages. This is usually because early on, you don’t see much of a difference both on the scales and in front of the mirror and it is way too easy to think to yourself that its not working and you might as well give up. You’d be shocked at how often exactly this happens and people swear that exercising to lose weight is a waste of time. But it is anything but a waste of time!
Exercising when done correctly takes time to show results early on. But as you keep going and stick to your guns, the difference starts to show more and more, although maybe not so much to you, because the changes are gradual. But other people who may not have seen you for a month or two sure notice! And that is when it really hits home that what you have been doing really has paid off!
