Sustainable weight loss

What is sustainable weight loss?

Sustainable weight loss is establishing a long-term mindset around a balanced diet, consistent exercise, and mindfulness. This approach goes beyond reaching a weight loss goal and focuses on maintaining a healthy lifestyle for the long haul. Generally, a healthy and sustainable weight loss objective is around 0.5-1 kg per week, which corresponds to around 2-4 kg per month.

Why should we seek sustainable weight loss?

In a sustainable weight loss plan, individuals do not completely give up on indulging in their favorite meals or snacks. Instead, they adopt a more mindful approach to consuming food by paying close attention to portion control, ensuring their diet is well-balanced, committing to a regular exercise regimen, and incorporating other healthy lifestyle habits.

"If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great."

- Tom Hanks

Does it include any diet?

For sustainable dieting these four key factors are important - 

Protein -  Food digestion and metabolism require energy. Protein is more thermogenic than carbs and lipids. Start your day with a protein-rich breakfast to stay full and reduce snacking. Protein is essential for weight reduction and muscular growth, so keeping a protein bar on hand will help you avoid drive-thrus. Protein ingestion lowers ghrelin and elevates GLP-1, peptide YY, and cholecystokinin, which reduce appetite.

Water -  The body burns calories heating water for digestion, so drinking cold water may boost its calorie-burning advantages. After your morning coffee or juice, drink water to stay hydrated and avoid sugary foods. Before each meal, drink a full glass of water to feel full faster and eat less.People may feel bloated, puffy, and exhausted as waste accumulates in their bodies. Bloating can add inches to your waist.  One strategy to prevent storing waste—which can cause a few extra pounds—is to keep hydrated. The body cannot effectively break down carbs or store fat without water. Lipolysis is the method by which fat is broken down. Hydrolysis—the first phase of this process—occurs when water molecules combine with triglycerides (fats) to produce glycerol and fatty acids.

Vegetables - Another helpful technique is to integrate more vegetables into your meals because of their high fibre content, which promotes long-term satiety while lowering grain intake. Choose steamed or boiled veggies and avoid high-calorie accompaniments like sauce, cheese, or butter. 

Portion size -Finally, watch portion sizes. Instead of guessing, measure your meal and remember that serving sizes are often less than expected. A portion of noodles is roughly the size of a golf ball, and without measuring, you can eat more than the suggested quantity. Instead of serving snacks from the bag, use a plate or bowl to avoid overloading.

Does it include a workout?

Sustainable weight reduction is the sort of weight loss one can sustain. It is based on good weight reduction rather than merely losing kg to appear nice and calls for a diet and exercise not too difficult to maintain daily. Include activities that you really enjoy such as swimming, Pilates, any sport, HIT, cardio, weight training, etc. You can also combine these according to your comfort.

Does it include mental fitness?

Weight loss goes beyond diet and exercise. It involves changing your mentality, resolving emotional issues, and finding the power to overcome challenges. Emotional eating is a major obstacle to weight loss.  Pause and discover the core emotion of your overeating or emotional eating. You stressed? Lonely? Bored? Addressing the emotion helps you pick a healthy reaction. Tracking your emotions, eating habits, and food intake might help you understand how they interact.  

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a new and innovative way to treat weight gain and unhealthy behaviours by focussing on the mental issues that cause them. It focuses on emotional eating, changing thought patterns, and encouraging a sustainable way of life.

How to tackle the weight loss plateau?

Everyone has faced weight loss plateau where we are consistently putting efforts but no results can be seen. Well in that case you can go back and check above parameters, if you are really following them or not. Additionally, some tips can be helpful to resume your weight loss journey after a plateau - 

1. Stress - There is a real link between your mind and body, and stress can have a bigger effect on your health than you think. Our bodies make cortisol, which is also known as the "stress hormone," when we are worried. When people are stressed, cortisol may make them eat more.

2. Excessive workout - It's not always true that more exercise means burning more calories. In fact, some people gain more weight when they work out too often or too hard. So it is better to try easy and moderate intensity exercise in your routine.

3. Get your hormones checked - Sometimes hormones are an underlying issue to our weight gain, and proper diagnosis and follow-up with your doctor is essential in such a condition.

4. Sleep - The most significant part of weight loss is adequate sleep. Less sleep might have an influence on your hormones, preventing you from losing weight.Aim for eight hours of sleep every night by sticking to a regular sleep schedule, limiting coffee, and avoiding alcohol and nicotine.