Overcome Weight Cycling and Overeating
How often have you triumphantly lost weight, only to accumulation the weight again? Many individuals fight this battle for nearly all of their lives.
What Causes Yo-yo Dieting?
Cutting drastically on your food intake for quick weight loss may seem like a great idea. However, your body eventually anticipates a decrease of food intake. The body will adjust to this lower calorie intake by decreasing the way it burns food for energy (metabolic rate) and conserving energy as well. The body then plateaus. It slows down or stops weight loss.
Most individuals struggle to maintain their diet at this point. Therefore, the weight slowly starts to come right back. What is worse, the decrease in metabolic rate causes their body to survive on fewer calories.
To make matters worse, the decreased metabolic rate induces the body to survive on diminished calories. Rapid weight loss diets also make the body burn food more efficiently with each dieting episode. This stringent calorie restriction causes a decrease in muscle tone. Familiar signs are sagging buns and flabby upper arms.
Alternatives to yo-yo diets
Instead of hoping for a rapid weight loss, take a more long term sustainable approach. Your goal should be for a modest weight loss. Decrease calorie intake by 200-500 calories a day depending on how much you have to lose.
Imagine your diet as a healthy living design instead of a temporary weight loss program.
Incorporate additional behaviors such as taking the stairs or parking far from the entry way into your daily life to increase your level of physical activity.
Eat smaller meals throughout the day instead of skipping them especially breakfast. This will prevent you from overeating later on.
Overeating and Emotional Eating
What if your problem is not consistently crash dieting? Could you be a habitual eater? Do you have to have that butter- laden popcorn when you watch a movie?
Perhaps you are an emotional eater. Do you skip meals when stressed and overeat when bored?
How to overcome habitual or emotional eating
If food is meeting an emotional need, perhaps it is time to examine your options. Find alternatives to eating. Perhaps you can take a brisk walk to clear your head during your lunch break. Invite your friends to play miniature golf on your birthday instead of having cake and ice cream. Have healthy snacks such as a bag of carrot sticks or an apple which you can grab when you are too busy to make time for yourself.
Try to manage hunger by eating several small meals a day. Remember that if you go hungry, you will make poor choices or you will tend to overeat.
Never fill yourself at mealtime. It is all right to leave food on your plate. You can also train your body to be satisfied at 60% capacity.
Be aware of what junk food can do to you, and get rid of them. Replace them with healthy choices such as whole-grain bread, fruits and vegetables.
Corny or not, do things to remind you to stick to your goal. Place a sign on your refrigerator that reads: Long term goals versus short term pleasure. Perhaps you can put a sign in your wallet that you see whenever you open it that reads: Food is not the boss in my life. I am stronger than the temptation of any food.
Finally, if you overeat, do not fall off the wagon. Get back on track right away. Not tomorrow — today. Because tomorrow will never come.
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