There are many types of diets out there on the market. Its very likely you have tried more than just a few. But there is nothing complicated about how to lose weight. The difficulty lies in your own motivation and will power. This is where a diet that you enjoy and contains the foods you have always liked make it easier for you to stick to it and achieve success!
I'm sorry but yes. For many decades Doctors have been telling us about Calories IN versus Calories OUT to lose weight! And it is true. It works and it doesn't really take a genius to know that if you take in more than your body needs it is going to get fat! The difficult part is in calculating calories. Although foods contain a count on the packaging this is only an estimate. It is impossible to know exactly how many calories each individual molecule of food and drink you consume has and it is also impossible to know exactly how well or poorly your body consumes that product. This is why what may work for one person isn't a one-size-fits-all formula. But it works enough! And even better, despite health-food advocates wanting you to believe otherwise, you can lose weight consuming the correct number of calories regardless of choosing an apple or a jaffa cake! I have done it! If you want to know a little bit about my journey you can have a peek here
Many diets sold on the market come with a complete over-haul of what you are used to! They ask you to suddenly ditch everything containing carbs or give up two meals and replace with a milkshake! Its all very exciting and off we go with this new way of life! But it isn't a true way-of-life! Its not a way to live for the next ten, twenty, thirty years of your life! Can you really imagine being happy never eating pasta or chocolate again? For this to work it needs to be slow changes! As you get slimmer, feel fitter and healthier you can add or increase options to help you along your way. So maybe to begin with you cut down sugar in your coffee from 2 spoonfuls to one. Once you get used to it THEN you might decide to cut to half a spoonful. Or cut out one cup in the afternoon. But if someone said "hey, you can't have any coffee at all starting from right now" you would struggle with such a drastic change! Of course, maybe you hate coffee. But you get the gist!
For almost a year my weight yo-yo'd up and down with dieting alone! I would lose a stone, get stuck, lose willpower, stop dieting, put weight back on, start again, lose that same stone again, get stuck again and on and on. Stuck in this rut! Until I added exercise! And then WOW! The weight really came off! My job involved being on my feet and walking around so I never guessed how unfit I was! But there is a difference between casually moving and purposefully! For exercise to count you really need to get your heartrate up! And it doesn't have to be anything complicated! I began with walking briskly for 30 minutes each day after work. I then doubled that on non-work days. Just with walking weight came off and my waistline lost inches! And I was still eating the majority of bad foods back then. But as with slow and steady, you can tackle those later on and bit by bit.
Ok so this is probably the area that worries people most! The idea of giving up foods that you love or living on types of foods that you like but soon begin to begrudge! I hate salad! For me the majority of diets out there require you to eat lots of veg and salad to "fill up on" whilst cutting all sweet, sugary, fatty foods which are the foods that actually give [most of] us the satisfaction we seek! But truly we do not need to give up everything we love and crave! Yes we need to make some changes but again slow and steady is the key! Changes shouldn't be drastic or overwhelming! Each change should slot into your daily lifestyle and become a part of your lifestyle not be thought of as part of your diet. The word diet actually makes you think of something outside the ordinary. Something you can do then stop. This is a misconception and the reason why most people have success on some diets then revert back to normal - both in eating patterns and weight gain. Below are links to my tips and experiences tackling each of these areas!
