Having a professional working with you to achieve your weight loss goals can be extraordinarily helpful. However, you also need to know that your best interests are always the top priority.
Several pieces of advice, courtesy of ABC News and Reader’s Digest, can make sure that you get the most out of your workouts so that your exercise sessions are never in vain.
- Be prepared for the fitness appointment. Don’t arrive tired, hungry, or recovering from sickness. An important aspect of physical training is general health, including proper nutrition and plenty of sleep.
- Trainers are not essential. Workout camaraderie can be achieved in other ways. Studies show that jogging or biking with a partner makes you less likely to become demoralized and skip workout sessions.
- The hare wins. It turns out the story of the tortoise and the hare was wrong, as far as fitness goes. Even if you work out half as long, weight loss can be 300% more effective if you are moving fast.
- Self-motivation is crucial. If you’re on your own, you will lose more weight if you push yourself forward, just as a trainer does.
- Fast food is not off-limits. Quick-stop restaurants are much better than they were a decade ago. Just choose the low-fat options.
- Stay in motion. Rather than sitting down at the mall to have a meal, grab a snack and walk as you munch. Download a mobile app that gives you calorie figures so you don’t make mistakes, and always focus on nutrition.
- Stave off dehydration. Often the tiredness that occurs in the afternoon is not lack of food but lack of water. Make sure you have a steady supply.
- Keep it “out of sight, out of mind.” Get tempting treats away from you. A recent study found that our brains are stimulated in the same way by our favorite foods as drug addicts are by the substances that have been hooked.
- Sleep off the weight. Lack of sleep increases the hunger hormone and reduces the hormone that makes us feel we have eaten enough.
- It’s in the genes. Humans can have a gene that causes excess weight. If you have the gene, your susceptibility to obesity rises 60%. Weight loss is more challenging for some than others, but regular exercise is good for everyone.
As we all know, weight loss can be tricky. Some of our patients find that developing a comprehensive medical weight loss plan is effective when nothing else has seemed to work. Others simply appreciate the care of a practice with expertise in weight loss, which all starts with a free consultation.
