Results don’t come overnight; it requires hard work, consistency and patience.
With the fast moving technology, human brain has also started working fast. Everyone is looking for fast results. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t happen as fast as they expect.
Same rule applies in case of weight loss specifically, “a healthy one”. People, who are looking for weight loss, need to understand first that what they actually require is, “a fat loss” and that is a combined result of several biological functions in our body. A number of systems together make it happen. Too many factors influence our body to either gain or lose fat.
There are also other obvious things like diet and physical activity which determines our body composition. When we eat we consume calories which either gets burned or stored in our body as fat.
Sometimes people make changes in their diet and start exercising but still there is no significant change in their weight. That’s the point we need to focus on that how our body uses the fuel and responds or don’t respond to exercise, is majorly affected by our hormones. If they are not functioning properly, weight gain is the obvious sign.
Though every weight gain is not unhealthy, sometimes when a person starts exercising, he or she gains muscle faster than loosing fat and body doesn’t show any changes or an ill gain in weight.
Another factor may be lack of sleep. You body recovers while you sleep. If you are not taking enough sleep, body doesn’t repair itself from the stress caused by daily activities and the extra stress caused by exercise. Though, the stress caused by exercise is considered a healthy one but it also increases the level of cortisol (the stress hormone) in our body and the situation becomes worse when you add on in it the stress caused by some other physical or mental reasons and that results into fat gain specially around the abdomen and makes you gain weight.
No doubt, our genetics also play an important role in determining the fat deposition in our body. Body itself decides where and how much fat it needs to deposit. Similarly you cannot decide from where and how much fat you need to lose or gain. You need to focus on each and every muscle group up equally to reach the desired goal though you also need to do some isolation exercises for specific muscles and joints to get the desired shape.
Your starting point is another major factor which controls the speed of weight loss. The more overweight you are, the faster you will lose fat. As you get leaner, your body will be less willing to let go of its stored fat. The fitter you are, the more work you have to do to burn the same amount of calories because your body gets more adoptive to challenges.
Now when we are talking about fat loss how can we skip the most popular trend of crash and starving diet plans. These highly restrictive diets are just ruling the mind of people not because it is a good idea but because of fast weight loss results.
Of course you will lose a lot of weight in less time if you eat nothing but consume only some fruits and lemon water. These diets simply make you starving. It’s a completely unhealthy and unsustainable approach for long term goals. Once or twice in a week is good to detox your body but not on a regular basis. Once you start eating again and living the way you were living previously, you will gain all the weight again.
Let your body work in its own natural way. The body itself wants to be healthy to function optimally like any other machine. The problem is we keep making it hard for body to do its job. We just need to understand how the perfect balance of diet, exercise and stress management allows us to create an internal environment in which our body can function in its natural way.
Focus on diet centred on whole foods which are rich in nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Eat foods close to their natural state as much as possible. Avoid foods that contain artificial flavours and preservatives. Food directly influences our energy through metabolic system.
So make your choices wisely. Don’t follow so called trending short cut diet plans. Just have a balanced nutritious diet and stick to your exercise program. Be consistent and have patience.
“Results don’t come overnight, it requires hard work, consistency and patience.
Author : Bhavna Gautam
Fitness consultant and Trainer at Fit Nation
