The Four Things About Weight-Loss That Folks Often Forget

I have a support staff meeting this afternoon that I really, really would like to skip, but plan to suffer through because I'm a good person like that. Plus, it's one hell of a way to kill a full hour at work without actively seeking distractions such as Cracked or Wikipedia. However, while not preparing to sit for an hour and be actively bored, I decided to make a small post in regards to the four things I think are important to remember when trying to lose weight that tend to go by the wayside as soon as the going gets rough.

1. Portion control is not just a suggestion.
   So you've decided to lose some weight, which seems to be everyone's number 1 New Year's resolution. You decide that you need to make some changes in how you eat, always a step in the right direction.
   
   However, while changing the type of food you eat is a method of dropping the weight, sometimes it's as simple as changing how much you eat of something.
   
   For example, you can go on an all-carbs diet, or a no-carbs diet, or completely vegetarian or vegan and still find that you can't drop the pounds. The problem isn't necessarily what you eat, but how much of it you're consuming at a time. And restaurants in the U.S. don't make this easy. I can't recall just how many times K and I have been out dining and can't finish what's on our plates since it's about twice what we would serve ourselves at home.
   
   The best thing, so far as I'm concerned, is to follow the rule of "everything in moderation." Yes, by all means make dietary changes if that helps you towards your goal, but if you want a small slice of cake or a miniature chocolate bar have it by all means! Just don't make that your entire meal or something you do automatically every day twice a day. I try to keep these sort of little treats something I only do once a week (at most!) or even a once-a-month treat.
   
   
2. Exercise is just as important as dietary changes.
   Have you ever tried to just diet and not do some sort of exercise along with it? It makes losing weight about twice as difficult as it could be, from what I've experienced.
   
   Saying "exercise" doesn't mean you have to join a gym or spent a couple hundred dollars on home gym equipment. The simplest way to get some exercise in and help in your journey to losing weight is to walk. Even 30 minutes of walking a day can burn up to or more than 100 calories, plus it's good to help build endurance.
   
   Although illness has kept us down for the past couple of days, K and I tend to get up at 5:00 every weekday morning in order to walk at least 20 minutes (which is a full mile on the route we follow). More often than not, we get in a full 30 minutes (1.7 miles) or sometimes 40 minutes (2 miles total). We're planning to add in a minute of jogging for every 4 walked by mid-December, and slowly building from there to a 30 minute jog by the middle of 2012. It's a slow process, and I know it, but I'll stick with it.
   
   
3. Measure loss in inches, not just in pounds.
   So you've been working out and eating healthy, and you can see results in the mirror. Yay! Feeling good about yourself and your new body, you step on the scale to see how much weight you've dropped - let's say you started off at 165 pounds and are trying to lose 25 of those. You're pretty sure that you've lost at least 10 of those and are eager to see the number pop up--
   
   And your scale must be broken, because it's telling you that you're currently 163 pounds. All of a sudden those smaller portions and working your ass off seem to have been a waste of time, and you're ready to say "to hell with it" and grab that cheesecake you've been denying yourself.
   
   Don't do it!
   It's very easy to get discouraged when the scale keeps fluctuating up and down on you, I know. Boy, do I know! I may not have mentioned it previously, but I'm trying to get down to the 130 pound range - the weight I was in my early 20s - and drop from a size 14 (and not those fake-ass "new" sizes where in another couple years I'll be a size 4 at the rate the industry keeps changing the labels) to a size 10. In the past month my weight has hovered between 155 to 160 pounds, and it is discouraging.
   
   However, the thing to keep in mind is that while you burn fat exercising - even just walking - you're also building muscle. And muscle is more dense than fat, so if you work off 10 pounds of fat you're likely replacing it with at least a pound of muscle; the harder you work out, the more quickly you build that muscle, and the faster it shows up on your scale.
   
   We're also stuck, as a society in the U.S., on the idea that Body Mass Index is the end-all-be-all ideal. Be aware, however, that it's an imperfect unit of measure; after all, if you weigh 158 pounds and work out a lot, the BMI counts that muscle weight in your total and may tell you that you're overweight.
   
   The best unit of measure to see progress? Checking in the mirror and seeing yourself trim down is awesome, but pull out that tape measure and check your waistline. Even as you build muscle and lose weight, you lose inches as well. Like I said above, my weight keeps fluctuating up and down, but my waistline is starting to slowly trim down. No matter how badly I feel when I see the digits on the scale creep up again, I still feel damned good looking in the mirror and seeing the results.
   
4. Results may vary, but are definitely NOT instant.
   This is the big one that nearly everyone forgets about. Most people who make that "lose weight" resolution start off strong in January, but have all but given up by the end of March because they aren't seeing any real results. Sure, they've lost a couple pounds, but shouldn't three months of hard work show more than that? Time to just give it up and try again next year.
   
   I say again, don't do it.
   Television shows like The Biggest Loser and its ilk has put many people in the mindset that weight loss must be instantaneous for it to be working, and the expectation is that a few short months of working out will have you ready for bikini season before Valentine's Day if you're doing it right. The fact of the matter is, however, that losing weight and getting in shape is a process; and like many processes, it takes time to yield results.
   
   I think my favorite story of weight loss was a blog I stumbled across once called "The Slowest Loser." The blog's author, a man in his thirties if I recall correctly, had made a goal to lose something in the neighborhood of 40 pounds and decided to do things right. He changed his dietary habits and took up running, and chronicled his progress. The blogger did indeed lose the 40 pounds... over a course of two to three years.
   
   And that's the thing to remember, really. If you want instant weight-loss results, you've likely already doomed yourself to fail in your goals. Sometimes it's better to take the long and winding road, enjoy the scenery, and eventually get to your goal without making yourself crazy.

So next time you think that you're not getting anywhere with your diet or workout regime, stop and try to remember these four little things. It's difficult, I know, but anything worth having in life usually isn't.