Lose weight, Not your Mind

5 tips from the DLM:

5 Ways To Make Your Weight Loss Journey Suck A Little Less

Posted: 18 Jul 2011 08:20 AM PDT

The concept of losing weight is easy: just eat less.

You know what's also easy:

• Not touching the statue in the museum even though there's a "Do not touch sign."
• Not procrastinating until till the very last day to study for a final exam.
• Not checking out that hot girl when you're with your girlfriend.

Just like the above 3 scenarios, losing weight is something that's incredibly easy to understand, yet so many struggle with it. Most people just aren't used to eating less when they diet, so they end up failing more than succeeding.

Just like going to the museum, most people see the "Do not touch sign", but the little dark rebel inside them forces them to touch it anyways. And the same goes for your girlfriend; most, if not all guys are going to stare at the hot girl who walks by them. Men can't help it, yet their girlfriends will still get angry.

Here's the truth: a 5 year old can understand how weight loss works, but most college graduates won't be able SUCCESSFULLY lose weight. Even if you're trying to lose weight and you're reading DLM, you're still more likely to fail than succeed. I'm sorry, but that's the truth.

Until you realize how hard weight loss is, only then will it be easy.

Am I too harsh? Too blunt? Yes. But it's for your own good. I'm sick and tired of all these fitness "pros" saying weight loss is easy if you follow workout program A or B or diet X or Y. Sure, there are some programs out there that help simplify the process, but most of the info out there is still absolute rubbish. Why do you think the fitness/health industry is multi-billion dollar industry? Because the fitness industry profits off the constant failures of its consumers, putting out a new product every 6 months saying that it will fix all the same problems that their last product was supposed to originally fix.

Are there things you can do to simplify your weight loss journey? Yes, but this still doesn’t mean it will be easy.

Below are 5 ways to make sure your weight loss journey doesn't suck that bad:

1. Stop Exercising so much
   Too often, when people start dieting, they increase their workout frequency beyond what they normally do. Or, if the person has never exercised before in their entire life, then they just jump into a workout program that has them exercising 5x per week. So if you're currently working out 3x per, don't change it to 5x per week. You'll most likely end up burning out and over training.
   
   However, if you've never exercised before, you may want to start out at 2x per week, then 3x per week, and 4x per week max.
   


2. Stop exercising the wrong way (doing too much cardio and not lifting weights)
   Being on a weight loss program doesn't mean you have to run 10 miles a day. It doesn't even mean you have to run one mile a day. Heck, if you want, you don't even have to run for all I care.
   
   The most important thing to do when exercising on diet is to make sure you are lifting with heavy weights. By lifting heavy weights, you are sending a signal to your body that you want to preserve your muscle mass, and that you only want to lose fat, not muscle.
   


3. Stop restricting your food choices
   I say that 99% of diet program out there tell you that when dieting, you should restrict all your favorite foods or to only enjoy them once or twice a week. That means no pizza, doughnuts, or Vodka Martinis at all or at least until the weekends.
   
   This is EXACTLY why most people fail at dieting. They have too many restrictions.
   
   If you want to eat pizza and drink beer for dinner, then so be it. I guarantee that it will not make you any fatter than the boiled chicken breast and green tea you were planning to eat instead. Just keep your calories in check. Remember guys, it's calories in calories out; don't complicate such an easy to understand concept.
   


4. Stop caring so much about the types of food you eat
   Just because you're dieting, that doesn't mean you can eat unlimited amounts of "healthy food" without consequence. Consuming 500 calories of plain boiled oatmeal isn’t going to affect you any differently than consuming 500 calories of Fruit Loops.
   
   That's just not how the human body works. Your body doesn't say "Oh man why did this guy just eat fruit loops, now I'm going to have to store it as fat," as opposed to "Oh yippy!! plain oatmeal, now I can use this as a long sustainable energy source to fuel my body."
   
   I mean, look at Mark Haub, the nutrition professor at Kansas State University who lost 27 pounds in 2 months and lowered his cholesterol levels by eating copious amounts of junk food. He is living proof that the types of food you eat don't matter for weight loss.
   
   
   
   Bottom line: as long as you are in a caloric deficit, it doesn't matter what foods you eat.


5. Stop reading so much
   I completely understand that people want to research health and fitness information as much as possible before starting their weight loss journey. I get it, it's cool.
   
   However, the problem is that people want to read every single fitness website on the web, pick the minds of every breathing personal trainer, and watch every diet video available on YouTube. This is all fine and dandy, but once you start your diet, you have to stop reading and watching so much. Just bookmark a handful of websites that you will continuously read and stick with their teachings and beliefs. Stop jumping around. Constantly researching fitness information while losing weight can lead to disaster. This is called information overload.
   
   There is just so much contradicting fitness information out there, it’s crazy. High reps vs. low reps, low carb vs. low fat, interval training vs. steady state cardio, 6 meals per day vs. 3 meals a day. I could go on forever. So just stick with a program and a set of beliefs that works for you and don't look back.
   
   If you don't, you're going to end up having a little mind war in your head arguing about who's right and who's wrong. Pick a few sources of information and stick with them.

So there you have it, 5 ways to make your weight loss journey suck a little less.

Written on 7/18/2011 by Keith Lai. Keith is currently a college student and author of the fitness blog FitMole.com where he talks about all things fitness. He also has a big mole in the middle of face. You can follow him on twitter here and Facebook here. "

Photo Credit: 05com