The Benefits of Losing Weight

                

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Are you thinking about starting a weight loss program? Before you set a weight goal, it’s important to understand the benefits of losing weight. Understanding the wide range of weight loss benefits may help to keep you motivated during the challenging moments of your diet and exercise program. And every weight loss journey hits the skids at some point.

So to set yourself up for success, consider all of the different ways that losing weight may improve your social life, your medical and psychological health. Make a list of the weight loss benefits that mean the most in your life and keep it in your weight loss journal. Then visit the list on the days when you feel like quitting.

Health Benefits

You don’t have to lose hundreds of pounds to enjoy the medical benefits of weight loss. If you are currently overweight or obese, you may be able to lose just a small amount of weight to improve your overall health. In fact, some studies show that just a 5 to 10 percent decrease in your weight can change your health. These are some of the benefits you may see:

• Decreased risk of diabetes
• Lowered blood pressure
• Improved cholesterol levels
• Decreased risk of heart disease
• Decreased risk of certain cancers
• Improved mobility
• Decreased joint pain
• Improved blood sugar levels
• Decreased risk of stroke
• Reduced back pain
• Decreased risk or improvement in symptoms of osteoarthritis
• Decreased risk or improvement in symptoms of sleep apnea

Your doctor can provide more personalized information about the health benefits you can expect to see when you lose weight. For example, you may be able to decrease or eliminate certain medications or reduce your risk of disease. Your doctor may also be able to provide a recommendation or referral to a registered dietitian or physical therapist to help you build a healthy weight loss program.

Lifestyle Benefits

In addition to the medical benefits of weight loss, you may also experience an improved lifestyle if you slim down. Many successful losers report improvement in these areas:

• More active social life
• Greater confidence
• Better sleep
• Improved energy
• Improved sex life
• Decreased stress
• Improved body image
• Improved vitality
• Improved mood

Social Benefits

The medical and lifestyle benefits of losing weight may be enough to motivate you to stick to a diet and exercise program. But some dieters also lose weight to improve the quality of a relationship. For example, you might want to lose weight to save your marriage. 

This is an area where the benefits of losing weight get tricky. While some people have better relationships after weight loss, losing weight to make someone else happy is not always a smart idea. There may be other relationship problems that weight loss won't solve. And when you diet to make someone else happy, you might lose weight in the beginning, but the weight often comes back.

How to Enjoy the Benefits of Weight Loss

If you decide that there are significant reasons for you to lose weight, then there's no time like the present to start your weight loss journey. Your first step should be to set a reasonable goal. Then make small changes to your daily routine and eating habits. Ask for weight loss help from your health care provider and from friends and family to make the process easier

You’ll have to excuse the brevity of today’s post but it’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve come back to bed as I’m still hanging from last night. I went out to celebrate a good friend’s birthday and I’m living to regret it today, but it was worth it. I’m never drinking again though etc.

So this week has felt super busy. I had the interview on Tuesday that I mentioned last week, which I don’t feel went particularly well, and I haven’t heard back from them – so I think they may have thought the same. But I think it’s always good to test yourself, push yourself and get out of your comfort zone now and again, and an interview will do all of that!

Exercise wise, I made a point to work extra hard this week. So I did three Zumba classes and sweated an actual river of sweat out of my body each time – the sweat literally falling onto the ground it’s that bad. Or good, depending how you look at it. But I do work really really hard in the class, not holding anything back, and not caring what I look like. I just don’t have it in me to do anything else. I cycled there and back each time, and wrote about what happened after one Zumba class which you can read HERE, and I increased my cycling this week and cycled 22 miles, my highest yet.

In between that, I used my two little exercise accessories at home – my thigh toner that I use when I’m sitting down on the sofa working/watching Masterchef, and my elastic band with handles that I use every day for my arms. I still think they were both fantastic investments and if, like me, you’re quite concerned about loose skin after weight loss in your upper arms and thighs, I think these contraptions can only help.

After realising that perhaps I’m not eating enough, particularly as I’m exercising, I made a real effort to make sure I ate three meals a day this week. When I come home from Zumba class, it’s around 8pm and I’m just not hungry, but this week I made sure I had a speed food-filled omelette, fruit and yoghurt before bath and bed.

Another thing I did differently this week was have a massage. Twice during the week my back has gone into a little spasm, both times just beneath my shoulder blades, and which made me scream out in pain. Luckily it, for want of a better word, released itself and the pain went quite quickly, but it felt like it was a bit of a warning sign. So I had just a 30-minute hot stone massage on Saturday and the massage therapist explained that when I exercise quite a lot, my body is storing toxins and they need releasing. And that’s exactly what she did – it bloody hurt! But I think it’s something I need to consider perhaps once a month going forward, because I don’t have anyone at home to give me a rubdown after a hard week of exercising (woe is me), so I’ll just have to pay someone to do it.

Food wise – I ate well, usual stuff, but I am finding that as my stomach shrinks, I can’t eat as much as I used to. Admittedly, I would have, for example, two pieces of salmon and two boiled eggs with a salad, but now I can only manage one of each. Which is no bad thing, but something interesting to note.

(And yes, I’m still eating banana pancakes every day, although I may well experiment with the oat, syn-free pancakes this week, as I’m feeling a little dangerous.)

Results:

So remember I went to Bristol last weekend and ate off-plan for the whole weekend? Well I always wonder if I did enough to counter eating things I shouldn’t. Did I do enough to then lose weight on top of balancing out the naughty food I ate?

Well … I lost 3lbs!

That brings my total weight lost 3 stone, 3lbs.

I can’t quite believe it but I’m obviously delighted. It’s the biggest weight loss I’ve had in months, because I’m normally dicking about with 1lb off/1lb on, so I think what this shows is that by taking my exercise up yet another level, it reflects on the scales. I mean, who knows, because really this is all new territory to me, and, God forbid, I may well put a stone on next week, but I don’t think I will. I worked really hard, ate really well Monday to Friday and the scales have rewarded me.

I also took the liberty of taking my measurements again, as it has been two weeks since I last checked.

I’ve lost another 4″!

The inches have come off from my upper arm, above my knees and my thighs, and again, when I look in the mirror, I can really see my shape changing. For the first time ever, it really feels as though my hips are finally getting smaller and I’m just feeling fantastic right now. I mean not right now because I’m in bed hungover, but generally speaking!

In fact, in the photo at the top, of me in last night’s going out (out) outfit, I’m wearing a new size 16 pair of jeans from Primark. I still can’t get my head around it, particularly when the scales still say I weigh so much, but there you have it – they fit, were comfortable and after always finding Primarni clothes on the less generous side, I’m delighted they fit me so well. And also, I bought a few pairs of sports leggings in there and found a pair of size 14 leggings in the sale for £3 – figured I’d save them for a few months’ time, but tried them on in the meantime, and they fit too! Granted, they’re all lycra and were a little tight (I can feel the yeast infection growing as we speak – gross (and not really, but they were tight), but they were lovely and I think my legs look rather good in them!

I might add a face pic from this week but quite frankly, I look pretty minging today so it’s unlikely.

So that’s about it for this week – the week ahead is just going to be focused on work predominantly in the mornings and exercise in the evenings, with occasional appearances in the kitchen by Dexter in between.

As a quick aside, I find the summer holidays so difficult when it comes to lack of routine and food, but I have really made a concerted effort to try not to let it affect me too much. Yes I want to eat occasional treats when I’m out and about with Dexter but the good thing is, he rarely wants to leave his Xbox so there’s not too much temptation! Having said that, we’re off to the cinema this evening (for a nap) so there maybe some popcorn involved, but I won’t go too mad.

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