IAmGoingToTri
New member
Many of you know what it's like: you start losing weight, and you make some good progress, but then you slow down and you start losing only half a kilo or a pound in an average week. You extrapolate this rate of losing weight and figure out that it will take many months, or even more than a year, to reach your target weight. This can be frustrating. We want results quickly, we don't want to wait for something. I want to argue that losing weight slowly may not be such a bad thing.
My main reason for saying this, is that I think it's a good idea to not focus too much on the results (the weight loss), but more on the process (the changed lifestyle). If you change your lifestyle, to the point that you have grown strong healthy habits that you do automatically, and that you prefer doing over unhealthy ones, then you have a really strong basis for maintaining your weight loss. My own experience is that, if I want to make successful lifestyle changes, then I really have to take the time for every change. So, instead of making a lot of radical changes at once, I focus my attention on making only a few key changes at a time, until they become second nature. Over time, these lifestyle changes add up, allowing me to keep making progress and to stick with my lifestyle when I am done.
A second reason why I want to take it slowly, is that I also have many other areas of my life that are just as important, or sometimes even more important. If I hyperfocus on losing weight, there is a very real risk that other areas of my life will suffer, and eventually I will have to shift my focus completely to those areas and forcing myself to give up losing weight for that period. That means that I don't really build habits (because that would require consistent effort), I may not get results (because of the dreaded yo-yo effect) and it is also very demotivating.
Thirdly, I think that working towards something for a long time is a great way to build your character. A lot of goals in life require many months, or even years of consistent effort. You learn to delay your gratification and to appreciate the process. When you have travelled this route before, you have the courage to do this another time. On the way you will face a lot of problems, but you learn to trust in yourself to solve them. You develop the discipline to stick with your goal and with your strategy to reach it, even though there are all sorts of temptations and distractions around you.
Finally, I think it is also healthier to lose more slowly. Your body gets the time to adapt. You have a lower risk of getting loose skin, you lose less muscle and you have more energy, because you have a lower calorie deficit. At least that is my experience and this is what seems logical to me. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
To conclude, I think there are a lot of benefits of losing weight slowly. That said, I am sure that there are some downsides as well, or perhaps some other benefits that I did not mention. So, I am curious about your experiences and thoughts about this topic.
My main reason for saying this, is that I think it's a good idea to not focus too much on the results (the weight loss), but more on the process (the changed lifestyle). If you change your lifestyle, to the point that you have grown strong healthy habits that you do automatically, and that you prefer doing over unhealthy ones, then you have a really strong basis for maintaining your weight loss. My own experience is that, if I want to make successful lifestyle changes, then I really have to take the time for every change. So, instead of making a lot of radical changes at once, I focus my attention on making only a few key changes at a time, until they become second nature. Over time, these lifestyle changes add up, allowing me to keep making progress and to stick with my lifestyle when I am done.
A second reason why I want to take it slowly, is that I also have many other areas of my life that are just as important, or sometimes even more important. If I hyperfocus on losing weight, there is a very real risk that other areas of my life will suffer, and eventually I will have to shift my focus completely to those areas and forcing myself to give up losing weight for that period. That means that I don't really build habits (because that would require consistent effort), I may not get results (because of the dreaded yo-yo effect) and it is also very demotivating.
Thirdly, I think that working towards something for a long time is a great way to build your character. A lot of goals in life require many months, or even years of consistent effort. You learn to delay your gratification and to appreciate the process. When you have travelled this route before, you have the courage to do this another time. On the way you will face a lot of problems, but you learn to trust in yourself to solve them. You develop the discipline to stick with your goal and with your strategy to reach it, even though there are all sorts of temptations and distractions around you.
Finally, I think it is also healthier to lose more slowly. Your body gets the time to adapt. You have a lower risk of getting loose skin, you lose less muscle and you have more energy, because you have a lower calorie deficit. At least that is my experience and this is what seems logical to me. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
To conclude, I think there are a lot of benefits of losing weight slowly. That said, I am sure that there are some downsides as well, or perhaps some other benefits that I did not mention. So, I am curious about your experiences and thoughts about this topic.
