How I lost 6.1kg – 13.4lbs in 30 days without dieting
For many of us, the word “diet” conjures up images in our heads of small portions, counting calories and worst of all, hunger.
While diets work in the short term to help you lose body weight, they will not help you maintain your weight. You see, the moment you start restricting calories, your body’s metabolism slows down, which means it actually requires fewer calories than before. The moment you stop your diet and start eating normally, the weight returns with a vengeance and, in most cases, more fat comes back than you lost.
It is a vicious cycle for dieters. You go on a diet to lose weight, lose some weight, stop your diet, and then gain more weight than you lost, requiring another diet, and so on. Over the years, you just get bigger.
To lose weight permanently, drastic measures are required.
The simple math of calculating weight loss / gain is as follows.
Eat more than your body needs, you gain weight.
Eat less than your body needs and you will lose weight.
As someone who must lose weight, I was faced with a dilemma. Do I go on a diet to lose weight in the short term, only to find myself bloated the moment I go off the diet, or am I looking for a better approach?
The answer was simple. I want permanent results, so traditional diets don’t work for me.
What I wanted to do was eat more or less normally, and still lose weight. Looking at the simple math above, the answer is there for all to see. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than your body needs.
With a traditional diet crossed off my list of possibilities, I decided that I would have to change my lifestyle.
Here is a summary of the changes I made:
1. Eat when you are hungry. While cutting back on high-fat foods, I was eating pretty much what I wanted. However, I made sure to increase my intake of fresh fruit.
2. Eat slowly.
3. Stop eating before you fill up.
4. Increase the level of exercise (I was living a totally sedentary lifestyle, working from home).
5. Stop drinking alcohol and increase your water intake to a minimum of 3 liters a day.
The result is that in the first 30 days of my lifestyle change, I lost more than 6 kg (13.4 pounds).