In your attempt to lose weight and keep it off, you’ll run into a variety of eating and exercise programs that offer big results. However, many of these weight loss programs aren’t what they claim. Instead of shedding unwanted fat and maintaining the slim, strong body you really want, many programs can leave you feeling weak, hungry, and possibly heavier than you were when you started. While you’re researching weight loss programs online, these signs might be a warning that the program you’re considering isn’t the right answer for you.
Restrictive Menu Selections
Your eating plan is the single most important component of your weight loss strategy. The right blend of macronutrients ensures that you can maintain energy throughout the day without feeling deprived. When cutting calories, however, many weight loss programs go too far. In the quest to reduce calories, these programs also end up restricting your access to nutrition.
Calories aren’t the only things that matter when you’re trying to lose weight. Most diet experts suggest that weight loss enthusiasts focus on macronutrient counts alongside your calorie intake. Macronutrients are the building blocks your body uses to produce energy, repair tissues, and facilitate many other necessary body functions. The three main types are:
- Carbohydrates
- Proteins
- Fats
It is suggested by most health experts that each meal you consume contains a portion of each of these nutrients. The exact ratio depends on several factors, including your goal weight, activity level, and chronic health conditions. Take time to talk to a nutrition expert to ensure you choose the optimal levels for your eating plan.
If the diet plan you’re considering severely restricts your ability to enjoy the proper amounts of macronutrients to maintain strength, health, and daily vitality, it’s unlikely to help you lose weight. Eventually, your body will start to demand more food to fill its deficits. This can lead to binge eating and other unhealthy behaviors that encourage your body to pack on the pounds. Rather than give up an entire class of food, look for a plan that strives for a more balanced approach.
Lack of Medical Monitoring
Many weight loss programs often push weight loss goals over your medical needs. This is largely unsuccessful due to calorie-restrictive plans and not attaining your medical history to create a diet plan that will be successful for you. When a diet plan is custom-built, it will take into account your nutritional needs that help you not only function better but have a more rewarding weight loss journey.
Due to the lack of medical monitoring with many diet plans, we suggest that you consider a medical weight loss program. This type of program is designed for your exact needs to establish and maintain a healthy lifestyle and feel good doing it. It’s critical that your diet fulfills the needs of your brain and body. There are few things worse than a foggy brain, growling stomach, and lack of energy due to a diet plan that doesn’t meet your nutritional needs and lifestyle changes.
No Transition Period
The goal of a weight loss plan should be to create lifelong habits. Your plan should create a foundation for your new healthy lifestyle.
Like breaking most habits, the “cold turkey” method doesn’t work with dietary changes. If you’re used to consuming 4000 calories a day, your body would have a hard time suddenly being forced to function on 2000 calories each day. In fact, an abrupt change in your daily diet can directly work against your efforts to lose weight in several ways.
- Lower metabolism. Metabolism is your body’s ability to break down, absorb, and distribute the food you eat. When you suddenly cut calories, the body goes into emergency mode. An ingrained evolutionary response prompts the body to prepare for the possibility of long-term starvation conditions by shutting down less-than-vital processes. Metabolism is one of the first victims of this process.
- Less lean muscle retention. Another side effect of the preparation for starvation is the loss of lean muscle tissue. When the body senses danger, it begins to convert muscle deposits into fat. Fat is the body’s emergency fuel. Since muscle burns more calories than other tissues, your low-calorie diet could leave you struggling to drop pounds.
- Lower immune response. When you don’t feel well, it’s harder to stick to your eating plan. Consuming ultra-low-calorie meals makes it more difficult to get all of the vitamins and minerals you need to produce healthy cells throughout the body, including the immune system cells that prevent you from getting sick.
- Less energy. Once again, a proper diet needs to give you enough energy to get through your day. If you aren’t getting enough calories, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to make it through your daily duties with enough energy to power through your workout.
Easing into your diet plan gives your body and brain time to adjust to the changes, which lowers the possibility that you’ll experience these side effects. It also gives you time to adjust your own mindset and mentally accept the lifestyle changes that are the key to your ultimate success.
Too Many Components
Too Many ComponentsMany weight loss programs that claim to be based on medical science try to increase their credibility by including too many layers in their plans. In the name of science, these weight loss programs require you to measure, chart, and notate an endless number of activities each day.
Documenting your diet progress is important. Keeping track of the calories and nutrients you consume each day, as well as your weight loss program, are an essential part of staying motivated and avoiding problems that could derail your journey. However, too much tracking can leave you confused, frustrated, and fed up.
Skip the fancy weight loss programs that ask you to spend too much time keeping records. Rather, look for simple plans that make recordkeeping easy. Many modern programs offer smartphone applications that take most of the work out of your tracking efforts while making it easy to review and analyze results.
Medical Weight Loss Programs: The Cure for the Common Fad Diet
A lot of the most popular diets available today are based on very little fact. While these eating plans might produce some results, they are usually temporary and sporadic. Take the guesswork out of choosing between weight loss programs. Talk to your doctor or give us a call for information on medical weight loss programs that are scientifically designed to give you the healthy body you deserve.
