How to Lose Weight Without Going on a Diet
How many diets have you been on?
According to Statistics Canada two-thirds of Canadians are overweight. And the never-ending supply of new diet books and programs is proof that we are on a quest to find the perfect diet that will help us melt away those extra pounds.
To achieve real weight loss we need long-term healthy eating patterns that we enjoy and that satisfy our hunger. And to maintain weight loss, we need to lose weight slowly — about one to two pounds a week. No more diets!
Diets only offer temporary solutions:
- They don’t change our long-term eating patterns, so when we stop dieting, we usually gain all the weight back, and sometimes more.
- Diets promote rapid weight loss, but when we lose weight too quickly we lose muscle as well as fat, which is counterproductive since muscle burns more calories than fat.
- When we severely restrict calories we put our bodies into “survival mode ” and burn less calories doing the same activities. When we try to return to normal eating patterns, we gain weight because of our reduced metabolism.
- Diets create an unhealthy relationship with food, which can lead to deprivation, binge eating, and ultimately weight gain.
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