Many people looking to achieve weight loss go on a hunger strike, leaving them lethargic, sickly, and more likely to gain all that weight back, twice over. Starving yourself alerts your body’s defense mechanism, making it burn fat more slowly. This means that by not eating, you are working against the very thing you are looking to achieve: to burn more fat.
Apart from that, your work performance may suffer. You will have a hard time concentrating, so much so that you’ll tend to be forgetful (which is a big problem when it involves sensitive and important work-related issues that you are supposed to deliver on a particular deadline). That said, if you’re looking to lose weight by just starving yourself, you’re on the road to disaster.
Another key ingredient of weight loss is exercise. When you starve yourself, you will not have the energy for exercise. You will have less stamina and less metabolism. That translates to less fat burned.
So, go ahead, eat up, but more importantly, eat right. Opt for non-fatty foods with lower calories. Your goal right now is to limit your food consumption to your target number of calories per day. To lose weight the amount of calories you take in must be less than the amount of calories you burn daily. This means you also have to assess the level of activities you have per day. Is your lifestyle sedentary? Does your work entail a lot of physical labor? Do you walk to work or ride to work? Do you take the elevator or take the stairs? Do you work at home or do you have to commute to the office? All these things count.
When you calculate the amount of calories you should consume per day, you also have to take into account your age, your current weight and height as well as your lifestyle.
To lose weight effectively, add exercise into the equation. Start with 30 minutes and build enough stamina to work your way up to one hour. Cardiovascular activities like jogging, walking, doing the jump rope, biking, using the treadmill, and so on can help you sweat some of the calories off, making it quicker for you to lose weight.
No one said that losing weight is easy. It’s all about discipline and hard work. The more you stick to your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them. To help you out, if you have a picture of yourself with your desired weight, tack it on the fridge as a constant reminder to eat right and live right. At the same time, you might also want a more drastic approach—a current picture of you that you do not like because it shows just how much weight you’ve gained. That is another motivational factor.
It would also help if you had a health partner—someone who will push you to exercise when you are on the brink of giving up, someone who will scrutinize your food choices, and someone who will cheer you on and acknowledge every pound you’ve lost.