Hello eveyone! I've been here for over a year and 3 months and this is my first myTake. I decided to write it because I answered many questions about weight and weight loss in the last weeks and I have a personal experience about it.
I know that the title says that it's a manual, however it's just one more way that you can use to lose weight, there are no miracles, all depends on you. This "formula" can work if you wanna completely get in shape or even just lose some pounds for summer. First, let's start with a little of my personal experience.
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
When I was a child I can say I was a thin child. When I completed 7 years old though, things changed. I started eating a lot, you know, a lot of junk food and many times a day. It's not surprising that I started to get fat quickly and my weight and even health started to be a problem because of my body fat. I was never obese, but I confess that I was really very fat and my parents surely got worried about it. They took me to doctors, nutrictionists, tried many methods, but nothing worked successfully.
When I was 10 years old my height was less than 150cm and my weight was almost 60kg. When I was 13 I was 173cm and my weight was 82kg and most of it was body fat.
Being overweight indeed affects anyone. It affected me. You normally have no confidence, people make jokes about you and stuff like that. You don't have much choice, you gotta lose weight to feel better (and believe me, you do feel better). When I was 13 I decided that I would get in shape, in the beginning I had some good results even though they weren't very much sactisfatory, but then I stopped, gained some weight again but was able to control it until I was 17. When I was 18, finally I had a significant weight loss and I was 19 my weight was completely controlled already. Today I'm 22, 175cm tall, 74kg and only 12% is body fat (gained some muscles, it's always good :D)
How did I do it? What worked for me? See below:
1- WHAT YOU NEED, YOU ALREADY KNOW
Like I said, there's no magic. Eating and excersing are the secrets... but they aren't really secrets, everyone knows about it. What you need to know is how to manipulate those things in order to get your results. It can take long, but the results will come, you just have to be patient.
2- SELF-CONTROL
This is extremely important. Without self control you won't be able to achieve anything. Without sacrifices, you won't be able to achieve anything. Many people don't like this step, but it's extremely necessary. With self-control you'll be able to discipline yourself, go against your own will (remember that many times your own will is making you gain weight), control your schedule to workout, not giving yourself the chance of giving up, stuff like that.
3- THE FOOD ISSUE
Food is good, right? It's delicious! Yeah, I know. What else can be better than that delicious dish full of french fries and that milk shake for dessert? It's really tempting! You gotta control that though. You gotta discipline yourself (self-control).
Have in mind that YOU CAN'T EAT WHENEVER YOU'RE HUNGRY. If you're used to eat all day, of course that you'll be hungry frequently. Your stomach will ask for food, it's used to eat. You have to stop that. In the other hand, perhaps you don't eat all day, but when you eat it's so much food that it seems that your belly will explode. Either way, how can you try to start losing weight if you can't control that?
The good news is that you don't eat to stop eating anything you like. I ate all I wanted, I just did it in smaller quantities and not more than 3 times a day. Eat in the morning, have lunch and have dinner. Forget about your snacks! Oh, eat just the necessary not to stay hungry, nothing more, nothing less. Remember that in general a man needs 2500 calories a day and a woman 2000.
Perhaps in the beggining you'll be hungry, it's normal, you're used to much more food. Always rememer: self-control. With the time, you'll get used to it and, when this happens, eating more than you'll be used to will be a challenge.
4- EXERCISING
This is the best part. Once you get used to it, it's really addicting! What kind of exercise should you do? Any kind that you can. The important thing is doing it regularly, every day if you can. Controlling what you eat won't be very much effective if you don't exercise. Stand up and do something! Remember to get very sweat and tired, try to reach your limits or to get close to them. With the time these limits will be bigger and bigger.
If you want any recommendation, I'd tell you to go to a gym. I know that sometimes membership is expensive, but my results were much more effective when I started going to one. There you can get professional help and monitor your results with the time. If you can't go to a gym though, do whatever you can, what you can't do is not doing anything.
What if you don't feel like excercising sometimes? Remember: self-control. Want things to work for you? Then there are no excuses, you can never be tired enough. Don't you have time? Find time! Even if it's just an hour. If you want excuses you'll find them, if you really want to lose weight nothing can be an excuse.
5- PATIENCE!
Maybe the results you want won't come in a month, in two or in three... We all have different bodies with different paces to lose weight. I am lucky to be able to lose weight as fast as I can gain it, but not all people are like that and I believe that the older you are the more difficult it is. What you can't do is giving up. With the time you'll see that the results are coming and that all you did was worth it.
6- FROM NOW ON, IT'S YOUR LIFESTYLE
Finally you lost weight! What a great feeling! Now you can eat all you want again and not exercise so much, right? No! Wrong! If you get back to your old lifestyle you'll gain weight again. Once you lose weight, you have to keep your results or all your efforts were worth nothing.
Self-control, eating style, exercising, everything will be part of your life till the day you die. If you relax, if you think for a moment that what you achieved won't be undone, then you'll risk to gain weight again and you'll have to start the weight loss process all over again.
If you really wanna be in shape, your lifestyle will have to change forever. No excuses.
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I hope that what I said can help you, those are very simple things but they really worked for me and I'm sure that they can work for you either. Feel free to share your opinions and even ask the questions you want to. If you wanna lose weight, I wish you luck, I do know how difficult it can be but I also know that it's possible and very rewarding when you achieve it.
Thank you very much for your attention!
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
1Opinion
Thanks for that take - It makes so much sense - I say 2 and 6 are most important to me - I can actually lose weight no problem, it is staying at the healthy weight that is my issue - I often get to my target weight by being really strict and exercising hard but have to ease off when I don't have to lose any more weight and find it tough to switch to a maintenance diet or exercise routine which leads me into slipping back into bad habits.
Yeah, it's something very common and very tempting to get back to our old habits. We have to completely change our lifestyle not to let this happen. I go through it too, sometimes when I realize that I'm eating more than I should, for example, I try to stop it not to lose control of the situation. I'm a little paranoid about it though xD
Nice mytake! When I lost weight, my aunt asked me what diet pills I used? 😅
People have a very hard time with self control, but it's the only way you can get the extra weight off. Control yourself!
Exactly, with no self control you can't possibly get results, principally when you want to eat. It's difficult, but it gets easier with the time. How much weight did you lose?
Yeah ☺️. I lost 90 pounds.
Wow, that's a lot! Contratulations!
Thank you 😊
Cool wish me luck again! lol (:
Good luck! ;)