Monday, November 10, 2008

Proven Goal Setting Techniques to Make a Calories Loss Diet Work

By Rowena French

A healthy calories loss diet and a well planned work-out routine is at the heart of every successful weight loss program however even with these core components and with the best of intentions, many people do not lose weight because they fail to set realistic goals. They do not plan their weight loss or the rate of this weight loss carefully and they become discouraged and give up. Every successful weight loss plan needs goal setting techniques that will keep them focused, encouraged and ultimately successful.

The rate of weight loss is considered by doctors and others in this field to be approximately 1-2 pounds each week. These may not seem much but it is sufficient for your body to accommodate your weight loss and remain healthy and it is also enough to continue to lose weight over an extended period of time. Aiming for a weight loss greater than this will see you needing to make drastic cuts to your calories loss diet that may not be sustained and may also see you quitting your quest for a slimmer, healthier body and life.

Lower your expectations because losing one to two pounds per week is healthy and if you weigh yourself at the end of the week and you have only lost one or two pounds, do not consider that a failure because it is not. Congratulate yourself on sticking to your calories loss diet, losing that weight and focus on losing another one to two pounds the next week. If you celebrate each pound lost you will be motivated to keep losing weight and you will be losing weight in a healthy way with far greater prospects of keeping it off.

View your weight loss as a percentage of your body weight not only in pounds, as weight loss is a wider experience than just the pounds you lose. If you weigh 250 pounds now, a healthy weight loss for you would be 10-20% of this, around 25-50 pounds and this would put you into a healthy category that your doctor would be pleased with. So include as part of your goal setting, accurate weight loss goals that take into account your body weight now and a realistic weight determined by a health professional.

Measure your weight loss in different ways to see the full impact of healthy eating and exercise on your body shape and include in your goals these different ways of charting your weight loss. The measurements you read on your scales do reflect your weight loss but so does the size of your waist, your hips and your chest. Sometimes you will find the loss of your body mass plateaus for a time but your body measurements continue to diminish so make sure both of these forms of measurement are part of your goals.

Include the number game in your weight loss goals to lose weight safely, healthily and to keep it off permanently with a recommended weight loss of 1-2 pounds each week, so that to lose 20 pounds will take you around 10 weeks. Determining a weight loss per week may seem constraining but if this weight loss rate is realistic you will be able to reach it and it will help you remain committed to your calories loss eating plan and your exercise routine. The journey towards permanent weight loss and good health is a reflection of the hare and the tortoise story where the slow and steady hare reached his ultimate goal!

To lose weight you should consume fewer calories than you need to use each day so including the calculations around this as part of your goals is important. Take a close look at your daily menu and see if you can diminish your calorie intake by around 500 each day. A calories counter is a helpful instrument to calculate this easily and this will enable you to not only cut foods out of your diet but keep some that you really enjoy on your calories loss menu.

Include both immediate goals and those to be reached across the long haul so you can acknowledge your successes along the way and still keep your eyes fixed on the final outcome. The weight loss process is one that needs encouragement built into it, so as lose your first 5 or 10 pounds treat your self to special non eating rewards. Build onto these smaller but growing successes by losing further weight through your calories loss diet and exercise routine until the final goal is yours! - 16463

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