Lack of Self Discipline

Success for people following a weight loss program comes after a lot of grit, determination, and self-discipline.A large percentage of people normally give up before they achieve their weight loss goals. Make sure that you are not one of those. Discipline is an important element to guarantee success. The younger generation has been brought up in an environment of instant gratification and results. Patience is a virtue that appears lacking in them. If weight could reduce that quickly, it would simply take away the fun out of hard work. The weight loss exercise really puts to test a person’s patience and discipline. Let us see what self-discipline has to do with weight losing.

Weight loss must be at the top of an average American’s must-do agenda. The reason could either be improvement in appearance or good health, or both. There is a plethora of information available on the Internet on how to grow slim, and what all needs to be done to achieve that goal. The average American is smart enough to know that. If they know it all, then what is keeping them from achieving their dream body? Knowledge is good, but putting that knowledge to use is what matters. How many of us Americans have the inclination and the self-discipline to take that all-important step and stick with the weight loss program? People normally come up with the excuse of lack of time, when, in fact, it is discipline that they lack.

Besides lack of self-discipline, people may not be willing to come out of their comfort zones. People tend to settle down comfortably into their routines eating their way to all that they can lay their hands on and lazing around with hardly any physical activity. They probably know that this excessiveness is causing harm to their health, but they simply do not have the discipline and drive to get out of the rut of their own making.

It is so easy to get overweight because you do not have to make any special efforts to accumulate those extra kilos. All you need to do is enjoy those high-calorie delicious foods. People who get used to eating those kinds of foods find it tough to change their pattern of eating. Having pampered their taste buds to the extreme, a changeover to healthy foods calls for discipline of a high order. It gets even more difficult for people to get into a weight loss program, if an earlier attempt ended in failure. It is easier to put the blame on the weight loss program rather than question one’s own sense of commitment and discipline. The ideal way to find out whether a program is workable is to talk with people who had used it in the past. Even current users would be able to tell you about the efficacy of the program.

There is no denying the fact that weight loss programs are not easy to pursue. There are hurdles that need to be crossed. A large number of people use these hurdles as excuses to discontinue the program. What needs understanding is the fact that nothing comes easy. Hurdles are a means to point to us our weaknesses. Goals can only be achieved by overcoming weaknesses. Thus, the success of a weight loss program is determined by the manner in which we prepare ourselves to cross these hurdles.

Most overweight people have been ridiculed for their excessive weight. They have been told repeatedly that they can never lose weight, or how difficult it is to lose weight. Such repeated comments tend to condition them into believing that they can never lose weight. It is important for such people to get out of the negative rut they find themselves in. There is no way that they should allow themselves to be affected by such insensitive and non-caring comments and actions of others. If they do, it is akin to allowing others to take control of their lives. It is best to discuss the matter with people who are understanding and capable of giving positive and encouraging advice.

Hereditary Factors

A large number of people put in a lot of effort to lose weight and spend a fortune too, but do not find success, which can really be baffling. There could not be any thing more heart breaking than seeing your sincere and hard put efforts going waste. Even if such people lose weight to an extent, they quickly regain what they lost. Hereditary factors are also responsible for the way weight loss or gain take place.

Research has shown that biological mothers, who are heavy as adults, have an approximately 75% chance of having children that are heavy. For that matter, thin biological mothers are likely to have a 75% chance of producing thin offspring. Metabolism that you inherit from your biological mother plays a major role in your weight pattern.

Overweight people would normally complain that they could not do anything about their condition because that is how they are – big boned. They could be having parents who are big and heavy. All members or most members in their family could be heavy. It could all be in the genes. What needs to be looked into is whether people who belong to a family of overweight members can do nothing about their weight because of the fat gene factor. Are they prisoners of the fat gene inheritance for the rest of their life?

The hereditary factor needs to be viewed seriously, as it is not to be used as an excuse for your being overweight. The decisive factor determining your body shape, weight, height, and health risks is genetics. If your family has a history of obesity, there is a high possibility of your being obese. But, it is not necessary that you or each member of your family will grow obese. Though most or all your family members may have inherited a heavier cluster of fat cells, yet it is not mandatory that all of you will grow fat. A major contributor to your being fat would be the kind of food habits that you acquire from your family. The gene factor provides the potential or the tendency of your putting on fat quickly. However, this tendency can be curbed through a better diet management.

Given here is some information to make you understand the reasons you put on weight, besides your family history.

Food plays a very important role in determining your body weight and size. The food habits that are instilled in you as a child will go a long way in contributing to your physical shape. If your parents had been taking high calorie diets and were feeding you the same as a kid, you naturally grow up used to eating such foods. Similarly, if you have developed the habit of taking second or third helpings, you are likely to continue with the same. It is very difficult to change eating habits, because it requires great will and effort to change food patterns in people.

Talking of the heredity factor, athletic parents are likely to produce athletic offspring. Similarly, parents who have been physically inactive and lazy through out their lives could have children who are physically inactive. Coupled with poor eating habits, physical inactivity can only lead to weight gain. Otherwise too, lack of physical activity along with normal diet can make a person gain weight. Age too is a factor that leads to weight gain. With age people tend to become inactive and lose around 1.4 kilos of muscle tissue in a year. Muscle loss leads to slowing down of the metabolism rate. A high muscle tissue ratio ensures of a high metabolism rate. Thus, you need to exercise more as you grow older to compensate for the muscle tissue loss. A slower metabolism means weight gain.

Body Weight and Genes

The World Health Organization report on obesity says that there is a possibility of single or multiple genes causing overweight and obesity directly in some individuals, but this does not appear to be the case in the majority of people.

A number of links between weight and heredity have been identified. These genetic factors linked to weight are mentioned below.

• Genetic factors are likely to have an impact on our basal metabolic rate. Our metabolic rate determines body weight. An active metabolism keeps our weight in check, while a slower basal metabolic rate can lead to weight gain.

• It has been found that abdominal fat may have a genetic link in most cases. It leads to a tendency to develop a paunch around the waist, which can be checked through a proper healthy diet and exercise.

• Appetite is also affected by genetics. Heavy eaters could produce heavy eating offspring and vice-versa.

• We all need energies to keep the metabolic function going. This energy too is affected by heredity factors and can affect our weight.

• The ratio of muscle and fat in the body is also determined by heredity factors. This ratio has a direct bearing on our basal metabolic ratio, and hence on our weight.

The Heredity Causes of Obesity

Not all obesity cases can be attributed to heredity factors. However, genetics does play an important role in obesity, and the factors that cause obesity genetically include:

• Insulin Insensitivity: When the body does not remove insulin from the bloodstream quickly enough, hunger will not seem satiated and you may feel hungry soon after having your meal. This could normally happen when you take diets with high sugar content, refined carbohydrates, and saturated fats. Lack of physical exercise also leads to this condition.

• Serotonin Levels: Lower serotonin levels lead to deficiency in tryptophan. When the tryptophan levels are lower, the body feels hungry and craves for carbohydrates.

• Lipoprotein lipase (LPL), an enzyme produced by the body, transports fat from the blood and deposits it in fat cells. A high LPL level in the body means that the body will store more fat in the cells. The LPL level is determined by genetics. Thus, children of obese parents are likely to have higher levels of LPL and high fat storage ability. Low calories enhance the ability of LPL to store fat. People with high LPL levels will be prone to gaining weight, if they resort to a low-calorie diet.

Children and Genetics

Children, who eat unhealthy foods, including fast foods, high-sugar and high-calorie diets, do not necessarily gain weight or grow obese. Coupling the poor eating habits with lack of physical activity does not mean that a child will be obese. There are other reasons too including heredity factors.

Scientific research shows that genetics has a definite say in a child being obese. Children with obese parents are more likely than not be obese. According to estimates, between 5% and 25% obesity cases are due to heredity factors.

Genes cannot always be blamed for obesity in a child. The environment in which children grow also contributes to a child being obese. Children with a tendency to grow obese need to be provided a healthy diet. Parents should take care and make sure that the child remains physically active. Regular sporting activity will help the child burn both calories and fats stored in the body.

If we observe the dietary patterns of the American society in the past few decades, we will find that there has been a dramatic shift from healthier foods to junk food. Not only the adults, but children too have been affected by the trend of fast foods. High-calorie and low-on-nutrition diets are the real cause for an unhealthy growth of children. Exposure to ‘super-size’ meals and ‘all you can eat’ buffets has only promoted overeating.

Parents, who are obese and in the know that their children have the tendency of getting obese, need to keep a strict vigil over their child’s eating habits and ensure enough physical activity so that the child efficiently burns off those calories and fats.

Parents, who are obese and in the know that their children have the tendency of getting obese, need to keep a strict vigil over their child’s eating habits and ensure enough physical activity so that the child efficiently burns off those calories and fats.

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Triggers are certain foods, situations and feelings that prompt us to overeat and gain weight or prevent current or future weight loss.Different people have different triggers when on a diet. For some people boredom is a trigger, for others it’s stress; for some people it’s a party, for others it’s being alone. People bottom line need much better food nutrition. No matter what your individual triggers are they bar your way to successful weight loss. If you have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight before, one of the things that have prevented your success was that you never learned to identify or control the trigger foods, situations and feelings that cause unconscious overeating. You never turned “I’m out of control” into “No, I’m in control”.

See if you can relate to this pattern: It starts out slowly. Something prompts you to eat some of the foods you cut back on while you were dieting. Perhaps you are at a movie, or feelings stressed, or simply smell some freshly backed cookies. You feel a little deprived because of your dieting and so you decide to just treat yourself with certain foods you used to eat when you felt stressed. Believing you are in total control of those foods now, you test the waters and decide to have “just a little bit” of them. However, “just a little bit” pretty soon grows to be, “a little bit more” and then rapidly progresses to “a lot more”. Before you know it, you are right back where you are started in terms of food control. Then your weight starts inching upwards.

The trip-up point is this patter is where you cannot recognize that certain foods you “gave up” while dieting are not foods you can just start eating again once you have lost weight. The realities are that certain foods, especially eaten at certain places or while experiencing specific feelings, have the power to control you.

How to Turn “I’m out of control” into “No, I’m in control.

Like any behavioral change, learning how to control triggers is a process. Awareness of the influence of triggers and acknowledgement that they are deterring you from your weight loss goals is the starting point for this process. After that, it can be broken down into four steps to help to understand how to lose weight and keep it off for good.

1) Identify
Identifying the foods, situations and feelings that trigger unconscious overeating is your first step. The best way to do this is by using a journal. You can divide it up into three sections for each of your trigger foods, situations and feelings, or just note everything in one place.

2) Decide
Once you have identified a number of trigger foods, feelings and situations, your next step is to decide that you are going to learn to control them. Believe in your ability to do this.

3) Stop
The best way to control your triggers and increate food nutrition, therefore, is to consistently stop responding to them. Not just for a day, a week or a month. Not just while you are trying to lose weight, but until you can control the conditioned eating habit, and in some cases this may mean permanently. True control means that you, not the trigger decides where, when, and what you will eat. On the other hand, if you have a problem say for instance eating popcorn at the movies, not responding to the trigger does not mean you can never eat popcorn again.

4) Practice
Controlling weight loss triggers takes practice. Now that you have an understanding of triggers, put into effect what you have learned. Use the following as examples.

* Trigger Situations
– Write a statement describing the trigger situation. Phrase it in the past tense: “I used to eat while watching TV”.

* Trigger Foods
– Write down what your favorite foods were as a child, a teenager, a young adult, and now. Have they changed? For most people they do, which tells us that taste buds can change over time and with choice. Think about how you learned to like the taste of alcohol for example!

* Trigger Feelings
– write down several of your trigger feelings and state why you respond to the food in that way. For example, “I eat after a stressful situation because food calms me.”

Remember, weight loss and maintaining a diet involves dealing with triggers to stay aware and think before you eat. You can find the freedom that comes from being in charge of yourself.

Triggers are certain foods, situations and feelings that prompt us to overeat and gain weight or prevent current or future weight loss. Different people have different triggers when on a diet. For some people boredom is a trigger, for others it’s stress; for some people it’s a party, for others it’s being alone.

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There is nothing beyond your effort. If you are determined to do it then you can success.There are 7 power ways to help you reduce those 50 pounds. If you follow these rules below, you will find your success. Don’t give up, keep trying, you will be there. Let’s read our tips below.

1. Add more physical activities daily: By doing any activities gain you a lot of benefits to burn calories, so the more physical activities you do, the more weight you lose. It is so true. You can prove it by yourself.

You know the metabolism will burn like crazy, if you increase your activities. There are many things you can do such as doing house core, taking a dog to walk, walking up and down stairs, every movement you make, helps you burn calories. Don’t you like it? Just move more, and then you lose weight. Remember the basic rule of weight loss is to burn more than to intake, so try to burn more by doing physical activities you like. The reason of doing the activities you like is to makes you stick with it for a long time, so you burn more fat.

2. Cut high sugar drinks: “Just say No” to this kind of drinks, it contains a lot of sugar. It has little benefits to your health. Beside, you gain weight; it can still cause many major health conditions such as high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and so on. You can still have treat once in a while. I bet it must add a lot of pressure for the ones who like consuming these kinds of drink, so for our long term plan, you can have it but reduce the amount of what you used to drink.

3. Lift weight: Lift weight is great exercise to lose weight. You want to lose 50 pounds then lose weight is a choice for you, as it helps you gaining muscle. Lift weight burn more calories than other exercise. The more muscle you has, the more fat is being burned, and the metabolism works like crazy in the fat burning process.

4. Eat more high Fiber food: Fiber food is good for you. Consume more of this food, you will lose weight fast and stay healthy. Fiber food make you feel full longer period of time, so you eat less other food for example eat an apple before each meal, you will see an amazing result.

5. Avoid Junk food: You will never lose 50 pounds if you still eat junk food. Ask yourself if you can cut this food out from your eating pattern, if not, then reduce the amount you intake, do it little by little. At least it helps in a long term.

6. Eat breakfast: Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Don’t ever skip breakfast if you plan to lose 50 pounds. You haven’t eaten anything for 7-8 hours during your sleep. Will you suffer your body another 4-5 hours before you start eating. You will be on starving mode, and your body will slow the metabolism, and finally you will gain weight instead of losing it, as you may eat a lot more at your next meal, and the fat burning process stores more fat. There you go, you gain weight if you miss breakfast

7. Consume enough nutrients: Your body needs all nutrients to be healthy. This is very important. You should eat enough, don’t eat less than your body needs, as it cause your health in long term. You may lose weight fast by starving yourself, but the weight you can back will be double or even more, you have already trained your metabolism to be in starvation mode. Starvation-gain weight as I explained earlier.

Are 50 pounds difficult to lose? The answer is yes and No. Yes, if you think it is and No if you think it is not.

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