Friday, September 30, 2011

Slow Healthy Weight Loss

I really love hearing from my blog readers/followers!! I appreciate your blog comments. I enjoy reading emails from you with your comments, questions, concerns, and encouragement! Your emails and comments inspire me to blog more, so please keep them coming!

Thank you Alicia for your email and inspiring this blog post!!

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Do any of you watch The Biggest Loser? I really love that show!!

If you do not know anything about the Biggest Loser that is okay, because I will give you the highlights that you need to know.

The contestants workout all week with their trainers and participate in weekly weigh-ins. The first week that these contestants are on the Biggest Loser ranch is always amazing! Most of them manage to lose insanely large amounts of weight in just one week! Monday night, I watched episode one from the most recent season 12. One man lost 34 lbs in one week!! Holy Cow!!

Week one at the Biggest Loser ranch might be awesome, but the second week is always the worst!! Some people even say it's cursed, because anything can happen. In the past contestants have lost very small amounts of weight in week two and some people even gained weight!

I realize that this is only a reality TV show, but it happens in real life as well. At my Weight Watchers meeting last week I had a member who was extremely upset about her lack of weight loss. You see her first week on plan she lost 9.6 lbs. WOW!! What a great way to jump start your weight loss. However, the next week she came in and had gained 3.4 lbs. See, this is what I am talking about!? My member was frustrated and rightly so. She had done the same thing she did the week before only to gain. How was that possible?

The first few weeks that you are losing weight, you lose a lot of water weight which explains the incredible weight loss that takes place at the beginning of your weight loss journey. This does not happen for everyone, but it tends to be the norm. After losing a large amount of weight like that your body needs a week or two to level out, before it is ready to lose weight again.

I know that many people have done a lot of extreme dieting in the past and you are used to more rapid weight loss. No one likes to hear this, but I will tell it to you anyway, Weight Watchers believes in slow healthy weight loss. What this means is that by the end of your plan your average weight loss per week should be anywhere from 1-2 lbs.

When I lost my weight, I would lose a lot of weight one week out of the month and the other three weeks I would gain or only lose a little bit of weight. I learned that about myself, but it took time. I had to study my body in order to learn more about myself and you have to do the same.

You might be struggling like Alicia and my other Weight Watchers member and that is okay! You are not alone. It’s okay to be frustrated, but it is my prayer that you will not stay in that place of frustration. Try to become a student of your body and learn from setbacks like this! Just do not give up!! Stick with it and it will pay off!!

5 comments:

Kimberly said...

I've found the same thing about my body. I'll lose really great one week, and then my body needs to just sit with its new low weight for a while before it's ready to let go of more. The hard thing is that shows like The Biggest Loser make us question what we're doing wrong. But how many of us have personal trainers and 7 hours a day to work out? No me! It may be frustrating at times, but I've finally come to accept that my jorney is going to be a slow one.

Thanks for the great post!

Unknown said...

I love watching the biggest loser but we are always behind in the UK with the series.

I think its very easy when you are first starting to get disheartened by a low number but its reminding yourself how well you did the week before and to keep going.

Megan @ Weight Loss Mother said...

This is so true. Stay motivated is the best advice!

-J.D. Humenay said...

I needed to hear this this week and be reminded that it doesn't mean I've "failed" as a person - just that my plan needs some tweaking. ;) I gained 1 lb this month. But when I look back at my plan, due to my dog's health issues and my Sailor's crazy schedule (he's leaving for deployment in a few weeks) I've been holding a LOT of stress and haven't been able to get in more than a walk here and there. But today my dog is in for surgery, so things should level out over the next couple weeks. I'm actually looking forward to him leaving because I'll be able to set my schedule for at least 3 months! :) YMCA 12 week program here I come!

Hottea said...

Thank you. That is extremely helpful and encouraging.

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