Maintaining Body Weight as a Strategy For Life

For many of us ( but let's be serious, it more like for many of us, girls ) weight problems are frequent and common. Statistically speaking, cases of overweight people are grater than underweight people. Both, at national and global levels. The number of people that search for "How to gain weight" are far less than "How to loss weight". Therefore, the internet is fill with ways on how to lose weight quickly.

It is therefore quite normal to associate losing weight with maintenance. Although, it seems like a pretty simple concept : i gain weight, i react and take action to lose weight, it actually far more complicated then that.There are many more factors to be counted in the equation then you think. First of all, we rarely realize that we are gaining weight and many times deny it. If we were really conscious about or weight we would act immediately and never gain weight. Many times we are to busy, thinking and worrying about other problems, instead of realizing that we are overweight. Therefore, the couple of extra pounds that we have, multiply and turn into a lot of extra pounds. So, if you want to lose weight and maintenance it, you will have to do it gradually and with realistic objectives. The best way is to st up small weight loss goals by weighting ourself and figuring out how much weight we should lose per week. The next step is to be prepared mentally to take action, for example : review the daily menu and remove extra food, and increase daily exercises.

The most important element  in losing weight is "time". You have to correct things now, not tomorrow or next Monday.  If you do keep pushing back your diet and exercises, it will become increasingly more complicated to lose weight. 

Rapid Diet or Gradual Diet

Researchers are now saying the best way to keep weight off is to drop many pounds with a rigorous diet and exercise plan, rather than doing it gradually. They compared a rapid diet to lose around 3 pounds a week over 12 weeks, to a gradual 36 weeks diet to lose no more than 1 pound per week. The results of comparation study showed that 78% of those on the rapid diet achieved the target of losing 15% of their body weight within the determined period, while only 48% of those on the gradual diet met the target. But this study doesn't show what happened  to participants after the initial weight loss,because many doctors and dieticians believe that more weight loss is related to more weight gain thereafter, and therefor less weight maintenance.

More than that, people might think that the only way to maintain weight loss is to lose it quickly  and in a unhealthy manner, which would lead to malnutrition. The researches encourages people to make small changes to their lifestyles, that they can actually sustain, considering the main reason people gain back the weight they've lost is because of unhealthy diet, or exercise routines.

For this reason, the researches are currently following the 2 groups of people who have a rapid diet and a gradual diet, to see who keeps he weight off for good.

Researches however warned "more research is needed to determine optimal weight loss targets, and to establish best practices for optimal maintenance of weight losses ".