Weight loss tips that actually work
Tired of yo-yo dieting and constantly struggling to ditch the pounds? Once you’ve tried every extreme diet in the book, if the scales still haven’t budged it can start to feel disheartening. Health and Exercise Coach Bernadette Dancy offers her expert tips on making long-lasting lifestyle changes.
What is the secret to effective weight loss?
‘I believe everyone has what they need within themselves to lose weight and that is: a reason, something that motivates them,’ says Dancy. ‘This may be the fact that they have a child or grandchild they can’t play with because they are so breathless or exhausted. It may be because they have a family history of heart disease or stroke. Or it may be that they don’t feel healthy. Once they tap into the real reason they WANT to lose weight, the next step is to gain knowledge and practice patience and perseverance.’
Dancy believes when it comes to effective weight loss, knowledge is power. ‘For far too long the health and fitness industry has marketed knowledge as some secret recipe,’ explains Dancy. ‘The fact of the matter is, there is NO SECRET to weight loss. All quick-fix weight loss packages on the market work in the same way – calorie deficit. And all long-term weight loss interventions work in the same way – they educate, support and encourage people to address many areas of their lifestyle, not just nutrition and movement.’
What is the first step to weight loss?
When the pounds start to sneak up, most of us opt for a quick-fix, but crash diets have proven to be ineffective in the long-term. So, what is the trick to effective weight loss that lasts? ‘The first step I would recommend when considering weight loss is to start with weight maintenance! Before we try to lose weight, we need to be successful at maintaining our current weight,’ says Dancy.
‘Then, when we do, by default we will have stopped gaining weight. It sounds obvious, but most people don’t do this. They make weight loss difficult for themselves, by starting with drastic changes to lifestyle and habits that are hard to sustain. By starting with smaller changes that help maintain weight, it makes the first steps towards weight loss much easier to take.’
What about crash diets?
Can we fast-track our way to weight loss? ‘Crash diets do work, otherwise people wouldn’t go on them. But they are not sustainable, and this is one of the reasons why they fail,' maintains Dancy.
‘The second reason crash diets fail is due to changes in physiology when we start to lose weight. It is perfectly normal for weight loss to plateau after a period. When this happens, crash dieters have little room for adjustment because they’re already taking a drastic approach.’
Weight loss takes time
If you’re serious about making dramatic lifestyle changes that last, it takes time. ‘A 10 per cent weight loss is considered ‘significant’ for health, which means a 70kg female would need to lose 7kgs to achieve significant health improvement,’ explains Dancy.
‘With an average weight loss of 1-2 lbs per week, it could take about 14 weeks for her to lose her target weight. It’s important to note here that consistent weight loss for this amount of time requires considerable dedication and commitment. It’s also important to say that weight loss slows down as we lose weight. This is a physiological process that comes about in attempt to slow down weight loss. It’s hypothesised to be caused by our ‘resting metabolism’ slowing down in attempt to preserve weight/fat.’
‘The degree to which this happens varies according to the process of which weight has been lost, the gender of the person involved and how quickly weight was lost,’ she adds. ‘So, in terms of the best timespan for long term weight loss… as slow as possible is my advice. Taking this approach would will mean that the person hasn’t made huge sacrifices and therefore their new lifestyle is maintainable.
What's more important: exercise or diet?
If you’ve ever been on a diet and simultaneously upped your exercise regime, you might find you just get hungry! So, what’s the ideal ratio for effective weight loss?
‘Firstly, I think it really depends on the reasons for weight gain,’ says Dancy. ‘Medication, mental health, hormone imbalance, injury and stress are all reasons why someone might gain weight. These must be investigated before assigning an intervention to their weight loss journey. If this isn’t done, then it’s very likely that weight loss that is achieved (if any is achieved at all) will be short lived because the existing cause remains.’
‘Secondly, deciding between exercise or diet simplifies obesity or the process of weight gain,’ she adds. ‘It dichotomises the cause and underlying reason as being either due to surplus of calories in (diet) OR not enough calories out (exercise). Yes, these some of the causal factors for excess weight gain, but the reasons WHY someone has insufficient energy expenditure and the reasons WHY someone has excess calorie intake needs to be investigated.’
‘From here it may be possible that one individual will lose weight more efficiently by focussing on exercise and another on diet,’ she adds. ‘But regardless, research has shown that long term weight loss is more successful when diet AND exercise are implemented.’
Get yourself a health coach!
To start making long-lasting lifestyle changes, Dancy recommends you get a coach. ‘Seek out support from a trusted, evidence-based coach or trainer,' she says. 'Choose someone who is motivated to teach and guide you, not just train and push you to your limits. If you learn and take your journey for weight loss slowly, you will have lifelong success.
‘If you are ‘trained’ and ‘pushed’ it’s more likely that you will lose weight (in the short term at least) but you won’t necessarily understand how you achieved it, and are therefore increasing the chances of it being short lived.’
Bernadette Dancy, BSc, MSc, PhD is a Qualified Personal Trainer and Exercise Referral Specialist with 15 years’ experience lecturing in Health and Exercise Science. Visit www.bernadettedancy.co.uk for details.
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