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Weight Loss Article 4 -
'How To Get There From Here'
by Nev Dodds
author of 'Fat Loss For The Rest of Us'
As mentioned previously, one of the problems that people experience when they're seeking weight loss is that they obsess about losing weight.
What's wrong with that, you ask?
It does tend to obscure the aim, when one chooses the wrong term. A bit like that old joke: "I'm going to hold this thing still, and when I nod my head, you hit it". Unless the 'striker' understands the confusing instruction, some unlooked-for pain may well result!
And so it goes with 'weight loss'. Success depends on selecting the correct target.
Picture this...
An example is always best when explaining something, so here goes. This time, our imaginary person will be male, since my last example used a female, and that'll even things up.
Our male subject is 40 years old, and it's a good few years since he was last active on a frequent basis. He used to play a little basketball with the guys, but then he picked up an injury and somehow he just never got back to it.
In the meantime, he'd packed on a few pounds, what with the annual salary raises and the dining with clients... It all adds up and, unfortunately, it often adds up around the midriff!
He's no slouch, our man, (let's call him Bill) and he's tried to do something about the situation - quite a few times. Here's an account of Bill's weight loss adventures...
The Failed Diet Cycle
He went along to a weight-loss support group, but felt a bit of a fraud, since most people there were way fatter than him. His wife bought him a succession of diet books that promised things like 'easy, fast weight loss'. Bill tried them all but, while they each worked for a while, he always gave up, because -
Because of a number of reasons, actually. Pretty much whatever came to mind once he'd made the decision that this weight loss campaign had stalled, or that this latest diet just wasn't right for him.
What was worse, each time he quit a diet, he ended up a few pounds heavier than when he'd started, usually within a few months. He not only reversed his weight loss - he actually gained more weight over the whole period!
Bill tells himself that he's not worried exactly, but he can see a pattern developing. And his doctor has mentioned the word 'obesity'. Not that he's there yet, but he's approaching the starting line...
He may be risking a hugely overweight, medically-complicated old age, and the prospect isn't too appealing.
The Alternative Approach
So what can Bill do to achieve lasting weight loss?
Let's start by analysing his problem accurately. What Bill's tried to do - and failed - is to obtain a permanently lower reading on his bathroom scale (which is all the term 'weight loss' means).
What he should have tried to do was to decrease his percentage of body fat.
Hang on, Bill might say (since he's overheard us), aren't they the same thing?
Not really, and here's why.
Bill looked only at the bathroom scale reading. If he lost 10 pounds, he never knew what those pounds were. Even worse, Bill didn't know what shape his body was in when he started. The truth is that the bathroom scale tells you nothing about what shape your body's in.
Even when Bill's wife (okay, she's called Jane, since I'm sure you were wondering)... even when Jane bought Bill some body fat monitoring scales, he couldn't understand the results. During the same week, he was anywhere between 34% fat and 38% fat. Once, it even displayed 24%, but one glance in the mirror told Bill that it was a false reading.
In fact, all that Bill needed was an easy-to-use device that gave him repeatable, dependable results. He needed a skinfold calliper to measure his body fat.
Instead of just climbing onto the weigh-scale and reading off a meaningless (and variable) measurement, Bill would need to take a few skinfold readings with his cheap (less than $10) calliper. Once he's obtaining repeatable results, he's off and running (metaphorically, that is).
He now has a benchmark against which to measure his progress in losing body fat.
When Bill wants to check how he's doing, he takes his weekly skinfold reading (averaged between 3 measurements taken one after the other) and compares it to the previous week's result. Hey, that's another 1.5 mm less! He reads off the chart for his age group and finds that he's dropped from 34% body fat to only 32% in less than a month!
Bill knows that he needs to get down somewhere around 20% body fat (ideally), but now he's confident he can make it, because he gets this positive (and believable) feedback from his weekly measurements.
He knows it's worth watching what he eats, because it's working.
And, instead of just guessing some body weight and trying to 'diet' his way down to that, he's aiming for the point where his skinfold reading is 20% body fat - or less!
Bill is no longer scared of old age and infirmity. He's giving himself improved odds on enjoying his later life.
And Jane is happy too, and is helping out by ensuring that Bill's meals contain less fat than they used to do.
Now that some of his trousers are too big for Bill, she's taken them down to the charity shop. Boy, that felt good!
Moral
(There's always a moral, when I tell stories).
If you want to achieve something, it helps to know:
where you are when you set out
exactly what you're trying to achieve
how you can best monitor your progress
Put those things together and you should obtain encouraging results.
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