Struggling with weight loss? You’re not alone!
According to the Boston Medical Center, an estimated 45 million Americans go on a diet each year. This repetitive statistic shows that these diets do not always provide successful results. In fact, the prevalence of obesity in America has risen to nearly 42% of the population between 2017 and 2022.
This doesn’t mean that all hope is lost for 2023, however. A new chapter of life can always become a new opportunity to achieve your goals and personal growth. This may seem scary, but by being open to new ideas, we can realize how a new year also brings forth better and more effective approaches to weight loss.
Keep reading to know how you can beat the bulge in 2023.
Unreliability of Fad Diets
Fad diets have been around for a long time and are often marketed as a “quick fix” for weight loss.
However, consistent research has revealed that these methods are backed by little scientific evidence supporting their efficacy and safety. In the end, fad diets do not work because the calorie deficit may help you lose weight in the short term – but they’re hard to stick to in the long run. Their restrictive nature also means that many followers risk developing nutritional deficiencies.
Evidence suggests that most people regain any weight loss soon after stopping the diet. We must finally leave fad diets behind in 2022 and make consistent and balanced meals the norm in 2023. This will help you eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods while simultaneously stabilizing your blood sugar, preventing indigestion and maintaining your weight.
Weight Loss Requires Consistency
Long-term lifestyle interventions are more sustainable and will guarantee healthier weight loss in the long run. To easily stay on track with their weight loss, individuals can follow weight loss programs that tailor a personalized approach to every unique body. This veers away from the one-size-fits-all approach that fad diets provide. Instead, experts intricately consider your preferences, current lifestyle and even budget when crafting your month-long meal plans. This makes the programs easier to adjust to and follow until they have become your norm.
Consistency becomes easier because these programs prioritize health. Here, weight loss becomes a goal alongside other ambitions that encourage wellness. This holistic approach helps individuals avoid making split-second decisions about their bodies, such as creating a New Year’s resolution to lose weight through exercise. These tend to fail because people quit when they don’t see immediate results in their weight. This means they also fail to see the variety of benefits regular exercise offers.
Treating exercise as a consistent activity alongside any weight loss management is important. Individuals will be able to introduce healthier habits into their lifestyle and reap the benefits while beating the bulge over the long run.
Importance of Mindset
Mindset isn’t everything – as proven by the research on fad diets and the binge-restrictive cycle that prove how individuals are set up for failure regardless of their resolve. However, strengthening your mindset to create healthy lifestyle interventions and manage your weight loss sustainably is possible.
Behavioral scientist Ayelet Fishbach explains that you can better keep your New Year’s resolution to lose weight by framing goals as quantifiable objectives and fun adventures. Instead of saying that you’ll walk more in 2023, you can say that you’ll walk 10,000 steps a day while listening to an audiobook. This will help keep you engaged, as we tend to seek immediate gratification.
With these tips, you can come in strong at the start of the year and maintain this level of motivation to beat the bulge throughout 2023.
For more lifestyle advice, check out our other columns here at In-Between Media (IBT) so that you can achieve a healthier body and mind for future years to come.
This column was submitted by Patricia Baxter.