A reader has written, “I see the tabloids in the supermarket that talk about ways I can lose 15-20 pounds in a week. Is this really possible? Isn’t it better if I try to lose just 5 pounds a week?”
Whoa! Let’s leave the supermarket tabloids to reporting about celebrities giving birth to aliens and come back to planet Earth and reality.
In the real world, unless you are talking about amputating body parts or some other equally dangerous practice, you cannot lose 15-20 pounds a week. Even 5 pounds a week is unrealistic unless you are training like an Olympic athlete while eating very little food.
If you are like most of us, you’ve been struggling with a weight problem for a long time. You’ve found that diets and exercise binges don’t solve the problem, even when they are sensible, never mind the crazy stuff. If you’ve lost weight with those approaches, you’ve put it all back on and more.
If you really want to solve your weight problem for good, if you want to lose your excess weight and keep it off, it can be done, but you need to stop looking for fast weight loss.
I lost over 100 pounds in 1985 after 25 years of getting worse every year with diets and exercise schemes. I’ve maintained an ideal weight since then, over 25 years. I was very lucky to have discovered the real solution to chronic weight problems in Behavioral Medicine, and now I teach it to others.
It’s an oversimplification, but succeeding with permanent weight loss is a matter of learning how to eat well and live well, not quick weight loss, and having it become our habit. It involves enjoying food even more than ever and winning every day, not waiting months or even a week to feel victorious. Please read all my articles here on my blog and you’ll learn how I and my clients have lost enormous amounts of weight sometimes rather quickly, but always with the goal of forming a way we can live with forever, not fast weight loss at all costs.
Just so you know, a realistic pace for healthy weight loss is 50-75 pounds a year for women, with sometimes 5-10 pounds the first week. When you think about it, wouldn’t having that happen be a lot better than chasing crazy weight loss that will only disappoint and leave you worse?
Please read everything on my website and post comments if you have questions.
I don’t think so that it is difficult to lose 15-20 pounds in a week. It is just an easy task, if person have strong determination to make himself as a perfect man.
We are all entitled to our opinions but they will not negate unchangeable reality. Your opinon here is irrational, perhaps delusional. It may be just dishonest. You may think that it is not difficult to lose 100 pounds at the rate of 15 to 20 pounds per week, and you may think that the sun sets in the east too. Believe what you want, but I would recommend that you cling to science and reality. The consequences of denying it cause suffering.
There’s no such thing as a “perfect man”
JESUS CHRIST is perfection………….nothing or no one else
I’m not sure why you are saying this Linda. Where did you read anything in my articles suggesting you or anyone else try to be perfect?
Linda was referring to the first commentator who said you could lose 15-20 pounds/wk if you had “strong determination” and were a “perfect man.”
OK. Now I get it. Thanks!