For those who want to lose weight, healthy weight loss programmes can be very effective. But real, lasting success is not just about using weight loss drugs, but also some radical lifestyle changes.
Injections of weight loss medication can certainly help, but a common problem for people who undertake such programmes is that when they finish, they often start to put the weight back on again.
Some might ask what the point is, but the truth is that those people who have had the most success in going from being severely overweight to very fit, with or without the help of weight loss medication, have embraced major lifestyle changes to do so. That means two things: a healthier diet and lots of exercise.
Is Diet More Important Than Exercise?
An article in Medical News Today in July highlighted research suggesting diet may be more important than exercise in losing weight, but the truth is that both will help. Nonetheless, there is an obvious truism here: exercise burns off lots of calories, but if there are fewer being consumed in the first place, there are not so many that it needs to burn off.
Improving your diet may seem a tough challenge at the best of times, especially if you are partial to takeaways, processed food, chips, items with high sugar content and alcoholic beverages. At this time of year, the challenge can seem a lot steeper.
This is for a range of reasons. With the clocks going back and the days getting ever shorter, the desire for some comfort food is bound to be there, especially something hot on a cold winter’s night. It is because of such conditions that Britain has a tradition of stodgy puddings, but these contain a lot of sugar.
Such things would be fattening enough on their own, but Christmas looms on the horizon and with it all kinds of festive indulgences. Whether it is high-sugar items like Christmas pudding or the general overeating (and booze) of the festive season, this seems to be a very bad time for diets.
The Benefits Of Starting Your Diet Now
On the other hand, it may be quite the opposite. For many people, the pattern is to indulge themselves around Christmas, and then make a New Year’s resolution to get themselves in shape, one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. However, this can involve trying to leap from one extreme to the other very suddenly, a difficult thing to do.
By adopting a stricter diet now, before the festive season arrives, you can avoid this cliff-edge scenario.
What is more, by eating sensibly over the time between now and the end of the year, you will be well on the way to getting in better shape at the very time when everyone else will be trying to get started.
Even by doing simple things like just having enough turkey (lean white meat) while avoiding the excessive stuff like pigs in blankets with their pork and fatty bacon, even Christmas Day can be better.
Moreover, if you can improve your diet when the temptations are all around you, things will seem a lot easier in January when everyone is trying to eat healthily.