If you look long and hard enough, you can find a weight loss program that will tell you exactly what you want to hear. There are programs that will have you exclusively drink milkshakes, and programs that will tell you not to exercise at all or risk being far too hungry to stick to your diet. There are weight loss programs that say they will help you lose weight in just a couple of days, and programs that will tell you not to stress yourself over anything the scale has to say. The longer you spend trying to lose weight, the more likely you are to try all sorts of different weight loss programs, and will often find that many of these programs just don’t work.
So what is it that makes a weight loss program successful? While there are all sorts of different responses you’d get from different camps, there are three things that remain consistent across all successful weight loss programs.
Here is what your weight loss program needs to include:
- Sleep: This may not be the first thing you think of when you are trying to lose weight, but sleep impacts your weight loss efforts in several ways. First, when you are tired your body seeks more calories to create more energy, and your diet choices seem less important than your desire to gain a bit of energy to get through the day. Regularly losing sleep can have long term negative effects on your overall health, including damage to your metabolism, which could in turn make it even more difficult to lose weight.
- Exercise: Regardless of what some programs say about exercise not helping with weight loss, the reality is that statistically, the most successful weight loss programs feature some sort of exercise component. Engaging in regular physical activity can help you to burn calories, tone muscle, and improve your metabolic health.
- Enriching dietary choices: Elimination diets aren’t sustainable. Having certain foods entirely off limits doesn’t help you to eat healthier. Instead, you need to find a diet that encourages you to eat healthily foods that you enjoy. When you make healthy and meaningful dietary swaps, filling your body with foods that are nutrient dense and packed with healthy flavors, it becomes so much easier to stick to your diet plan.
Medical weight loss programs are different, giving you the tools you need to actually experience sustainable weight loss. By working with an experienced weight loss doctor you can get the type of guidance and encouragement needed to help you lose weight and keep it off. In Fort Myers, weight loss surgery such as sleeve gastrectomy, makes successful weight loss a reality for so many who have struggled with obesity in the past.