Beating obesity: Breaking through that wall

You have been doing it right and it has been working. You started by doing what is absolutely essential, you took full ownership of your weight problem. Then you got and read Lose Live (available at lulu.com) the one guide that gives you all the tools you need to shed fat, gain health and live better and longer. You calculated your calorie intake to start the fat burning away and all was going great and then IT STOPPED — you just hit that inevitable wall. Why, why does this happen and what do you do about it?

Let’s begin by understanding that just because one week the expected weight loss didn’t happen and you may have even seen a gain of a pound or two does not mean you are failing. Sometimes excessive amounts of water are retained and consider that water is pretty darn heavy weighing in at 8.3 pounds per gallon. One thing you can do to reduce the water retention risk as well as reducing the risk of hypertension is keep your sodium intake down because salt causes the body to retain water.

So retaining just a quart of water can bump your weight up by a couple of pounds. But the bigger reason is that as you lose fat it just gets harder. Let’s say you are a 30 year young female 5 feet 4 inches tall. You exercise regularly but you weighed 200 pounds when you decided to trim down. You did very well losing an average of 1.5 pounds per week. Half way through the planned program all is going very well and you are feeling great your weight has dropped from 200 to 155 pounds and then it just STOPS. Three weeks and no change, major frustration sets in. Relax everything is going to be fine but you will need to make an adjustment.

When you started your program keeping your daily calorie consumption at 2031 calories per day got the job done. But that was true at your weight of 200 pounds and it is not true at your happier healthier weight of 155. Now in order to keep that weight loss going you need to reduce that calorie intake to something around 1600 per day. So clearly you need to adjust your calorie intake. In fact you should probably revisit your calorie requirements every month. There are many online calculators that will do that for you; here is just one of them.

But wait, there is more. Even if you have been adjusting your caloric intake and engaging in regular and meaningful exercise, the one sad truth is that with every pound of fat you lose, shedding even more fat becomes increasingly difficult. As fat goes away your body naturally fights ever harder to keep what remains. So as you get closer to your target weight the battle gets tougher. You, however, can and will win this battle. You simply need to stay informed and adjust as necessary your calorie intake, maybe ramp up the exercise a little bit and be extremely careful that you do not allow a few extra calories to slip in every day, a thing also known as calorie creep.

Just stay informed, stay focused and when you hit that inevitable wall just double down on your resolve and never ever quit. And when you do finally hit your target weight, go have a slice of pizza.

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Walk Your Way to Better Health

Join us for the Hollywood Health Hike. Together we can feel great and begin to win the war on obesity and ill health. It happens for the third year in a row on April 30th 2017 and will take us from Burbank, California through Hollywood and Beverly Hills to Santa Monica. It costs NOTHING [except for whatever food and beverage you buy] but for details please let me know of your interest by sending an email to helloroniriwn@gmail.com.

Walk for health and also for joy and then share your walking experience to inspire others. Please write and email your favorite walking experience to me at: helloronirwin@gmail.com. Where did you walk, what did you see, how long was your walk and anything else you want to reveal. Please include a few photos with your email. Submissions will be accepted now though November 10, 2016 and the winner will receive a free copy of Lose Live the ultimate guide to good health and weight loss. Your story will also appear in this publication.

You can, at any time, get your very own copy of my true and real guide to effective and permanent weight loss, Lose Live available at lulu.com, amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com. Just be sure to keep checking in right here for regular updates. And if you have a question or comment for me please send your email to: helloronirwin@gmail.com

Copyright © 2016 Ron Irwin

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Part 13 – Part 14 – Part 15 – Part 16 – Part 17 – Part 18 – Part 19 – Part 20 – PART 21 – Part 22 – Part 23

Photos by Ron Irwin unless otherwise noted