How to Successfully Start a Weight Loss Journey & Get Results

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Do you know why your last attempt to get in shape was so rough or why you didn’t get the results you wanted? If no, then I have just the right thing for you.

If you ask an average person how to lose weight, their answer would be, “A good diet and a good workout regime.” This answer is not wrong. The problem is this answer is also not complete.

If you think this is all you need to lose weight. Then it’s not your fault that you are unable to lose weight. You simply lack proper information.

Rather than beating yourself to the ground for not losing weight, You should take pride in the fact that you didn’t abandon your dream of being in the best shape. 

Tell me something, in your last attempt to lose weight, why didn’t you lose weight? Is it because you didn’t have a proper diet or a workout routine? or perhaps you lost some weight and gained it back

Why is that the case?

Have you ever thought about why you lose weight and keep gaining it back? While some people lose weight & that’s it for them. They never gain it back.

They are in good shape, and they keep improving not just fitness-wise but as a person. Don’t you want to be that girl or guy who never gains weight?

Don’t you also want to get out of this cycle of fitness? Where you don’t have to worry about your health every month & look for new ways to get in shape

If yes, then I have just the right thing for you. I have listed three steps that you can follow to begin your weight loss journey right now and start losing weight by transforming yourself into your best version, physically & mentally.

3 Steps to Successful Start Your Weight Loss Journey

When it comes to fitness, most people know what the right thing to do is. But not everyone does the right thing.

I know you know that you need to follow a diet to lose weight.

But just because you need to diet doesn’t mean that you want to follow a diet. No one talks about the fact that after the first week, you probably will start going off track, and even you don’t know why you went out of your way to do something that will destroy your efforts.

Maybe you weren’t focused enough, or perhaps you lacked motivation. The truth is you weren’t ready mentally for a change.

There is no point in having the best diet, workout routine if you aren’t ready mentally. The body achieves what the mind believes. So, it’s your mind you need to convince for a change.

That’s the first step. Here’s how you can set yourself up mentally for a change

woman meditating

Step 1. Setting Yourself Up Mentally

Setting yourself mentally for a goal doesn’t mean you need to find something to keep yourself motivated. The thing is motivation, doesn’t exist.

Motivation may help you start a task. But you will never find enough motivation to complete a task.

To prepare yourself mentally for a goal, you need to create a proper vision for yourself, understand the importance of your goal, and understand yourself.

1. Vision

To prevent yourself from doing things against your goal. First, you need to be clear about what your goal is all about.

Here’s what you need to do

  1. Create a realistic goal for yourself: Be clear & concise about your goal. For instance, I want to lose 30 lbs, or I want to have six-pack abs.
  2. Daily tasks: Depending upon your goal, you will have to do specific tasks daily. Make a list of all the things you need to do every day to reach your goal. For instance, To lose weight, you need to follow a diet and train every day. So, you have two tasks to complete every single day.
  3. Set-up a time limit for your goal: Decide a due date. Don’t just say that you will lose weight this year. Be specific. For instance, I want to lose 50 lbs in 6 months or by August 5 of this year.
  4. End-point: Decide what factors mark the completion of your goal. You may lose weight earlier than you expected. So, it’s better to change your aim, from losing weight to maintaining weight.
  5. Visualize: Think about how you are going to look & feel once you reach your goal.

The clearer your goal is, the easier it will be for you to reach it

2. Importance of Your Goal

Now you have a specific goal to reach. But why do you want to reach it? Is it because you want to look good or some other reason

Here’s what you need to do

  1. Make a list of why you want to lose weight.
  2. Make a list of why you are out of shape.

Use the lists every time you feel unfocused.

cool woman

3. Unleash Your Inner Potential By Understanding Yourself

In your quest, time and again, you will be forced to make hard choices. Choices that will determine how fast you reach your goal, how much you improve.

To ensure that you make the right choice, you need to be in control. You have to understand the power your choices hold.

Our brain is a defense mechanism. So, it will always choose a painless option. Unless you actively make choices for yourself.

To make the right choice, go through your day while keeping an eye on your goal. Try to understand yourself.

Figure out things that make you procrastinate, things that push you into feeling dissatisfaction. Observe yourself, make patterns of your destructive behaviors, and finally find ways to take control of yourself. 

Here are few exercises you can do to take control and for minimizing your destructive behaviors:

  1. Daily meditation: You can meditate in several ways. The best way is to focus on your breathing. What you need to do is for 5 minutes every day, sit and take deep, focused breaths.
  2. Affirmations: What we say every day has an influence over our thoughts. Thoughts influence our actions.  So, by repeating positive words, you can keep your mind full of positivity and your actions, in tune with your goal. (24+ Morning Affirmations)
  3. Observe yourself: There will be times when you fall for temptation. At those times, look for things that made you behave against your goal. For instance, watching binge eating videos will make you binge eat yourself.
  4. Make patterns: Once you are clear about factors that make you behave destructively. Make patterns of how one thing pushes you into doing another thing. Then, memorize those patterns.
  5. Active watching: Watch yourself and stay alert. Avoid staying in the situation of dissatisfaction to avoid negative patterns from recurring.

4. Evaluate Your Progress

You have limited time to reach your goal. So, it’s better to measure your progress. What you need to do is create a fitness journal and use it to track your progress throughout the course of your journey.

Here’s what you need to track:

  1. Daily tasks: Use your fitness journal to track whether you complete your daily tasks or not. For instance, how many times you train or miss your diet. Here are few tasks you can track: your diet, training, meditation, negative behaviors
  2. Weekly targets: Create weekly targets and use them to track your whole week. For instance, The goal for week 1 is to lose 2 lbs
woman fitness

Step 2. Fitness

Weight Loss = 20% Exercise + 80% Diet

Daily exercise will not help you in burning a lot of calories. But it surely will help you in keeping your body toned. Just because you dropped 20 lbs doesn’t mean that you will look more aesthetic.

Weight loss will make you look lean. But if you want to look toned, then adding a daily exercise routine to your schedule can help.

Moreover, if you are losing weight to look better, then you should consider exercising daily. Here’s a simple exercise routine you can follow:

  • Day 1: 30 Min Jog + Beginner Yoga Poses
  • Day 2: 30 Min Jog + 30 Burpees + 30 Jumping Jacks + 5 min Skipping
  • Day 3: 30 Abs Crunches + 30 Squats + 30 Wall Assisted Push-ups + 30 Jumping Jacks + 30 Bicep Curls
  • Day 4: 30 Min Jog + 50 Abs Crunches + 50 Jumping Jacks
  • Day 5: 30 Min Jog
  • Day 6: 30 Min Jog + Beginner Yoga Poses
  • Day 7: Rest

30 min jogging with yoga in the morning every day is the best possible workout routine, especially if you are a beginner.

Step 3. Diet Adjustment

Here are two brutal facts about weight loss:

  1. One pound is equal to 3500 calories (20 lbs = 70,000 calories).
  2. To lose weight, you must consume fewer calories than you can burn every day. 

What you put in your body is what you get. So, without taking conscious control of what you eat, you will always find yourself at the end of the rope

Moreover, there is no way around it. No matter how consistent you are with your workout routine. If you keep messing your diet up, you will keep gaining weight.

Choosing a Diet Plan

To lose weight, you have to choose a diet and stick with it. Since the diet is 80% of the equation, the better your diet is, the more weight you will lose.

The problem is with hundreds of diet plans in the market, it’s difficult to choose the right one. The best way is to pick the one you think is going to work.

Calorie Deficit

For those who want to lose weight by creating a calorie deficit, all you need to do is consume fewer calories every day than you usually consume. For example, reducing your calorie intake to around 1500 calories per day. 

You can start by cutting 500 calories per day from your diet. A calorie deficit of 500 calories per day is healthy and sustainable. To avoid nutrient deficiencies, add fruits & veggies to your meals.

An average woman needs to consume around 2000 calories per day to maintain weight and about 1,500 calories per day to lose one pound per week.

By creating a calorie deficit, you can expect to lose 4+ pounds per month, and if you stick with your workout routine, you can lose up to  7-8 lbs per month.

woman prepare meal

Keto Diet

For those readers who have tried calorie deficit, and yet those stubborn pounds are STILL hanging on for dear life!

You should give a shot to the keto diet.

A Keto diet is a low carb diet with a moderate amount of protein. The diet works by depleting the body of its sugar reserves which result in the breakdown of fats for energy

Molecules called ketones are formed in the body as fuel

When the body burns fat, it results in weight loss. The Effectiveness of the keto diet has been proved in a lot of Studies

A study on the ketogenic diet even suggest that people who followed the keto diet lost 2.2 times more weight than people on a low-calorie and low-fat diet

Last year I tried the keto diet & I managed to lose around 24.5 pounds. So, I am quite sure of its effectiveness

Getting into ketosis is the only problem you may face while following the keto diet. So here’s how you can get into ketosis within the first 3 days & a list of foods you can consume while following the keto diet

The best part about the keto diet is that all you need is a month to lose up to 20+ pounds, unlike calorie deficit

Keep in mind that you will lose weight through the keto diet only if you stay in ketosis for at least a month.

Moreover, make sure that you consume an appropriate amount of micro & macronutrients to avoid nutrient deficiencies & side effects of the keto diet

Here’s an article on How to Start a Keto Diet? & 10 Day Keto Diet Meal Plan For Beginners

Still, the best & fastest way to lose weight with the keto diet is under the guidance of a nutritionist.

If you wish to follow the keto diet, I would recommend you to consult a nutritionist or If you are like me and you consider visiting a nutritionist an unnecessary hassle then you can get a custom keto diet plan from here.

This diet plan will also be tailored to your weight loss goals. Moreover, it will help you in avoiding nutrient deficiencies, maintaining ketosis & in preparing healthy meals.

This custom diet plan will respect your food preferences too and will be created based on the expertise of certified nutritionists, personal trainers, and chefs.

Remember, The Keto diet is a medical diet. Utilizing it for losing weight without the proper guidance of a health expert can lower your results

Here’s are few articles that can help you with the keto diet

  1. My 47 Day Experience on the Ketogenic Diet
  2. Keto Diet Food List For Beginners

P.S If you enjoyed this article on starting a weight loss journey, feel free to leave a question down below in the comment section if you have any

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Rudra

Hi, I am Rudra, a computer engineer, and a certified procrastinator. I started FitnessGained in 2018 to help me stay fit despite all my desk time. Now I run this blog as a hobby. Here at FitnessGained, I will share what I do to stay fit & more. Our motto is "Reaching True Potential with Effort."

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