Are You Receiving a Failing Grade When it Comes to Weight Loss?

It seems like everyone is talking about how easy it is to fail at losing weight. There are more failure weight loss stories than successful ones. Why is it that so many people who try to lose weight, fail?

Off the top of your head, you can probably name a few random guesses as to why people fail when trying to lose weight such as they are lazy, they love food too much, they are terrible about sticking to a exercise program, or they are addicted to overeating and can't break the habit. Those would all be common guesses but the truth of why people fail at weight loss goals is better explained by examining the factors that contribute to failure to lose weight.

Factors that contribute to the failure to lose weight include not fully understanding the health risks they face if they fail to lose weight, not being able to commit to the permanent lifestyle changes that are necessary in order to succeed at weight loss, not knowing the true facts about how to go about losing weight, failing to realize just how much food/calories they are actually consuming everyday, and lastly, giving up too easily when they run into a snag in the weight loss road.

Not understanding the health risks involved in being overweight:

If a person is ignorant of the health risks they are taking by being overweight, they are not as likely to be in any hurry to accomplish the weight loss goal. If a person is overweight for a long period of time they are at risk for being part of the thousands of people who die each year of over-weight related diseases. There have been multiple studies proving that there is a connection and danger between being overweight and diseases that can be fatal if left uncontrolled. Losing excess body fat can reduce this terrible risk.

Not being able to commit to healthy lifestyle changes:

It is a common fallacy that losing weight is a "temporary" situation. They believe that once the weight loss goal is achieved they can go back to old habits that they were comfortable with before the desire/need to lose weight occurred. They follow methods that are restrictive and difficult to follow but may yield fast weight loss results and then once they see a weight loss what so often happens is that they immediately congratulate themselves and then reward themselves by going back to old eating and exercising/lack of exercising habits that will cause them to gain back the weight. The best way to lose weight for the long haul is to lose it gradually and by doing healthy habits such as eating the foods that our bodies need and exercising everyday. Crash, restrictive diets do not work, healthy eating and making other healthy lifestyle changes will bring about the desired weight loss that will continue to be a part of the "new and lighter you".

Not knowing the true facts about weight loss:

There unfortunately is a lot of conflicting information being circulated throughout different medias promoting unhealthy weight loss. People believe what they see on TV, or read in Hollywood magazines without checking out the safety or health risks involved in these weight loss programs and diets.

Failure to realize just how much food/calories you are actually consuming everyday:

This is a major factor that contributes to weight gain. Most of us eat when we are hungry or even when we are not hungry and pay little attention to how much of a food item we are eating. Portion sizes are out of control at fast food and sit-down restaurants and we copy that when we eat at home. We become used to overeating and after a while normal portions will not will us up or make us feel satisfied.

Giving up to easily:

It seems like nothing in life is easy, except maybe gaining weight as we age. Our modern world shoves the message into our minds that getting things the easy is to be expected. As a result most of us tend to give up at the first snag in the road on our way to weight loss. If we make a mistake and eat too much at breakfast or lunch we may tend to say, "What's the point, I've already blown it today", and overeat again at dinner. Everyone messes up from time to time; doing so, does not give you the right to toss the goal out the window! Gaining or losing weight is every bit a state of mind and attitude. You have to be positive that nothing is going to stop you from achieving your goal, not even the bumps in the road that you encounter.