Converting Your Thoughts Into Action Via Effective Weight Loss Goals

You may find it impossible to achieve a reasonable weight loss if you ignore the importance of setting weight loss goals. Of course, effective and well planned weight loss goals keep you focused and motivated. These goals enable you to provide a plan for change, even as you transit to a healthier lifestyle.

However, it is important to state here that not all weight loss goals are helpful. Your efforts can be frustrated through unrealistic and overly aggressive weight loss goals.

Often times, people who look forward to losing weight are keen in shedding off pounds within a very short time. Before setting up goals, you need to understand the reason and how weight loss occurs. Calories are being used by the body as a fuel for varieties of body processes such as functioning of the brain, maintenance of body organs, as well as human movement. The body is provided with these calories via food and fluids. Remember that whenever the consumption of your calories exceeds that which your body requires, the body converts the extra to fat. On the other hand, consumption of fewer calories below what the body requires, the body will break down the stored fat to be used as fuel. Hence, a situation creating caloric deficit is what results in losing body fat and bring about weight loss.

You may ask how this calorific deficit is created. It is created by increasing the value of your burnt calories via regular exercise and decreasing the number of calories through good eating regimen.

Remember that it is dangerous to embark upon starving, as a means of generating high caloric deficit. This action slows down your metabolism and hence, making you to burn fewer calories afterwards.

Below are tips to help you set up goals that will result in weight loss and improvement of your overall health.

1. Concentrate on changing your behaviors and habits

This tip helps you to concentrate on the essential steps to achieving a desired outcome. Let’s take for instance; you may concentrate on daily consumption of 10 calories of fruits and vegetables, taking a daily 45 minutes walk, or drinking two glasses of water first before every meal. The advantage of this tip is that it does not only give you a target, but it addresses how the target will be reached.

Poor health habits will not bring about weight loss. Potential behavioral change and attitudes will have a lasting effect on your weight loss goals.

2. Set quality and standard goals

Ensure that your weight loss goals meet the following criteria:

• Exact

Achievable goal involves exact or specific details. For instance, if you set up a goal to embark on more exercise, you are not setting a specific or exact goal. However, if you modify this and set a goal to trek half an hour every morning on a daily basis, such goal is realistic because you are declaring what you wish to do, how long it will take and when you will do it.

• Measurable

Assuming a goal can be measured, its success rate can be determined. A good weight loss goal should be measurable. For instance, setting up a goal to eat better is not easily measured. However, a set up goal to consume 1500 calories daily can be measured. Alternatively, when you set up a weight loss goal to ride a bike, such goal is not easily measured, however, setting up a goal of riding your bicycle for 45 minutes twice a week is measurable.

• Attainable

An attainable goal is an achievable one. It is the one which in which there is adequate time and resources to attain it. For instance, if your work schedule prevents you from spending two hours of exercise daily at the gym, such goal would not be attainable.

However, two hours weekdays and three hours weekends at the gym is attainable. Moreover, if a form of exercise like cycling is physically too tough for you, then, such exercise would not be an attainable goal.

• Realistic

You need to set up goals that are realistic to achieve your weight loss. Most people set realistic goal to lose 10% of their present weight. For instance, a daily calorie goal can be set with the help of your doctor, using your present health and weight. When you set a goal that is not realistic, it may lead to disappointment.

• Trackable

Keeping the record of your progress is one of the best ways of achieving a goal. For instance, if you set up a goal to be losing 15 pounds, you should record your weight every week. In another way, if your goal is to consume 2500 calories every week, ensure you get a food diary for the purpose.

You will be able to evaluate your progress and be well motivated if your weight loss goal is trackable.

3. Set up long- term and short- term goals

Long term goals help you concentrate on the big picture. However, they may be too difficult or too far away to achieve. In view of this, you can break a long term goal into smaller short term goals. For instance, if your long term goal is to lose 20 pounds in three months, you may break it down into bits, perhaps 8 pounds for the first month and 6 pounds for the last two months since early weight loss is often faster.

4. Give room for setbacks

A natural part of behavior change is setback. No one successfully effect changes in his or her life without experiencing setbacks. You should not only expect them, but also develop a plan to deal with them. The ability to identify possible roadblocks e.g. a big holiday meal, and fashioning out specific strategies to overcome them can assist you to stay on course.

5. Adjust your goals when necessary

You should be willing to make changes in your goals even as you progress in your weight loss plan. In case you started small and record success, you may be ready to embark on greater challenges, or better still adjust your goals to suit your new lifestyle.

CONCLUSION

Note that you may not likely be perfect as there may be some days when you will not achieve all your goals. Never be discouraged. Rather, analyze the reason you are unable to achieve your set goals that particular day and make amendments. Weight loss involves creating a caloric deficit on a long term basis. In regards to this, ignore the bad days and focus on the days ahead so that you can achieve a meaningful weight loss.