Introduction:

Did you know that one of the biggest New Year’s resolutions is to lose weight? Unfortunately most people aren’t successful at sticking to their resolution and give up. Part of that reason is people trying to lose weight without properly managing the right expectations. If you’re one of the few embarking on your journey, read below on what to expect what that journey would look like. A big part of success is knowing what to expect and mentally preparing for your journey.

Weight Loss Should be a Temporary State

Losing weight shouldn’t be a lifelong thing you seek. If you think about it, if you kept losing weight without any end in sight, your body will die. You should strive to reach a weight loss goal and then evaluate what to do after. I recommend nearly all individuals to maintain weight for a bit and then see if bulking up and gaining muscle is the right approach afterwards.

Try Create Sustainable Habits As You Approach Your Journey

I find that a ton of people want to rush their weight loss journey. To do so, they try to lose 3-4 pounds a week, restrict themselves to eating as low as 1000 calories a day, workout 7 times a week, do cardio every other day, and aim for 20k steps. The first question I always ask them is the following “How long can you realistically do that for? And what additional levers will you pull once your weight stagnates?” And the response is usually a blank stare. Weight loss is a gradual approach and you don’t want to throw the whole kitchen sink or else you will burn out.

You’ll Lose a Lot of Weight Fast at First or Your First Week of Weight Loss will be Deceiving

Once you embark on your journey, you’ll notice that you’ll lose a lot of weight fast at first. In fact, most of my clients typically lose anywhere from 5 to 10 pounds in the first one or two weeks. Although that’s a great sign that you’re trending in the right direction, unfortunately most of that will be water weight, and not fat. This is important to know because most people start losing motivation once they see the rate of weight loss decrease to 1 or 2 pounds a week. This loss of motivation typically happens after 1 month in the journey, and I’m here to tell you that your weight loss journey will need to take time. In fact, losing 1 pound a week is great and sustainable for most people in the long run.

You Might Gain Up to 5 Pounds in A Day, But That’s Ok

You may notice occasional daily weight fluctuations along your journey. For instance, when I was losing weight, I sometimes gained 5 lbs the next day. However, it’s important not to lose motivation. A lot of that weight gain was due to water weight from eating highly salty or processed foods that made me bloated the next day.

It’s Important to Measure Your Weekly Weight Fluctuations

Although the daily weight fluctuations may not be as important, it’s necessary to measure your weekly trend. Take your average weight of the most recent 7 days, and compare that to the prior week to see if you’re on the right track. This will help minimize any of the daily fluctuations that could be influenced by water weight and help you see holistically if you’re trending in the right direction.

The Longer the Weight Loss, the Harder It Will Be

As you start losing weight, it’ll be naturally harder for your body to lose the weight. For example, if you’re losing 1 lb a week, you may see that decrease down to 0.75 lbs a week or even half a pound a week. The reason is that the body’s homeostasis is used to be at your original weight and will “fight” to get back to that weight. Let’s say you try to counteract this by dieting more or exercising more. Your body will try to offset this by reducing your NEAT or “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.” NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or sports-like exercise. These include activities like fidgeting, cooking, typing, etc. It’s important to not get demotivated as you see your weight loss slow; in fact, it probably means you’re nearing your goal weight.

You Will Get Hungry

As you start losing weight, it’ll be naturally harder for your body to lose the weight. For example, if you’re losing 1 pound a week, you may see that decrease down to 0.75 pounds a week or even half a pound a week. The reason is that the body’s homeostasis is used to be at your original weight and will “fight” to get back to that weight. Let’s say you try to counteract this by dieting more or exercising more. Your body will try to offset this by reducing your NEAT or “Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis.” NEAT is the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating, or sports-like exercise. These include activities like fidgeting, cooking, typing, etc. It’s important to not get demotivated as you see your weight loss slow; in fact, it probably means you’re nearing your goal weight.

Once Your Diet Ends, You Should Still Be on a “Diet”

If you’ve finally achieved your weight loss goal, first of all, a huge congratulations for doing so. It’s definitely not an easy thing to do. However, once you end your diet, you should have some semblance of the healthy foods you were eating and now work on maintaining that weight for a bit. I recommend most people to stay at that maintenance phase for a few weeks to even a few months. Typically, the longer or the more weight you lost, the longer you should strive to be in this maintenance phase. Keep in mind that you will feel hungry despite eating at your daily calorie maintenance weight and that’s natural. Your body has been fighting so hard at staying above your weight goal. That’s why I recommend most people to slowly up the calories. For me, I increased my calories by about 200 every two weeks until my weight loss stalled. Once I felt more satiated, I then chose to go on a bulk. I don’t recommend people to rush adding a bunch of calories back in because your new maintenance calories will probably be lower than your old. For instance, a 200 pound that lost 40 pounds will probably have to eat less than what they were originally eating so that they don’t gain weight.

What To Do After Achieving Your Goals

Once you’ve reached your goal, it’s important to set some realistic expectations of your new goals. For instance, some people are happy at that new weight and their goal is focused around maintaining that physique and creating a sustainable lifestyle. For others, they may want to opt to gain muscle and gain weight sustainably over the long term. I fell in the latter, and to be successful, I set realistic expectations and milestones. In fact, I opted to strive to gain around 2 pounds a month to minimize any fat gain.

Conclusion

Losing weight can be daunting, but with the right mindset and expectations, you can be even more successful along your journey. If you found some of the above tips useful, please let me know. As always, your fitness journey is a marathon, not a sprint.