When people want to lose weight, one of the first things they change is their dietary practices. A study by Dr. Wendy Bennett highlights that it’s important for people to make these alterations in the content and portions of their meals to experience changes in their weight. For example, Dr. Bennett’s study demonstrated that eating frequent and large meals can lead to weight gain over time, while people who had smaller meal portions in their diets were likelier to lose a few pounds.
Indeed, people who are overweight or obese can experience significant improvements by following better nutrition practices. However, why do some people regain or fail to lose weight while doing these diets?
Why Some People Fail to Achieve Weight Loss Through Diets
Eating smaller food portions is one factor that can help people lose weight. Unfortunately, plenty of diets take this principle to the extreme and end up causing more harm than good. To illustrate, juicing is a popular diet that’s often suggested for weight loss because it restricts one’s intake of food. While this diet can cause short-term weight loss, many people are unaware that juicing can affect one’s health and even bring back weight gain in the long run. These juices can contain lots of sugar, which can trigger the hunger signals in the body and tempt people to eat more food. These juices also lack fiber, which can actually increase one’s satiety and reduce their food intake.
Aside from making bad eating choices, people with obesity may also struggle to lose weight through diets because of personal reasons. For instance, there are people with obesity who do not have enough motivation to follow specific nutrition guidelines. A lack of mental and psychological preparation can affect people’s motivation and make it difficult for them to apply the changes in their eating habits. Plenty of people also fail to achieve lasting results from their diets because of mental and physical conditions, such as stress and hormonal disorders. These conditions may cause people to quickly regain weight, even if they start to practice healthy eating habits.
There are many reasons why people fail to lose weight on a diet. Some of these individuals may simply be following the wrong practices. However, there are also plenty of individuals who may fail to achieve their target weight while dieting because of motivational and health factors. So while healthy eating habits are an important component of weight loss, people also have to consider factors that are influencing the effectiveness of these dietary changes.
How to Boost The Effects of Diets On Weight Loss
There are plenty of people who struggle to maintain new eating practices or experience lasting changes from these diets. To overcome these difficulties, people with obesity can try healthy nutrition practices along with these strategies:
Pair your diet with an exercise routine
People with obesity have to control their food intake to avoid the overconsumption of calories. However, one could also reduce these calories by exercising regularly.
Unfortunately, many people aren’t motivated to exercise due to the intensity and difficulty of the workouts. Beginners have to build the habit by doing short and easy exercises regularly, such as walking around the neighborhood, using jump ropes for a few minutes, or doing quick yoga routines. Through these easy workouts, it’ll be easier for people to reduce their calorie intake from their well-balanced meals.
Consider getting medication for weight loss
Poor dietary practices aren’t the only cause of obesity. In fact, this complex disease can also stem from hormonal, genetic, and even psychological factors.
Therefore, people who are struggling with health-related weight problems may benefit from medical weight loss approaches where prescription medicine is combined with healthy eating practices. These medicines are usually prescribed to people who meet certain BMI and medical requirements to help them address the biological factors of their weight gain. By combining these medicines with a well-balanced diet, people can target the multiple causes behind obesity and finally achieve a healthier weight.
Seek support from healthcare professionals
People can also learn how to stick to their diet and increase their self-efficacy by continuously working with healthcare professionals in their journey.
Support from healthcare professionals is important for people with obesity because it can increase their understanding of the health benefits of weight loss. Through the support of healthcare professionals, people become more motivated to take effective weight management action, increase their self-efficacy in their journey, and set more realistic health goals. As a result, those who are overweight are more likely to stick to good weight loss habits, like healthy diets, with the help of healthcare professionals.
A well-balanced diet is an important component of weight loss. However, people may get more lasting results from their healthy eating habits by seeking complementary strategies for weight loss.
