Weight loss is one of Americans' most common New Year’s resolutions every year, with 50% of Americans resolving to exercise more and 43% resolving to eat a healthier diet. We often set resolutions without a realistic goal in mind – as we often make these resolutions in reaction to a holiday season filled with decadent feasts, cocktail parties and cold weather.
Crash dieting and suddenly taking up intense exercise almost ensures that your resolutions won’t stick. Creating an attainable outcome for yourself and sticking to your weight loss plan is key to sustaining a successful New Year’s resolution over the next 12 months. To help you with your weight loss goals, we put together a simple list of 4 practical tips you can use to lose weight – and keep it off – in 2023.
1. Avoid restrictive dieting practices
Crash dieting is unsustainable and dangerous. Dramatically reducing your calorie intake can get you the result you want quickly, but that’s just it: it’s a quick fix. Cutting calories can be especially dangerous if you’re starting to exercise more often. Your body needs calories as fuel for your physical activities, so if you start asking more of your body while offering it less nutrition, you may experience adverse side effects. Highly restrictive diets have been shown to cause lightheadedness, irritability and a slower metabolism.
These effects will work against your progress in the long run.Instead of limiting yourself to 800 calories a day every day for the rest of your life, work with a nutritionist to create a balanced diet that nourishes your body while giving you the energy you need for the day. Up your intake of fruits, vegetables and fiber-rich foods to make sure you are getting the nutrients you need while also ensuring that you have the energy sources for your next workout.
2. Make time for exercise
Finding time to exercise more is THE most common New Year’s resolution for Americans. A balanced diet filled with fruits and vegetables plays a key role in lowering blood sugar and cholesterol, but pairing this diet with regular physical activity can significantly improve your cardiovascular health and mental wellness.
Exercise also helps sustain your fitness goals over the long term. The Mayo Clinic suggests that people who get regular physical activity are more likely to maintain their weight loss.
Federal guidelines recommend that adults do at least 150 minutes (2.5 hours) to 300 minutes (5 hours) of moderate-intensity exercise a week. The more intense the exercise, the less time you need to devote to it. For example, you only need 75-150 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per week.
Again, it’s important that you start slow. You don’t need to immediately start training for a marathon or take on the most intense workout at your local Crossfit gym. Start slow. Incorporate 30 minutes of brisk walking, jogging, cycling or swimming into your daily routine to start seeing the benefits of regular exercise. A gradual introduction to exercise will help you from getting burned out or injured as you start to ask more from your body.
It helps to mark your exercise down on a calendar or to-do list to make sure that you stick to your plan. If you’re not sure that you’ll get exercise in, think of other ways that you can be active throughout that day. You can use the stairs instead of the elevator or bike to meet your friends instead of driving to burn off a few extra calories on a day when you aren’t able to hit the gym.
3. Be realistic
Setting realistic goals for yourself makes your overall weight loss resolution more attainable. We often hear, “I want to lose 15 pounds”, without much context for what that means. It also means that the goalposts have been set without a sustainable plan for how to get there. Try losing one to two pounds a week. To lose 1-2 pounds a week, you need to burn about 500 calories more than you consume per day. Most of us can do this by eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly.
One pound a week will not feel like the weight is flying off of you, but you’re setting yourself on a more sustainable path. As mentioned above, crash dieting and suddenly jumping into vigorous exercise can lead to harmful side effects that can impede your progress. An injury from overtraining or the constant hunger from a caloric deficit can cause you to break the habits you had been forming and go back on your resolution goals.
Think about your goals as a process, not an outcome. Instead of trying to lose 15 pounds, try to eat 5 servings of fruits and vegetables and walk for 30 minutes every day. Those are action items you can do, and they will typically lead to those 15 pounds disappearing eventually. Start small and focus on your process, rather than your desired outcome, to change the habits that will lead to a healthier overall lifestyle.
4. Get some outside help
Getting professional help with your weight loss can help you set realistic goals and create a sustainable plan to meet those goals. When you enlist the help of a weight loss expert, you are giving yourself a support structure to guide you through your process. A weight loss expert will work with you to create a nutrition plan and exercise schedule, which takes the guesswork out of your plan.
Sesame offers convenient and affordable video weight management consults via Success by Sesame, which connects you with nearby health care providers so you can get the help you need from the comfort of your own home. Providers on Sesame can answer any questions you have about weight loss while working with you to craft a plan that suits your individual needs. A weight management consult will give you the comprehensive information you need to move forward with your weight loss resolution sustainably and healthily.
Weight loss is a process, not an outcome. Take small steps and be patient with yourself. If you stick to your healthy habits, the results will take care of themselves!
