Are you looking for ways to lose weight? Or are you striving for a more desirable body shape? Do you just want to get more fit? Or you have watched multiple workouts and body-building videos and now want to get that body like theirs? Whatever it is, it is not a bad idea and certainly a good thing to do.
People are often influenced by the thought of going to the gym or working out. This particularly happens when you carry unwanted fat in you, and it shows. In that case, people are desperate to get rid of it. And it will result in them trying anything and everything that can even remotely offer them their desired result. But in the end, it is mostly futile.
I am not going to blame them completely for that. They often go through mental torture because of their weight. They are easily targeted because their physical weakness is easily seen through naked eyes. And they are targeted to jokes and bullying because of that, irrespective of their age or gender. They are treated very harshly and unfairly.
Because of that, they will, in turn, torture their body and go through hell to make them look better. I have personally known people who have suffered like this. They were always fun to get fat by eating too much, while in reality, some of them were really having normal diets and ate just as much as their thinner counterparts.
They were just suffering from a weaker metabolism that does not burn the calories of their food as much as it should, and that results from them getting overweight.
But it does not matter because even today while having tons of information related to this subject, it is still assumed that overeating is the only cause of getting fat. And therefore, they believed in that too. They, too tried everything they could to lose that fat. It did help lose a few pounds initially, but that did not continue for long.
They were left with losing a few pounds, joint pains, backaches, pale skin, etc. Furthermore, these things drained them out and had negative effects on their productivity. And not to forget the mental exhaustion and feeling of failure and upsetting over it.
Whether you have been through this or not, you need to get the proper plan for working on your desired body shape.
How to get in shape
Down below are some tips and steps to follow through for achieving this goal of yours.
As Yourself Why?
You need to ask why you want to lose weight? Find the purpose behind your decision. Why do you find it important to lose weight? This purpose will determine your dedication and to what extent you can go to achieve this goal.
People have often come with responses to this question with some not-so-serious and shallow answers. Admittedly, Those same responses are not so shallow in the end when they dig in their responses more deeply. That is when they find the core purpose of their decision to go to workout.
But the only purpose one should have to do this is to make themselves healthy and happy. You must go and work out or hit the gym because you need to stay healthy, and it makes you feel good about yourself. Not because you want people to like them, you want to get into a relationship or as silly as something being able to wear a particular dress.
Find The Root Cause
You cannot solve a problem if you do not know what is causing it exactly. Can you kick a ball if you don’t even know where it exactly is? You will just be kicking the air. Or can you hit the target with your weapon when you don’t even know where it lies? No right?
You cannot do any of that. The same logic applies here as well. First of all, try to find what is causing you the weight gain as per my previous explanation about those people suffering from weight gain because they had poor metabolism. The root cause was not them overeating like everybody readily believed in immediately.
Similarly, there can be many other reasons for putting on weight other than overeating. Maybe your body is going through some changes that you are unaware of, maybe it is your hormones, or you are on some medications that are meddling with your weight, or maybe you are suffering from thyroid. Before you set out to resolve your weight gain problem, try to know where it is coming from.
Each Body Is Different
It is a common occurrence that a person hits the gym or wants to workout because they got influenced by other’s workouts. They think they can get the same results when they follow the same workout routine as the other person, and things will result in the same for them too.
People forget that each and everybody is different. Everybody type, physiques, system, metabolism, and levels are different. What is working for them doesn’t necessarily work for you. And just blindly following them will make you more disappointed and disheartened.
The first thing you need to do is study your body before following any routine.
You might need to experience some trial and error before finding the routine that suits you better. You will have to follow and experiment with some diets and exercises until you find the one that is suitable for you.
Gender, work patterns, body type, physical activities, endurance, body limits, etc., all are different. And all these need to be simultaneously consulted and get into consideration to get you started.
Eat Healthy & Correct Instead Of Starving
Whenever one says they are on a diet, chances are they will be skipping meals, relying on salads, protein shakes, and practically starving themselves in the name of the diet. Those are not healthy for both your body and mind.
Starving yourself is never an option. You cannot just get up one day and decide to drastically cut down your food intake to lose weight; moreover, expect your body to accept this transition smoothly and without any difficulties. This can incredulously backfire you.
Our ancestors never diet or starved themselves to stay fit. Yet, they were in a comparatively far better shape than us. The idea is to eat healthily and burn calories through physical activities. They used to undergo heavy physical activities every day, and that food was utilized properly without causing their weight to increase.
Also, change the habit of intakes of your food. It is preferable for almost everyone to have food in intervals and not at once. This way, our body will not have to work harder in order to digest the food. And try to have light snacks instead of proper food in those intervals.
Stress
It is one of the reasons for gaining weight. Often people tend to eat more when they are stressed. The reason is they feel comforted when they have food. It benefits them psychologically and improves their mood. Their food immediately de-stress them.
When we are stressed, our body releases certain hormones that play a part in increasing weight. Thus, this is how being stressed can cause weight gain.
Exercising Your Body
Now, it is obvious we need to exercise in order to lose weight or get in shape. But this doesn’t mean that you have to incessantly sweat on the treadmill or do push-ups more to get that.
Exercising is not about how much you push your body physically; rather, the correct things you do. Here you need to correctly choose what is suitable for your body and do the trick for you.
I had a friend who was overweight. Like everyone commonly does, she too joined a gym. She followed the diet they provided her and exercised 6 days a week. She stuck to this for a little over a year. It did help her lose a few pounds, but she was not even remotely close to her desired shape. And she was drained at the end, both physically and mentally. And not to forget, she felt disappointed and unhappy with that.
After that, she opted to go for martial arts, and it worked great for her. She lost weight more rapidly than she did in the gym, and she never had to diet for it. Plus she found out that she really loved the classes and lessons. It not only helped her lose weight, but she had also learned self-defense, and her confidence has also increased. She has never been happier before.
Concede To Your Limits
Every person’s body has a limit, and beyond that, it cannot bear any weight put on it. We often set unrealistic goals for ourselves that are based on someone else we see the need to copy or see them as a benchmark.
We, however, forget that not only is that person doing this way longer than us, but their body’s endurance and abilities are way different from us as well. When we cannot reach the standard we had set based upon them, we are bound to get frustrated. It might also lead us to give up.
You need to realize that not acknowledging your limits only will hinder your efforts and prolong you from getting your desired results. You do not have to be too hard on yourself.
Try to keep in mind that knowing your limits is not you giving up or seeming weak. It means you will learn to adjust through the obstacles and find different ways to achieve your goals.
This way, you will also have a more realistic goal and realistic way of achieving them. And it will also be able to feel accomplished, and barriers will be avoided when your expectations will be met with.
Reward Yourself
It is a basic human nature that we will crave for the things that we are specifically told not to have. The more the resistance, the more the urge to have it. This applies to food diets as well. Restrictions on eating food will make you want to have it more, and you will find it harder to resist the temptation.
What you can do to avoid that is you can reward yourself a bit from time to time. This is a trick you have to play on your mind. Cheat your brain instead of having cheat diets or cheat days. Set small sub-goals in your plan.
When you achieve the goal, reward yourself with something little but excluded from your diet. Or you can eat something fatty in very small amounts or spoonfuls. This way, you can satiate your cravings and not gain too much weight; at least not that much that you will not be able to cover for it on the next day.
You just need to trick your brain and have craving control. And your work is done.
Final Thoughts
Losing weight or getting your desired shape can be a long time commitment and very exhausting. But you need to be persistent about it, and the results will be really rewarding and really worth it.
Follow the above-mentioned steps and keep working on your goal. Do yourself a favor of not giving up. It may get boring after a certain period. To avoid that, find ways to keep yourself motivated, take breaks if needed, try new things to not feel bored, reward yourself every once in a while during the process. You can also get creative with your approach and keep changes from happening if it is really needed.
Remember, there is no fixed way to achieve this. If gym and exercising do not appeal to you, then you can try sports instead. You need to focus on burning the extra calories more than the process.
Just do not give up!