You can always return to the appropriate weight for your body type and height and body type, regardless of your current weight. However, your weight loss journey would come with major impacts on your life. It would affect your health, vitality, self-esteem, optimism, and many more. Anyway, this amazing journey gives you the chance to take full charge of your body and your future. Some of the changes that come with weight-loss are things you would naturally expect. Your weight would reduce; you will need a change of wardrobe, etc. But then, there are quite a few changes that you may never expect. We will tell you about all of these changes in this article.
You would feel satisfied that you are achieving your goals. You will both look and feel amazing. But you should know that the journey would not be all-rosy. For instance, your breasts may begin to drop and your skin may become squishier. These come with cosmetic concerns too. Yes, you would get the perfect weight you desire and all the extra attention. But you must prepare yourself psychologically for all the other changes that may come with weight loss. That way, your mind can quickly adjust to the new look of your body. Psychologists have a phenomenon they call “weight-loss shock”. Let’s tell you a few things to expect while you are on your way to weight-loss.
Things to Expect From your Weight Loss Journey
Your expectations matter a lot when you are on a weight loss journey. Many times, people have great expectations at the start of the journey, but they soon realize that the journey may not be as easy as they thought.
Weight loss is indeed a difficult task that requires dedication and discipline. But then, if you can give all it takes to do it the way you ought, you would realize that there are many more benefits you would get other than physical improvements.
Weight loss helps to strengthen you both emotionally and mentally. But aside from the many good things that come with weight loss, there are certain challenging outcomes too.
Here are some of the things you should expect on your journey to weight loss:
1. There will be fluctuations in your energy levels
You will experience the most challenges in your first two to three weeks on the weight loss regimen. Mostly, your mind and body are trying to adjust to your new nutrition habits. So they are trying to adjust your energy usage.
There is nothing abnormal about this. Your body would bounce back over time. As soon as your body fully adjusts, your energy levels would improve, and you would experience better sleep and brain fog would be eliminated.
2. Your confidence will increase
As you see progress in your weight loss, there will be some sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. This makes all your sacrifice in following your nutrition and workout program worthwhile and rewarding. This, in turn, boosts your confidence in tackling and accomplishing your goals.
Aside from that, as you move closer to your desired weight, you would embrace more social functions. You know, thinking that you are too fat has a way of damaging your confidence. And knowing that you are approaching a perfect weight restores your lost confidence.
3. Your muscle mass would increase
Resistance training should be an integral part of your weight loss program. This usually leads to an increase in muscle mass. And since muscles have more weight than fat, your body weight may initially increase. However, muscles improve metabolism and aid fat burning. As such, you would burn more fats and your weight would eventually come down.
Furthermore, resistance training has many other benefits. It helps improve your posture, bone health, hormone health, and circulation.
4. Rapid weight loss comes before the weight gain
Remember we said that the initial increase in muscle mass may lead to some weight gain at first. But before this happens, you will experience fast weight loss. But this is only water weight. That is why you should stay off the scale for the first few weeks on your journey to weight loss.
If you keep on checking your weight, you may think that the program is not working. The initial rapid weight loss (due to reduced water weight) may lead to false hopes. And when you realize that your weight is increasing again (due to increased muscle mass), those hopes would be dashed in pieces. As such, you may become discouraged to continue.
5. You will default once in a while
You will sometimes cheat on your diet or miss your workout. But so long as this happens only once in a while, it’s okay. It only becomes a problem when you make it a habit. Just make sure that anytime you default, you quickly pick yourself up and return to your regimen.
Learn from each default. Find out where you missed it and take steps to improve. As you do that consistently and with dedication, you will begin to find more strength and willpower to pull through.
6. You will have to make out time for cooking
This is one of the things that make weight loss king of difficult. Fast foods, processed foods, etc. usually have a lot of calories, as well as hidden fat and oils. As such, they may not fit into your weight-loss diet. So you would have to cook most of what you eat by yourself.
What you can do is to follow a well-crafted meal plan. For instance, follow one that requires you to cook only on 1 or 2 days weekly.
Conclusion
While you are on the weight loss journey, you may have great expectations and want fast results. But more often than not, results happen slowly. You must make up your mind not to get frustrated. Follow through with dedication and discipline. Learn from your mistakes whenever you default. And you will eventually achieve the transformation that you desire.