Are you trying to lose weight? Do you have a goal you want to achieve? Maybe you have decided you need to lose 30 pounds, or perhaps 20 pounds. Whether it’s more, or less, you probably came up with this number for a reason.

Perhaps you’d like to weigh what you did in high school, or when you got married, or before the kids were born. Or maybe you just wish you could wear a smaller size clothing.

Whatever your reasons, or whatever the specific goal is, it’s a good idea to explore the numbers. Sometimes we have unrealistic goals and are trying to lose more than is healthy or safe to lose in a specified time frame.

It’s important, possibly critical, to aim for a safe, achievable number. Here are a few tips to help you calculate what that might be for you:

1. Consult with a weight loss professional, possibly your doctor. However, not all doctors are expert in this field, so ask for references if necessary. This person should help you determine things like body fat percentage, metabolic rate, muscle mass, and water requirements. If these numbers are in a healthy range, it’s even possible you don’t need to lose weight at all. Maybe all you need to do is exercise more and tone things up.

2. Examine your own eating and exercise habits, your age, background, hereditary factors, and certain conditions that could account for some “emotional eating.” Learning to deal with personal variables is important in any weight loss regimen.

3. Don’t get in a hurry. It takes time to lose weight, and trying to drop pounds too fast can put your health at great risk. Plus, a rapid loss usually is temporary. Once you are off the diet that gave you these results, the weight will return, probably more quickly than you lost it. It’s also important to accept the fact that weight is a dynamic measure and is a reflection of our lives at a particular time. If one is under stress, for example, it’s easier to gain weight and much more difficult to lose it. Work around, or through these things to get your best results.

4. Try not to model yourself after currently popular appearances. Fashion models, for example, are typically much thinner than is healthy for the average person.

5. Realize that being thin is not an answer to all of your problems. The world may try to make us feel that thin is beautiful, and that somehow we are not complete or desirable in a body that doesn’t match today’s fads or trends. But these standards are often false, leading to an unhappy outcome if we try too hard to reach them.

6. While thin can be a health risk, it’s generally thought that obesity is more so. This is why it’s important to consult with a professional who has extensive weight management knowledge if you truly need to lose very much weight. It can be a path that requires a good guide.

No matter what your weight goals are, the most important thing to realize and accept is your own worth as a person, which has nothing to do with a number.

               

Tags: Age Background, Body Fat Percentage, diet, diet and exercise, Doctors, Emotional Eating, Exercise Habits, Hereditary Factors, Hurry, Metabolic Rate, Muscle Mass, Obesity, Personal Variables, Rapid Loss, Reflection, Size Clothing, Stress, Time Frame, Unrealistic Goals, Water Requirements, Weight Loss Regimen, What Is Your Ideal Weight, Whatever Your Reasons