Fast Weight-loss; Not a Good Deal!

This might sound funny but many diet and exercise programs out there profess to have fast weight-loss and that speed arguably is the reason for the diet/workout plan’s popularity. But I say to you know if you lose weight too fast – you are probably heading for a train wreak!

What I am talking about is losing weight too fast means I will probably lose muscle too, let alone not be sustainable. I’m not going to stay on a diet forever, right? I think 2 to 3 pounds a week is about the fastest I want to lose fat. I’ll talk a bit about yo-yo dieting, why I am concerned about the 10 pounds I lost in the last week and a half and what I plan on doing about it. I found this funny video on youtube from Chris Graham that should set this concept up.

Chris’s story is many men’s story – he got motivated and got into shape and then lost some motivation and got fat again. That is the definition of yo yo dieting. The really bad thing I think about the yo yo diet is it give you the sense of failure. I mean you start to think that you cannot lose weight!

I stopped dieting mid last year while I had a bunch of stresses in my life. Now in the last 10 days (since 2/8/09) I have been on my low-fat and calorie diet. I’ve lost 10 pounds easy and right now it seems the fat is melting off! Why am I concerned?

I don’t want to do the diet yo yo! I don’t want to lose muscle because I am eating too few calories and losing weight (muscle and fat) but I’d rather lose slower and lose just fat! Let me say that again – I WANT TO LOSE FAT!!!! not muscle.

If you have seen my previous post you know that I am eating very few calories in my breakfast (140 cal) and lunch (280 cal) along with fruit. My total calories consumed about half of the days are about 1200 but I am shooting for 1500 to 1800 calories a day.

Last year when I was counting calories I got enough by supplementing my diet with beer and rum and cokes. Well I have decided not to consume much alcohol this time as I need time to get my body back in wack.

Here is my plan, this weekend instead of buying the expensive diet microwavable Cafe Steamers, I will buy the 10 for $10 special and go for about 500 calories for lunch. I’ll look for a breakfast food that is a few more calories too  and might just go for the regular pocket breakfasts instead of the lean pockets.

Are you wondering why I’m buying frozen breakfasts and lunches? I know myself and if it takes work for breakfast or lunch – I won’t do it. One good thing though, last year I trained my body to expect to exercise most days. That is one thing that is still going well.

I went mountain biking over the weekend and have been race walking with the dogs (slow for them but it kicks my butt)! I hope some of this may help you formulate a strategy that works for you and take it from me – don’t yo-yo diet!