Cerrar

Esperanza M. was convinced that she’s drop 10 pounds by her wedding day. But anxiety played a dirty trick: for an entire month she weighed herself twice each day. Unhappy with the numbers on the scale, she felt so frustrated she began to eat more. By her wedding day, instead of weighing 10 pounds less, she had gained 5 extra pounds. She had lost hope, and with it, discipline.

Reality First One of the main factors that influences whether a person sticks to a diet or not is setting realistic goals. Otherwise, frustration is expected after not achieving the desired goal. But what is a realistic goal?
According to the Mayo Clinic, with a long term diet you may lose one to two pounds per week; it is usually faster at the beginning.
If the idea is losing one or two pounds per week, you need to burn between 500 and 1,000 extra calories per day through a low-calorie diet combined with a physical activity plan.
 “When you set a goal, think about the process and the final result. Exercising regularly is an example of a “process goal,” while losing 30 pounds is an example of a “results goal.” It is essential to have a results goal, but process goals are key in order to change habits,” explained the article “Weight Loss: 6 Strategies for Success” of the Mayo Clinic.
An adequate goal should be:
• Concrete
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Realistic

What Is Your Goal?
Although difficult to admit, each body is unique. So it’s unreal to pretend having “the body of your favorite actress” or “having a role model look.” It’s not wrong to dream of a better shape, but having virtually impossible expectations will only lead us to frustration. This is one of the problems Dr. Steven A. Schur faces every day: “Many people have an idea of how much weight they want to lose. When I asked them how they established this goal, they usually answer it’s what I used to weigh in school, I read in a magazine this should be my ideal weight, or a friend weighs that much and looks great. In my opinion, all these arguments are arbitrary. We need to learn to be happy with our own body and figure out which should be our ideal weight, based on our individual characteristics,” he writes in his book “The Realistic Diet.”

To have a realistic idea of how much weight you should lose, MyDiet helps you determine your  healthy weight.