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Jan 11

Want to lose weight fast? Experts on why slow and steady is best – Cosmopolitan UK

If youre planning to change your daily

Losing weight can have a huge impact on your body and while this can be good (for instance being overweight increases your risk of heart disease or having a stroke), its also important to remember to be gentle to yourself, and not expect too much at once.

Not only is it better for your body to lose weight over a longer period of time, it's likely to be better for your mind, too. And, crucially, more sustainable in the long run.

Consultant Dietitian at City Dietitians, Sophie Medlin, tells Cosmopolitan UK why losing weight fast can be problematic...

Think of it like running; if you sprint, its difficult to go far. But a nice, easy jog will make sure you keep going for longer without running out of steam. Not only that, it can have serious effects on your body.

Sophie says: "Rapid weight loss is associated with crash diets and eating in a way that is unsustainable. In other words, you might be able to get a couple of pounds off but youre unlikely to be able to keep going or keep the weight off."

Rapid weight loss can be an extreme shock to the system, and in turn can affect your body. "If you do continue to lose weight rapidly, youll be at risk of gall stones, electrolyte imbalances that affect your blood pressure and heart rate, hair loss, constipation and hormonal disturbances," Sophie explains.

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Of course, it's not just about the physical effects. "Restrictive diets that induce rapid weight loss are also associated with eating disorders like anorexia and orthorexia and cause harm to our relationship with food," says Sophie.

"Healthy weight loss may take a bit longer but the mental and physical risks are far lower and youre much more likely to keep the weight off in the long term."

Its important to remember that if your weight is already healthy for your height, losing weight will be very hard and you are unlikely to be able to achieve it in a healthy way," says Sophie. "Start by asking yourself why you want to lose weight and see if you can find alternative ways to improve your self-esteem."

So in other words, crash diets are not the answer. But to sustain weight loss in a healthy way, youll probably need to make some simple basic changes to your everyday diet. Sophie says: "First of all, before you think about what youre eating, you need to think about why youre struggling to eat well.

"Everyone knows the basics of healthy eating: Fruit and veg, nuts and seeds, lean protein, wholegrain carbs. These basic healthy eating principals will work for everyone if were able to stick to them and we eat when were hungry and stop when were full.

The problem with eating well arises when we are stressed, tired, bored or lonely or we have lost the connection with our appetite due to crash diets. We can also feel less able to manage our diet well when were surrounded by temptation all the time.

So, perhaps at this point its a good idea to look at your food habits and make some easy changes. "Overeating is a symptom of a problem, it isnt the problem," Sophie adds. "Start by writing down the times in the day when youre eating for reasons other than physical hunger and reflect on what was going on in that moment or on that day."

The hardest part for many is sustaining weight loss after youve first managed to lose it - but making changes to your lifestyle will ensure this eventually becomes natural to you. "Sustaining weight loss will require you to find a way of eating that still allows you to eat with friends and family, celebrate Christmas, Easter, birthdays and go on holiday without worrying about what youre eating," says Sophie. "This will mean that you will have to feel comfortable eating from all the food groups and not having strict rules that you feel anxious about breaking.

"Sounds impossible right?! Thats the myth that diet culture has sold you. Once youre comfortable with your relationship with food and you make conscious choices to give your body food that nourishes it rather than starving it because you hate it, everything gets easier and your weight will naturally settle to a place that is healthy for you."

So the key is finding out whats a natural, healthy weight for you and making small dietary changes to maintain it - without setting extreme goals.

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Want to lose weight fast? Experts on why slow and steady is best - Cosmopolitan UK

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