It is summer time and while the warm weather and sunshine may bring smiles to our faces, some folks may be fretting about how they look in a swimsuit. Often out of desperation, people try crazy fad diets to quickly shed a few pounds prior to hitting the beach. Well, I am here to caution you about dropping the pounds too quickly, and here's why: Rapid weight loss is often followed shortly by rapid weight gain.
The slower you lose the weight the better your chances for keeping the pounds off. You should aim to lose no more than two pounds a week. If you are losing more than that, the pounds lost most likely come from loss of water weight and lean muscle tissue - not fat. You don't want to lose muscle tissue since one pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day, while a pound of fat only burns 2 calories a day. Muscle mass is a friend to your metabolism.
Fit's Tip: If you are looking to lose weight, try to change your lifestyle with a healthy Mediterranean style diet and adding a daily dose of exercise into your plan. Make a lifestyle change and you will lose the weight and you have a much better chance of keeping the weight off.
Jucca
Freya
Minnetonka
This advice is very true!
I've lost about 15 pounds, but I did it over the past 6 months...very slowly. I have been able to maintain it. There have been times in my life where I lost like 10 pounds in just 1 month and I always gained it back.
It has to be a LIFESTYLE CHANGE when you lose weight. I realized that to maintain weight loss I have to work out every single day and eat right almost all of the time. It sucks some days, but it is the truth!
1Great advice Fit! Consistency and pacing ourselves is the key to our success.
2All I can say is that patience really does pay off: I've been at a slow and steady pace for 3 months but I've managed to work off 12 pounds so far. And this was after a fad diet I did a year ago that resulted in me gaining my puppy fat back and then some!
But I do have a fixed timeframe in mind now: hopefully I'll lose 5 more pounds before I hit the beach for the first two weeks in July!
3This is so much easier said than done, especially when you have a big event coming up and you haven't been doing so well in the previous months.
4Girls, such great points and thoughts. I've lost and kept off about ten pounds for the last year purely through re-thinking "dieting". Yuck-- I can't even stand thinking about how moody I was on "diet fads". When you change your lifestyle around, workout consistently (great point, sweet potato!), and yet allow yourself sweets every now and then... that really is when you feel the healthiest, happiest, and look the best. Yo-yo dieting can end up very unhealthy... and sticking to a good, healthy lifestyle makes you feel good about yourself. At least for me, it has felt good to have discipline and have a healthy view of my life and my body.
5I began to seriously consider to stick to some work-out and diet routine about a month ago but then came exams time and I had to concentrate on them. Now I can really reorganize my life and begin healthy habits. Today: 30 min of bike. I hope it pays off!
6I agree....diets make me so moody too. Eventually, you just snap and go crazy! This is the first time I have ever been able to keep off 15 pounds for over 9 months now...yes, I have slip ups...treats...but that is normal and all part of a healthy lifestyle. I may gain a couple pounds one week, and then lose it the next. The body has a great way of balancing itself out when you treat it healthy. =)
7
I am feeling a little (a lot) chunky--- bad week 
8I think we all have our good days and bad days, but it's what we do most of the time that is the most important. It's all about making a lifestyle and creating a healthy balance between food and exercise.
9I absolutely agree, patience is key when it comes to weight loss. Any time I've tried to lose weight quickly, I always gain back what I lost plus a couple more pounds.
10I agree last summer I lost a lot of weigh for my sister's wedding and then I gained even more
11I have given up the word "diet" and am now using "life changes" instead. After years of fighting the battle of the bulge, I can no longer tolerate the word diet. I agree that weight loss has to be slow and steady with a real change in how you eat and view food. I have adapted a new way of thinking about food. Food is my friend, but too much of a good thing has been my downfall. Now I pay more attention!
12But it is an ongoing process, always.
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