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Where to start losing weight: developing an action plan

Why is losing several tens of kilograms considered almost a feat? People who have achieved significant weight loss and changed beyond recognition become heroes of television shows and social networks. This happens because, according to statistics, 85% of the female population and 55% of the male population have set such a goal at least once in their lives, but 25% and 10%, respectively, reach the final stage. Fighting the food instinct inherent in nature itself is a real challenge. The outcome of the battle largely depends on what served as the starting point.

To bring the matter to the end, you need to know where to start losing weight and how to make a plan correctly - not only nutrition and training, but also make adjustments to your usual lifestyle. Making such a decision must come with an awareness of the complexity of the approach to weight loss. From now on, every step should bring you closer to the goal, and they need to be carefully thought out at the start.

The simplest and most correct solution

If you want to lose weight, you need to limit your diet

If you want to start losing weight correctly, achieve the desired result and not harm your health, you need:

  1. Save about $200.
  2. Find a nutritionist in your city and make an appointment with him.
  3. Go to an appointment.
  4. Follow all his recommendations.
  5. Visit him regularly to adjust the plan he initially drew up.
  6. Find a professional fitness trainer who specializes in weight loss and arrange a meeting with him.
  7. Consult with him, order an individual training plan, taking into account the recommendations given by the nutritionist.
  8. Follow all his recommendations.

You will need money to pay for personalized nutrition plans and workouts. The amount is approximate and may vary in different cities and among different specialists. On average, each such development costs about $100. Only a nutritionist and trainer will help you start losing weight correctly and will guide you until you achieve the desired result.

Appointment with a nutritionist

First, you will receive a detailed survey aimed at collecting anamnesis. Get ready to answer a lot of questions:

  • whether there are chronic diseases;
  • what you eat, how many times a day (in the smallest details, down to seeds and a bottle of mineral water);
  • how quickly you gained weight;
  • what diseases have you suffered over the past 2 years;
  • Do you have bad habits;
  • what is the nature of your work (sedentary or you have to constantly move - on foot or by car);
  • what kind of life do you lead after work?
  • Do your parents have a problem with excess weight, etc.

After collecting data, tests and instrumental studies are prescribed:

  • general blood and urine tests;
  • blood sugar test;
  • blood chemistry;
  • blood test for thyroid hormones;
  • tomography;
  • Ultrasound of the abdominal cavity;
  • gastroscopy / other endoscopic examinations of the gastrointestinal tract.

Based on all the collected data, an individual nutrition plan will be drawn up, which you will have to strictly follow. You also need to follow all the related advice the nutritionist gives you (walk in the evenings, go to the upper floors without an elevator, do exercises, etc. ).

Trainer consultation

After the nutritionist with all his recommendations and nutrition plan, you go to the trainer. He should tailor a weight loss program in the gym to suit them. It is important to grasp the following point here: as soon as the instructor begins to criticize the actions of the nutritionist, turn around, leave and look for another specialist. Doctors have the appropriate education and know what they advise, but in the fitness industry there are too many amateurs who can ruin everything.

If you need to lose a lot of weight (more than 100 kg), the plan can last from six months to 2 years. If you need to lose 10-20 kg, usually 6 months is enough.

So it’s extremely easy to start losing weight properly. This method is good because you don’t need to independently calculate BMI, daily calorie intake, BJU ratios, etc. Errors are excluded here, health risks are minimal, and the end result is guaranteed. The disadvantages are the high cost of developing individual nutrition and training plans, as well as the duration of the course - from 3 months to 2 years.

Independent weight loss

If you plan to organize the weight loss process yourself, at home, you will have to devote a lot of time to preparation. Regardless of gender, age and weight, it is recommended to start with the following steps.

General points

The first is motivation: clearly formulate your goal and determine why you need to lose weight. You can make a selection of photos of when you were slim and what you are now. You can hang your favorite dress in a prominent place, which you must "fit into. "Read relevant literature, watch films. There are a huge number of ways to motivate yourself, and they should work throughout the months that you will be working on your body.

The second is a medical examination. You can't go anywhere without him. What it will give you:

  • some diseases cause excess weight, and you cannot get rid of the latter without treating the former;
  • all diets and certain types of exercise have contraindications - with the examination data, you will be sure that this or that nutrition system or exercise will not harm your health.

Keep a weight loss diary: you will write down all your mistakes and achievements, changes in weight and volume.

Find like-minded people: join groups on social networks where people share their successes, give advice, and support each other. Please contact them with any problems.

Prepare your family for the fact that you will lose weight. Ask them for help. Sometimes, if you don’t have the courage to not eat before bed, let your husband distract you from this temptation and prevent you from relapse. Effective, but must be thought out at the very beginning of the journey.

Required purchases:

  • scales;
  • kitchen scales;
  • dumbbells.

Think about what caused the excess weight: poor diet, overeating, sedentary lifestyle, age or some disease. Understand: without eliminating the provoking factor, you cannot lose weight.

Nutrition

Immediately prepare yourself for the fact that the first steps towards losing weight can take up to 1 month. Of course, the preparation stage can be shortened to 3-5 days, but in 90% of cases such a start leads to an inevitable failure. So be prepared to spend time on this.

Preparing for weight loss includes weighing yourself and cutting daily calories.

Start by calculating your BMI. Determine how many extra pounds you have. Write down three numbers: your ideal weight (the ultimate goal of losing weight) - your actual weight at the moment - the number of kg you need to lose. Then proceed according to the following plan.

First week

  1. Write down everything you eat during the day and in what quantity.
  2. In the evening, count the number of calories you consume.
  3. On Sunday, determine the average daily caloric content of your diet.
  4. Using a special formula, calculate how much calories are needed for effective weight loss. Usually for men it ranges from 1500-2000 kcal, for women - 1200-1500 kcal.
  5. Calculate the difference between what you consume now and what you get according to the formula.
  6. Think about which foods or dishes to reduce your daily caloric intake (food calorie tables will help with this).

Second week

This preparatory stage is already the beginning of weight loss, because with proper nutrition, you can lose 1-2 kg. You need to give up fast food, fried foods, alcoholic and carbonated drinks, and limit your consumption of sweet and salty foods.

Third week

  1. Start it with a fasting day.
  2. Study the issue of complex and simple carbohydrates. Leave only the first ones in the diet.
  3. Create a menu for the week, reducing your daily caloric intake by 100 kcal. Stick to it.
  4. Drink at least 1 liter of water per day.

Fourth week

  1. Start with a fasting day.
  2. Remove another 100 kcal from your diet.
  3. Increase the amount of water you drink per day to 1. 5 liters.
  4. Avoid fatty foods: meat, fish, milk (more than 2%).

Remember - this is not the weight loss itself, although you will probably already lose a few kilograms, but only the preparation for it. It minimizes the stress your body will experience over the coming weeks or months.

In the last, fourth week of preparation, start choosing a diet. We immediately reject express options for 3 days and a week, which promise a loss of 1 kg in 1 day. Firstly, it is harmful to health. Secondly, the weight will return with interest after the end of the hunger strike.

If you want to lose weight correctly, choose long-term nutrition systems for weight loss, designed for 1-3 months. Mostly these are author's developments: Montignac, Atkins, Dukan, Liepaja. Carefully study everything connected with them, prepare a menu for the first week, look for recipes for dishes, and calculate the calorie content.

That's it: in terms of nutrition, you are ready to lose weight.

Sport

If you want your weight loss to be truly effective, just organizing your meals won’t be enough. The calories you consume also need to be expended. To do this, you will have to increase physical activity and physical activity. But if tomorrow you start training for several hours in the gym, your body will rebel out of habit: the next day you will not be able to get up due to muscle pain. And all because this also requires preparation. Fortunately, there is something to do in those 4 weeks while you conjure up your new diet.

Thanks to sports, you can lose extra pounds and gain a slim body

The training program recommended below is called "From Scratch". It is designed for those who have never exercised, but understand that they will have to do it to lose weight.

First week

  1. Avoid the elevator: 5-6 floors must be walked daily.
  2. When working sedentarily, get up for 5 minutes every hour and warm up: walk, stretch.
  3. Walk for at least half an hour in the evenings.

Second week

  1. Find an easy set of exercises for morning exercises for 10 minutes. It should invigorate and improve your mood, and not exhaust. Do it daily.
  2. Learn several breathing exercises (qigong, bodyflex, oxysize), try to master one of them.
  3. Increase the time of your evening walk to 40 minutes.

Third week

  1. Include 2-3 new, more complex exercises in your morning exercises.
  2. Continue to improve proper breathing.
  3. Walk for 50 minutes in the evening.

Fourth week

  1. Morning exercises should take 15 minutes.
  2. After it, walk (Finnish, sports) for half an hour at a fast pace.
  3. Evening walks are extended by an hour.
  4. Make a training plan.

If you start losing weight by implementing such a plan, your body will be thoroughly prepared for new physical activity. Correction of the figure will occur much more intensively and with minimal losses. Of course, the muscles will hurt at first, but not so much.

When creating a training plan, remember that the benefits of intervals are much greater. And don’t exhaust yourself every day: muscle fibers need to be given time to recover, so every other day is the most convenient schedule.

Consider the question of where the classes will take place. A gym membership is a financial blow, but it's worth it. Professional simulators will be at your disposal, and you can always ask the trainer for advice. Or group fitness classes - it’s captivating and doesn’t let you break down.

Buy some nice sportswear - this is also a kind of motivation. And when purchasing it, think that in 2-3 months you will replace it with things 1-2 sizes smaller.

Recommendations for special cases

The right start to losing weight is 50% of the success of your plan. However, the above plans must be adjusted taking into account the individual characteristics of each person. Therefore, a few tips for special categories of the population will help organize the entire process more correctly.

Women over 35 years old

At this age, the body gradually begins to age and adjust to menopause. Metabolism slows down, few people are ready to engage in sports. So even the owners of the slenderest figures begin to blur. The tummy grows, the bottom expands, the breasts increase in volume and sag a little.

In addition to the above proposed nutrition and training programs, there is a special step-by-step system for women after 35-40 years of age who do not want to put up with excess weight.

  1. If you can skip visiting a doctor before the age of 35, then at this age it is mandatory before losing weight. Perhaps he will suggest the most suitable weight loss methods for you.
  2. Start taking special vitamins.
  3. High-protein, low-fat and low-carb diets are not for you. Choose the most balanced nutrition system with a daily intake of at least 1500 kcal.
  4. There is no need for strength exercises at this age, but you can’t completely exclude them from your training plan. When compiling it, focus on cardio exercises, but don’t forget about dumbbells.
  5. Replace morning jogging with sports or Finnish walking.
  6. Dancing is, of course, good. But, when planning to lose weight at this age, still opt for swimming.

And the most important advice to an older woman who is starting to lose weight: get examined by a doctor every 3 months. Any changes in the body during the premenopausal period are important.

Men with beer bellies

Deciding to lose weight for a man with a belly is a real feat. Diets are a common thing for women, but they are not ready for food restrictions. What is it like to refuse a can of beer in the evenings with salted fish, not to sit in the bathhouse with friends on the weekend?

A man with a beer belly can set a goal and lose weight

Nevertheless, the process will have to start with this:

  1. There is no need to look for a diet - just remove alcoholic and carbonated drinks, fast foods and snacks from your diet.
  2. Daily calorie intake should be reduced to 2000 kcal. Usually men don’t like to sit with these formulas and tables, so it’s better to ask your wife, sister, or mother for help.
  3. Give preference to protein foods with low fat content.
  4. Be sure to include morning jogging in your training plan.
  5. Choose abdominal exercises.
  6. Alternate strength and cardio exercises.

For a man who has set a goal to lose weight, the main thing is to start. They get involved in the process itself much faster, without allowing themselves any indulgences, as women like to do. Don't put your plans on hold. If the four-week preparation outlined above is too long a journey for you, start right away tomorrow so as not to drag it out for months, during which your beer belly will only increase.

Age after 50

The most dangerous and difficult thing for both men and women is losing weight after 50-60 years, when the body is worn out and its organs are no longer working at full capacity. It is age that often becomes the main reason for impaired metabolism, which is why you gain extra pounds.

Here you should definitely start with a visit to the doctor - it is categorically not recommended to develop plans on your own. After all, any restriction in eating fats or carbohydrates can worsen your health. An extra 10 minutes of sports results in shortness of breath and tachycardia. An incorrectly performed exercise can result in joint pain or even injury.

So, making a decision to lose weight after 50 must necessarily be agreed with specialists, without initiatives or dubious experiments.

How much weight do you need to lose?

If you need to lose 10 kg, it is enough to adhere to the four-week training program that was outlined in detail above. With it you can lose 3-4 kg per month. After implementing it, you don’t even have to go on a diet - just continue to follow the nutritional recommendations for the 4th week and go for 40-minute workouts every other day. The main thing is to start correctly, and then the need for hunger strikes will disappear by itself.

It’s another matter if you initially have a very large weight (more than 100 kg). Here the preparation stage also plays an important role. If you immediately start with express weight loss minus 10 kg per week, in the end, even if you manage to lose kilograms, it will affect your health, and the skin will hang in folds because it does not have time to shrink. What is important for you is a smooth, gradual introduction to any diet and slow weight loss (1-2 kg per week). But then you will save on plastic surgery.

The beginning of any business is 50% of its successful completion. Losing weight is no exception. If you are motivated to go all the way, don't dive into it head first: the dive should be slow and gradual. This is the only way to achieve results.