One of the biggest pitfalls amongst dieters is something not often though of…greed!

Nope, it’s not just reserved for money-hungry misers. Greed makes its way into our well-intentioned efforts to lose weight and get healthy too.

We’re constantly bombarded with the amazing transformation stories on all forms of media. It gives us the false impression of what to expect.

The dramatic changes seen in short period of time are dramatacized and make it seem like that’s the norm for everyone. Just go balls out and you’ll get there…right?

So you set off on your own transformation journey. You’re determined to have a jaw-dropping transformation just like you’ve seen on Instagram. You’re even going to document it with pictures, numbers, and blog posts to share on social media.  Maybe you’ll become the next insta-famous celebrity!

You start on Monday morning (cuz there’s no other proper time to begin a diet), enthusiasm is high and you’re more motivated than ever.  You jump right into a (insert highly restrictive fad diet here) diet because everyone’s talking about it.

It’s a big change and very difficult to stick to, but you’re bound and determined!

You lose 5 pounds the first week, which is less than you expected, but you’re still motivated and know that you’ll pick up speed as you go. 

To help speed things along you lower your calories and do more exercise.

At the end of week two, you’ve lost 5 additional pounds, but are baffled that it didn’t move faster.

You did more exercise, ate less, and even started taking a “fat burner”. 

You shrug it off. “Time to push even harder!!”

Week 3 is more of the same, but harder and longer workouts and even less food.  At the end of the week you step on the scale and you’ve lost…2lbs. 

“WTF?!!”

Doubt is creeping in now, and you’re feeling a little discouraged. 

“Time to go ALL OUT!”

Even more exercise, even less food…

By the end of week 4, you’re feeling pretty burnt out and hate your food, but you’ve been kicking butt with everything.  

Scale time comes and you’ve lost…0 lbs. 

You know the reaction here…you lose it, throw your hands up in the air and give up.

So what went wrong?

Greed. 

There are certainly times in your weight loss journey where you need to step up your efforts, but we often jump the gun on doing so.

Throwing your body into a severe caloric deficit (burning more than you’re consuming), will result in your bodies survival mechanisms to kick into high gear. 

It believes you’re being starved…cuz you kind of are, just voluntarily.

Since you’re taking in such a low amount of energy (food) your body searches for other means, such as stored fat (good) and muscle and lean tissue (very bad). 

With muscle loss you experience a slowed metabolism, which slows weight loss. 

Slow and steady DOES win the fat loss race.  

Make gradual changes, let your body adapt, then make a few more progressive moderate changes. 

This will result in sustained fat loss and you will avoid the dreaded plateau almost all of us encounter at some point in our journey.

If you need help figuring out just how to structure such a thing then just hit “reply” and ask me anything you want. I read all emails. 

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