Slow is fast, and fast is slow. Doesn’t make a lot of sense the first time you read it. But context is important.
When it comes to fat loss and MAINTAINING that fat loss, there is an important element that a lot of people forget about and that is consistency. And the reason this gets forgotten about is the urgency we have around losing body fat, especially when we reach a point where enough is enough. While it is important to have that moment that kicks us into gear to start making improvements to our health, we need to think about how to go about this in a way that is sustainable. Because if we take an extreme approach and lose the weight very quickly, we run the risk of putting all the weight back on (and potentially more) when we can no longer stick with that extreme approach. Some examples would be:
- Cutting out half a day’s food
- Cutting out whole food groups/macros e.g.: carbs
- Going from 0-100 in exercise
- Completely overhauling our diet
While these approaches will definitely bring big changes in the short term, most of the time they are hard to follow in the long term, and so the weight piles back on. Hence the term “Yo-Yo dieting”. So, what do we do instead?
We need to slow down. We need to find an approach that still brings steady (not large or quick) progress. There are several reasons for this:
1. Sustainability- If you can’t see yourself sticking with your approach for more than a few weeks or months at a time, it’s not the best one for you.
2. Maintain muscle- extreme diets initially can force a loss in water, hence the big drops in weight, but can also, in the long term, result in a loss of muscle which is a disaster for a healthy metabolism.
3. Room to move- If you make too many changes too soon or go to extremes, there is less you can do in the future when you experience a plateau in results.
A slower/steady approach could be changes like reducing alcohol consumption instead of food. Having one less snack in the day. Swapping the takeaway at lunch for a packed meal. The changes don’t need to be dramatic; they need to be smarter and healthier. And yes, the results will come slower BUT, you will find it easier to maintain those changes and therefore your results. After all, you don’t want to struggle through a diet you can’t stick to, and then have to try and lose the weight all over again one year later. You want to lose the weight and never have to lose it again.
And that is why at Vision Personal Training, we keep in mind that “Fast is slow, and Slow is fast”.
