Many people face the challenge of having a higher starting weight, making conventional weight loss methods potentially unsuitable for them. So, how can these individuals lose weight effectively? Here are some recommendations.
Understanding the Challenge
For people with higher body weight, weight loss is indeed a challenging task. First, you need to clearly understand the causes of your obesity. Obesity doesn’t develop overnight; it usually results from unhealthy lifestyle habits. Therefore, your mindset towards weight loss should shift from simply pursuing weight reduction to improving your lifestyle and seeking healthier habits. This approach leads to more sustainable results.
However, changing long-established lifestyle habits isn’t easy, especially deeply ingrained bad habits.
1. Improving Diet
For overweight individuals, diet is often the primary issue. Overeating or remaining inactive after meals is one of the main causes of obesity. Compared to exercise, changing dietary habits is usually easier, so it’s recommended to start with diet modifications.
Key Principles for Dietary Changes
When losing weight, overweight individuals should follow these principles:
- Don’t overcomplicate the process.
- Choose foods you enjoy.
- Select healthy, low-calorie options. For example:
- Choose chicken breast instead of chicken legs
- Opt for fish instead of pork
During the process of optimizing eating habits, it’s beneficial to learn about body energy systems and nutrition. Only after accumulating some knowledge in this area can you make the best food choices for yourself. If possible, learn some basic cooking skills – at least learn to make salads. Eventually, you’ll find yourself preparing meals that are both healthy and suited to your taste preferences.
2. Finding Suitable Exercise Methods
For overweight individuals, exercise can be challenging, and not all forms of exercise are suitable. For instance, running might not be appropriate for people with higher body weight. The key is to choose activities you enjoy, as this makes it easier to maintain the habit. Taking myself as an example, despite previously performing poorly in sports, I began trying running as I got older. Although I still don’t particularly enjoy it, running 5 kilometers daily is now manageable.
Swimming: An Ideal Exercise Option
Swimming is highly recommended for overweight individuals. In water, the body bears only 10% of its actual weight, reduci