Many who want to remove excess body fat and reduce overall body weight will choose a product, service, program or process to achieve the objective.

I assure you, Its not enough to say “Body Fat Be Gone.” Hoping some magic potion or pill will be the answer to an overweight or obese condition. There are mental, physical and environmental realities that must be considered when choosing a weight loss program that will work for you.

Although I do not personally use weight loss supplements, I’ve know many who have decided to give them a try. if you are going to use a weight loss product, I believe the two I’ve posted within this article may be worth consideration. However, sustainable weight loss is highly dependent on healthy lifestyle change habits… which include balanced diet and daily exercise activities.

There are many possible reasons for an overweight condition. However, it has a lot to do with lifestyle choices and a combination of other things out of our control, i.e., genetic and environmental and ill-health factors. In this article, our focus will be on lifestyle choice.

Targeting unhealthy habits and behavior that cause one to become overweight and obese is not an easy task. And when you do target the culprit – it is a challenge to change – because change is hard. Bad habits and behaviors and mental health disorders [obsession, anxiety and depression] often lead to excess weight gain. But can be managed or reversed when you know how. First you must target the weight gain nemisis. Once you do this, it is much easier to build a lifestyle change program to help you lose the weight and keep it off.

When I speak of weight loss program(s), I am not just talking about diet. I am also talking about daily exercise and recreational activities and interests that keep you motivated to stay the fit healthy lifestyle change course.

Exercising routinely does not mean you have to spend every day in a gym. Why not mix in walking exercise and consider other hobbies of interest that incorporate low impact aerobic activity… i.e., a recreational hobbies that motivate you to walk more often.

For example, gold metal detecting is an exercise activity that burns more fat calories/day. Any low impact aerobics activities like swimming and walking and biking will burn more body fat weight/hour. This is why recreational hobbies are excellent activities to help with overall fitness levels and keeping excess weight off. Metal detecting, like walking along a rivers bank to fish, or kayaking is motivational enough to increase the will power to repeat that aerobic activity of interest. And you just might strike it rich or hook that trophy fish in the process!

The point is, to be successful in weight loss and sustain healthy body weight, you really need to choose daily and seasonal and annual recreational and body toning exercise activities that incorporate more whole body mobility more often… and slowly decrease an unhealthy food habit. For many, exercising in a gym or at home will not motivate them to stay an exercise routine long term. That is why I emphasis finding a recreational hobby of interest one can get passionate about. Once the mind-body is physically engaged, other exercise interests often ensue.

Too many people now depend on the marketplace for quick weight loss solutions that may/may not include healthy diet and exercise… And many of the manmade products and services also contribute greatly to our national obesity problem. You heard me right, many weight loss products make us fatter in the long run! You ask, how could this be? 

 Shortcuts to weight loss can make you permanently fat!

Too many overweight individuals fall prey to one of hundreds of quick weight loss gimmicks. And to become dependent on unhealthy gimmicks… in time and almost always – breaks the fat burning metabolism. This is because the bad habits and behavior did not change. And deceiving the metabolism to lose weight unnaturally also changes the way the body processes fat to remove or store it and taxes and overworks the system unnaturally. These unnatural chemicals can lead to a premature breakdown in the fat burning metabolism.

The key to keeping off unhealthy body fat weight permanently is learning “How to make healthy lifestyle change and committing to it.” For instance, try using the “How to Make Working Out a Habit” chart below to support long term exercise habits. Ultimately, it is the changing of bad habits into good ones that can be sustained long term, especially activity changes of interest that motivate and challenge the mind-body to stay the course.

How to determine if you are overweight.

If your clothing choice has become a variety of stretch type pants, shirts and/or dresses which cover body fat layers… OR you notice body weight increasing out of control… My recommendation is to purchase a digital bathroom scale that can analyze body fat % and track your weight loss progress while measuring body fat weight. And/or invest in a smart watch with apps that track, analyze and measure your fitness, sleep patterns and vitals progress and fitness level gains.

Just because you gain weight does not necessarily mean it is unhealthy body weight. E.g., when you begin an exercise program, muscle mass will increase as body fat% decreases. The key here… pay attention to the body fat% increase/decrease. Muscle weighs more than body fat weight. You must make this part of your weight loss calculation. The benefits of increased muscle mass weight… it burns more body fat throughout the day. And as you get more toned, your clothes fit and you feel better. As this muscle to fat ratio change occurs, you may not lose weight immediately. Consider using technology to motivate your weight loss and exercise activities programs and monitor fitness results to achieve your ideal body weight.

You Won’t Change Your Habits and Have Decided to Use a Fat Burning Product

As stated earlier, many of you will try all types of weight loss pills and potions to reduce body fat weight. You may chose this revolving path throughout your life… mostly because you do not want to make a change, or want to exercise, or increase daily activity for whatever reason.

If this is the case, you are set on using a product to cut body fat unnaturally… The Hydroxycut product appears to provide decent results with thousands of satisfied bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts… It is a product I’ve considered trying just to see what type of results I could achieve. This is a product I believe would work well for those in good health, not adversly affected by caffiene and already engaged in daily exercise and want to remove, or reduce additional body fat weight.

Then after a 3 month period for example, I’d go off of it for the same period of time and re-evaluate the need to use it again. Why? Because I know through long term repeated use, it would likely harm my fat burning metabolism. Although I can not validate this statement about this particular product, I inherently know from all my studies on man-made products, it is not good to go an unnatural weight loss course for long periods of time. I recommend, if you want to try something, use it short term and do not become dependent on it. Instead, develop natural and sustainable healthy habits known to decrease and remove unhealthy body weight.

If I do decide to try this product, I’ll write an article on it. For now, I’m not considering the use of any weight loss supplements.

RECALL, Almost all weight loss products mention exercise and balanced diet to optimize weight loss results.

Change Unhealthy Food Cravings to Feel Better and Lose Weight Naturally

Be mindful of food cravings that lead to supersizing food portions and ordering extra appetizers and desserts when dining out… When you do reduce food calories in general and if you do have the following symptoms after eating – may reduce or illiminate upset stomach, heartburn and possibly acid reflux. This change may also resolve a feeling of bloat and irritable bowel-like symptoms: constipation or diarrhea and the need to take medications to relieve symptoms. This in no way suggests you stop taking prescriptions prescribed by your doctor. Always consult with a physician before stopping any prescribed medication.

If you have specific types of unhealthy food cravings, try fortifying your diet with healthy food nutrients to lesson these cravings. If you do this, your total calorie intake and body fat uptake will decrease.

It is far better to be honest about your weight gain and associated health risk and do something about it before illness and disease and pain ensues as a result of an overweight condition.

The sooner you make healthy lifestyle change – the sooner you will be free of excess body fat weight and begin living the lifestyle you need, want and deserve now!

Marc Woodard, MBA, BS Exercise Science, ARNG, CPT, RET., is a Fit Healthy Lifestyle Consultant with MirrorAthlete Corp., and Former Tigard City Councilor. A strong proponent of City involvement in providing recreational opportunities for its residents. 2021 Copy right. All rights reserved, Mirror Athlete Inc., “To learn more about MirrorAthlete and free monthly newsletter, visit: www.mirrorathlete.org.