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When it comes to weight loss, many people are trapped thinking exclusively about the short term. They want to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, and they’re willing to make extreme choices to do it. Unfortunately, this approach doesn’t always work and often sets you up for long-term failure.
Why is this the case and what can you do about it?
The importance of strategy
No matter what, you need to have some kind of strategy in place. Trying to lose weight on impulse or instinctively is probably going to end badly for you. Although the essential elements of nutrition are comfortably accessible for most people, the complexities of nutrition are much harder to parse. That’s one reason so many people seek the support of nutritional advisors and similar experts, who can help you put together the right strategy for your needs.
Increasingly, for some individuals, this also includes medically supervised interventions like weight loss medication (for example, semaglutide or tirzepatide).
According to Dr. Michael Snyder of FuturHealth, “When prescribed by a healthcare professional and combined with lifestyle changes, these medications can be an effective component of a long-term strategy — not a quick fix.”
However, without a thoughtful plan in place, even medication won’t produce lasting results. So what kind of strategy do you need to be successful when it comes to weight loss?
Why short-term weight loss strategies are ineffective
Often short-term weight-loss strategies are ineffective or at least inefficient. If your only goal is to lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, you’ll likely end up falling short of your goal, then regaining all your lost weight back.
There are several reasons for this:
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Lack of sustainability. For starters, many short-term weight loss strategies are simply unsustainable. It’s true that if you only eat 500 calories a day, you’ll lose weight rapidly, but you won’t be able to sustain this for the rest of your life without serious risk of malnutrition and other ailments. Even relatively modest diets are somewhat unsustainable if they prevent you from eating the foods you genuinely like or impose harsh conditions that chip away at your willpower.
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Lack of focus. Diets with a short time horizon also suffer from lack of focus. Instead of zeroing in on the most important lifestyle changes for long-term wellness, these strategies often employ a random scattershot of tactics, and may be associated with a total lack of specific, objective goals. This can make it hard to stay motivated and even harder to know when you’ve reached your target.
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Susceptibility to fad diets. Although not always the case, many short-term weight loss strategies are hinged upon fad diets. These exciting, relatively new diets are all the rage, but they usually depend on a central gimmick that may or may not be effective in promoting weight loss in the long term. If the diet hasn’t been thoroughly and repeatedly tested, it’s hard to tell if it’s going to work long term.
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Possibilities of reversion. There is always a chance of reverting back to your former weight, regardless of what types of strategies you employ. However, short-term strategies are typically much more likely to lead to this type of reversion.
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Limited scope of thinking and planning. Thinking only in the short term limits your scope for planning. As with most things in life, you’ll likely be more successful if you think and plan more broadly.
What a long-term weight-loss strategy looks like
So why are long-term weight-loss strategies better?
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Individual wants and needs. First, planning a long-term strategy allows you to account for your own individual wants, needs and limitations. You know what you want, you know how you want to live and you know your own strengths and weaknesses. Planning for the long term gives you more opportunities to accommodate yourself — and find a system that genuinely works for you.
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Sustainability. Inherently, long-term strategies are more sustainable. They require you to find tactics and approaches that you can feasibly follow for a long time. Accordingly, people with long-term visions in place tend to keep their weight off more reliably than their counterparts.
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Support. When planning a long-term strategy, you can incorporate more forms of support. You’ll have more time and flexibility to get help, including coaching, partnership and motivation.
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A focus on lifestyle. Changing your lifestyle is the only meaningful and consistent way to lose weight healthily. Long-term strategies almost always focus on sustainable lifestyle changes, while short-term strategies often focus on unreliable gimmicks.
Ultimately, long-term weight loss strategies are much more successful and appropriate than their short-term counterparts. If you’re interested in losing weight or pursuing any other health or fitness goal, you should prioritize strategies designed to work in the long term, with as much proactive planning as possible.