Ok, so…yeah…the title is a bit deceptive but for those of you that are looking for a quick fix, you really need a reality check and hopefully this it.  If you really read the title then you may have realized I didn’t say anything about losing weight being fast!  Can you lose a lot of weight quickly?  Most certainly but the likelihood of you keeping that weight off is inversely proportional to your chances of keeping that weight off in the long run. 

What I mean is the faster you lose the weight, the less likely you are to keep it off.  This statement comes from personal experience and not from a scientific study.  Take a look at my completely made up graph that I dreamed up:

Completely Made Up Graph

There are anomalies.  There are some people that have dropped massive amounts of weight, quickly, and kept it off.  However, for the sake of this article we aren’t going to delve into how they accomplished it. 

If you are wanting, or needing, to lose a lot of weight and keep it off, here are a few pointers that may help you in that journey.

Getting started is the hardest thing to do.  Wasn’t there a song by that title?  Anyway, maybe it could be a little easier if you know a few of the common beginner mistakes and how to avoid them.  Who better to learn from than someone that’s made most of these mistakes himself!

When you are beginning, you will most likely see progress quickly.  Because of this, it may be hard to know if you are creating any bad habits that will hamper further development after the beginner gains have subsided.    This is a serious hurdle for a lot of people.  When you see such great progress when you start and then you level off a bit, it gets difficult.  It is easy to feel as though your efforts are in vain.  Hopefully some of these common pitfalls will make it a little easier to power through it.

1. Trying to do too much

You may be like me when I started.  I hadn’t worked out in ten years.  If that is the case, the best advice I can possibly give you is to start slow.  I had a couple of friends of mine try to do a “bootcamp” the week after they started working out.  I do believe that if they had access to a wheelchair the next day, they would’ve used it.  They hurt so much from the bootcamp, they missed the next three days in the gym.  You didn’t get in the shape you’re in overnight, you won’t look like a Men’s Health cover model overnight either.   

If you talk to anyone that has lost a significant amount of weight, they will most likely point to very specific events in their life that motivated them to make the life change.  Find someone that has lost the weight AND kept it off, and they will most likely point to A specific event.  This isn’t scientific research but this has been my experience in speaking with many, many people that have shed significant poundage.

Looking back on my trek, it took a cosmic 2 x 4 to get my attention.

Don’t get me wrong, I thought I wanted to lose weight and get in shape.  I tried many diets and they all failed miserably.  I tried exercising but it never ’stuck’.  I always had good intentions but never that one thing that kept me going day after day.  Here are some of the motivations I experienced.  Maybe you can associate with one of them.

I’ve been on vacation in Biloxi since last Friday.   In Biloxi, as you probably know, there are plenty of casinos which means plenty of all-you-can-eat buffets.  Not just for dinner but for breakfast and lunch as well!  How do you keep from falling off the wagon with all this temptation?  Here’s the simple answer.

You just do the best you can. 

Here are a few simple ways to stay on track and still have some fun!

They say you never forget your first love.  Mine became a lifelong mistress.  At the height of our love affair, she greeted me every morning…my Silver Tin-Foiled Beauty.  It was a match made in Heaven.  It was also a homemade biscuit at the convenience store on my way to work everyday.   It had freshly cooked real bacon, a heaping helping of scrambled egg, melted cheese all on a grandma-baked buttermilk biscuit and wrapped in a beautiful, flavor-saving tin foil wrap.  On those special mornings, it would be complemented with a deep-fried hash brown packed in a grease-soaked pouch.  I had those “special mornings” at least three times a week…and sometimes on weekends as well.

By now you’re probably wondering what the heck I’m talking about.  What I’m talking about is my days  pre-FFB (before I became a Former Fat Boy…a.k.a. when I was just a Fat Boy) and the indescribable urge to placate my cravings on almost a daily basis without any regard for what I was doing to my body.  Looking back now, I can only guess how many calories one of those bad boys had.  Combined with the hash browns, my estimate would be around 1000  calories.  That was just on my way to work!