by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: October 20, 2009

People want to lose a lot of weight quickly because they usually only decide to do something about their weight when they have a lot of weight to lose. By the time they reach the stage where they can no longer ignore their size they are often impatient to see results, since they want to know that eating less food and exercising more is actually having an impact on their weight. If there aren't noticeable results quickly the temptation to give up may simply overwhelm their desire to slim down.

However, it is this impatient attitude that may be encouraging individuals to fail in their weight-loss aims, as they tend to choose diets which claim to be able to help them shed huge amounts of weight very quickly. These diets are generally useless at getting people to introduce changes to their life that will help them keep off the weight they lose, though, and so whilst they might lose quite a few pounds at first by choosing to follow such diet plans, the chances are they will soon regain them all.

Those individuals who are extremely obese have obviously spent quite a few years watching their weight increase, and thus they can hardly expect to lose all the excess weight over night, no matter how much they would like to. Everyone would like to be able to simply click their fingers and for a few inches to magically disappear from their waist, but it is never going to happen.

When people watch television programs that document the transformation of formerly morbidly obese individuals into healthy-sized individuals through surgery they can't help but think that this is a possible option for their own weight problem. Surgery should not be entered into lightly, though, and it is generally reserved for those with a body mass index of higher than 30. People can die during surgery or from complications following surgery, but for those whose life is being severely impeded by their weight this is often seen as the only solution.

For those who dislike television shows about surgery there is always 'The Biggest Loser' to help them get their fix of people transforming themselves. There is something rather fascinating about seeing extremely large people shrink down over a few months, but it sets unrealistic expectations in ordinary people. Instead of being satisfied with losing a pound or two a week they want to achieve the kind of weight loss individual 'contestants' manage, and thus they are never satisfied with their progress even though these 'contestants' spend virtually their whole day in the gym. This isn't possible in real life for most people, and nor should it be.

People may want to lose weight quickly, but if they are losing weight to improve their quality of life they ought to consider the damage they could potentially do themselves by cutting out whole food groups from their diet, dangerously restricting their calorie intake and over-exercising. Clearly, losing weight quickly is nowhere near as important as safeguarding individuals' health.

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