by Michelle Wilkinson

Created on: August 03, 2010

When you put on a few pounds it may be convenient to just ignore the problem and hope that the extra weight disappears all by itself, but the reality is that you have to put some effort into losing weight. You may decide to ignore the fact that you’ve put on a couple of pounds, but there is a danger that you could continue to gain weight if you don’t address the habits that have led you to gain weight in the first place. You don’t want to find yourself a year down the line with more than thirty pounds to lose, as it will be a lot harder for you to tackle your weight.

Well, it may not be harder to lose weight when you’re carrying around quite a lot of extra weight than you used to, as the same action still needs to be taken, but finding the motivation can certainly be more of a challenge. After all, if you only have four pounds to lose and you lose a pound a week you will be back to normal within a month. However, if you lose a pound a week and you have thirty-odd pounds to lose it is going to take you quite a few more months for you to reach your goal.

Thus, it is better to deal with any weight gain more or less straightaway so that you don’t find yourself in the position of having to lose a substantial amount of weight and needing to dig deep to find the motivation to stick with a weight-loss plan. If you’re only a couple of pounds heavier than you used to be it may be as a result of overindulging at Christmas or while on vacation, as your routine gets disrupted, and so you just have to get back to eating your usual diet and getting some more exercise.

Obviously, the longer you ignore you weight the more difficult it will be for you to face up to the changes you need to make. Whether you’ve only recently put on weight or you’ve been overweight your whole life you still need to consume fewer calories than you burn to lose weight. However, if don’t even know what healthy eating and exercise habits are it is going to be more of a challenge for you to change the habits of a lifetime, whereas if you deal with your weight gain immediately the changes you need to make won’t have to be quite so dramatic.

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