Healthy Weight and Weight Loss

Many people struggle with challenges related to maintaining a healthy weight.  For the majority, the challenge is to lose weight, but for some others, the challenge may be to gain weight (particularly during illness).

Weight is a challenge for many as studies show that there is a physical component (how much one eats, what the target is, whether to consider weight or the body mass index (BDI), diagnosed illnesses like anorexia or bullemia or thyroid malfunctions), an emotional or pyschological component (body image, self esteem challenges), a learned component (family habits, background, cultural components), lifestyle components (how much exercise one gets, whether one has a sedentary or physical occupation, the amount of tv one watches) and much much more.  There is not one easy answer, although there are some generally accepted steps that are relatively straightforward to learn (but possibly not as easy to do!) that can assist with maintaining a healthy weight.

Adding to the challenge, the weight loss industry is highly competitive, and demand for this industry’s services is not decreasing. There are a huge number of people out there, from both sexes, who are searching for the perfect weight loss program & there are almost as many different programs as there are people looking for them.  When you do go searching for for a program, there is a mind boggling array to choose from. If you watch television, read magazines or search the internet, losing weight looks like the easiest thing in the world to do.

There are many avenues that you can explore to assist you with losing weight from:

• Formal programs like weight watchers
• A variety of specialized diets
• Online dietary support programs
• Medically supervised programs
• Dietary and lifestyle modifications
• Surgery like gastric banding
• Herbal supplements
• Support groups
• Visualization / Hypnosis programs
• Counselling and therapy related to how one sees one's body
• and many more...

Do you want to attend a weekly class, have a counselor set your target weight initially, and monitor it weekly, with a prize given for the greatest weekly weight loss. The classes include motivational tales from the counselors. Or would you prefer to follow an e-diet plan utilizing your own support system. There are medically supervised programs, where you are monitored up to three times weekly, to the extreme of surgical intervention for weight loss using gastric banding. Would you like to follow the path of Traditional Chinese Medicine, or take herbal supplements, or over the counter weight loss pills? Would you like meal replacement shakes or gourmet diet meals delivered to your door?

The choices seem to be endless and there is not one perfect ‘one size’ fits all solution to weight loss as we are all individuals with differing metabolisms & what works for one may not work for another. You can find articles here which may help to direct your choice or help you explore some of the variety of complementary and alternative treatments that relate to maintaining a healthy weight.