If you weigh over 200lbs, I bet you already tried the following things before you stumbled upon my blog and read this article.
- Counting calories to starve yourself
- Tried some demanding fitness programs
- Chase from one shiny weight loss program to another
At this point, it’s not just the looks that bother you. It’s the sweating, the thighs rubbing together, the loss of breath…It’s your health.
It’s not the question do you want to lose weight or not.
You have to lose weight, for the sake of your own health.
Your weight loss journey is harder if you are over 200 lbs.
Your weight loss approach should not be the same as some 20+ girls trying to lose the last 5 lbs to be perfect on the picture.
It’s much deeper than looks and calories.
Instead of sitting on the couch crying and watch the scale hit another high, or looking through the reddit (where people post before and after photos) and get frustrated, let’s look at how we can alter the direction and get back on track with the weight loss battle if you are over 200lbs.
1. Do you have the right knowledge about how your body works?
If you understand your body and why it is adding on weight, it should
become much easier to figure out what you need to do to lose the weight
and keep it off.
To make it straight forward, a lot of women weight over 200+ lbs gain unwanted weight due to hormones. It rarely has anything to do with calories or exercise.
There are three essential hormones – leptin, cortisol, and insulin.
Leptin is in charge of letting you know when you are too full to eat anymore.
Cortisol is the stress hormone. When you are under stress, it rises to encourage the sugar (glucose) you take in from food into fat.
Insulin is the hormone that manages blood sugar. It transports the glucose to the liver and muscles and stores some as fat in your body.
When these three work together perfectly, you should be in good shape.
But when there is any problem with either one of them, maybe because you eat too much fructose (processed foods and added sugar are the main sources), your leptin level increase too high and it stops sending the “you are full” message to your brain. When your insulin becomes strained, you become insulin resistant, the easiest thing it can do is to store the glucose as fat in your body.
You probably hit all three when you are over 200 lbs.
If you don’t have some chronical disease related to your overweight ( yet), it’s time to get your hormones in check before it’s too late.
You can improve your hormone functionality by eliminating sugary foods, eat more fatty fish, exercise regularly. But the best way to stick with a well-balanced diet.
To make it straight forward, a lot of women weight over 200+ lbs gain unwanted weight due to hormones. It rarely has anything to do with calories or exercise.
There are three essential hormones – leptin, cortisol, and insulin.
Leptin is in charge of letting you know when you are too full to eat anymore.
Cortisol is the stress hormone. When you are under stress, it rises to encourage the sugar (glucose) you take in from food into fat.
Insulin is the hormone that manages blood sugar. It transports the glucose to the liver and muscles and stores some as fat in your body.
When these three work together perfectly, you should be in good shape.
But when there is any problem with either one of them, maybe because you eat too much fructose (processed foods and added sugar are the main sources), your leptin level increase too high and it stops sending the “you are full” message to your brain. When your insulin becomes strained, you become insulin resistant, the easiest thing it can do is to store the glucose as fat in your body.
You probably hit all three when you are over 200 lbs.
If you don’t have some chronical disease related to your overweight ( yet), it’s time to get your hormones in check before it’s too late.
You can improve your hormone functionality by eliminating sugary foods, eat more fatty fish, exercise regularly. But the best way to stick with a well-balanced diet.
2. Do you love vegetables?
Probably not your favorite thing.
When you are 200 lbs plus, and you are asked to keep your calorie intake under 1500, (your normal calorie needs probably is above 2000). you could be constantly hungry, your body turns into the starvation mode. Whenever you get the chance to eat, it will try very hard to store the fat in the body for emergency. That’s how our body works naturally. That will make losing weight really hard.
If you don’t want to be “hungry and grouchy” the whole time, the best way to turn this around is to eat vegetables as much as you can.
Vegetables are nutrient dense, full of fiber, and low on calories.
Even you are convinced you do not like vegetables, give it a try. There are a lot of options.
Trying to be open minded, but don’t force yourself to eat it.
This is the tip you can try – pick out one new veggie a week or a day, cook in different ways. Always eat them raw does sound boring.
If at the end of the week, you still don’t like it, stop eating it. Move onto the next one.
A lot of time, you might find you actually do like a bunch of different veggies. You just don’t like the one type of cooking your mom always did when you were as a kid – boiled to death and soggy with no seasoning.
3. Drink more water.
Our bodies are mostly comprised of water. When our bodies don’t have enough water they can’t work as efficiently and our organs switch gears to help each other out.
You should drink 8-10 cups of water at least. You will need more when you are 200 lb or more.
When you start to drink this much water you quickly find yourself going to the bathroom more. That’s a good thing because it gives your body more opportunities to flush out toxins.
More water also means more oxygen flowing throughout your body. Increased oxygen leads to increased blood flow meaning faster metabolism and more energy for you.
Ever eat a heavy lunch and just crash in the afternoon? Drink more water and you’ll find that afternoon crashes quickly disappear.
Don’t take this wrong. Soda drink is not water, it is condensed sugar. It will make things worse. Drink water infused with fruits and vegetables.
For example, I use Brita Everyday Water Filter pitcher to remove the odor in my tap water, I also like to add some lemon slices and drink it the first thing in the morning after getting up. It’s part of the morning routine. It’s very refreshing, keeps me energized and helps to suppress my appetite until lunchtime.
4. Plan your meal ahead.
Planning your meals ahead can help you restructure your life and make the healthier choice easier.For example, it’s Friday evening after work. You had a hard day and you are hungry, grumpy, and tired. You know you will make the easiest choice available at the moment:
If you have not thought ahead, as though it’s a surprise that you have to feed yourself every day. You might either figure out a healthy meal to make, probably have to swing by the grocery store and pick up ingredients, come home, prep everything and cook.
Or, you could order delivery.
Honestly, if I were you, I probably will order delivery.
Because it’s easier.
But if you have a plan prepared, it is previously decided that dinner is chicken fajitas. There’s chicken thawing in the fridge and the veggies are washed, chopped, and ready to go. There’s no tough decision to make at the moment.
Plus, it’s faster to just make the fajitas. You probably will not order delivery.
I’ve used this strategy a lot to make healthier choices.
I used to eat a ton of chips. When I decided to lose weight, I have to cut back the chips. So I decided to not buy them when I do grocery shopping. When I really wanted them I would have to go to the store and buy a single serving.
That’s a lot of work for like 10 potato chips.
This strategy drastically reduced my chip consumption. Shifting the regular structures of your life in this way could allow you to use your laziness as an advantage. If you make unhealthy choices too much work, you are WAY less likely to choose them.
5. Find your thing for exercise.
Our body is designed to move. Nowadays, most of us have desk jobs which make it really hard to be active if you don’t schedule time out for exercise.
With the weight over 200 pounds, being active becomes more challenging.
That’s why you need to find the thing you love doing it.
I bought a treadmill years back imagining I would be running/walking on it like what you see in the treadmill commercial, but it ended up in my garage full of dust and never turned on after the first few months. From that, I knew I hate running mindlessly on treadmills. Even the personal trainer strongly recommended it, I never felt good about it.
It’s really hard to force yourself to do it if you don’t like it. If you started, you probably won’t continue to do it very long.
But losing weight needs consistency in the long term, especially when you are over 200 lbs.
Trying different things until you find your thing and fall in love with it. You will stick with it.
Not everything you experiment with has to work, but some things you try just might.
I started with walking accidentally. I enjoy it very much. So I start walking 30 minutes every day to 1 hour, 2 hours when the weather permits.
I started practicing yoga 8 years ago and found my love in it.
After trying different types of yoga in various studios with different teachers, learning the yogic energetics, eastern and western philosophy and anatomy training, I finally created the Tone Up in 30 Days Power Yoga and use it for my daily yoga practice at home. It helps me keep in shape and gives me more energy to get through my day.
If you are interested in yoga practice and want to use yoga to help you lose weight, you can check it out HERE.
It can save you the expensive studio membership and commute frustration. You can learn what I’ve learned in the past 8 years in just 30 days!
After trying different types of yoga in various studios with different teachers, learning the yogic energetics, eastern and western philosophy and anatomy training, I finally created the Tone Up in 30 Days Power Yoga and use it for my daily yoga practice at home. It helps me keep in shape and gives me more energy to get through my day.
If you are interested in yoga practice and want to use yoga to help you lose weight, you can check it out HERE.
It can save you the expensive studio membership and commute frustration. You can learn what I’ve learned in the past 8 years in just 30 days!
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