Do You Really Need To Lose Weight?

Everywhere you look, you see advertisements for products, cookbooks and exercise equipment telling you that you will lose weight by using them. Isn’t it funny how they always assume that you DO need to lose weight?  Not everyone does, you know!

It is your body style that dictates your shape, as well as being overweight. Please don’t confuse having “big bones” as having too much fat on your body. Of course, the models you see on the runway and in magazines starve themselves to weigh as light as possible. Is that what you really want?

I don’t think so. I think what you really want is to be fit and healthy; to feel energetic and ready to take on the world! That doesn’t mean dieting. It only means eating nutritious foods and using healthy meal planning techniques.

Before you go on a weight loss diet, be sure you REALLY need to lose weight. I’m not saying that you could be anorexic, but many people do have a tendency to see themselves as overweight when they are not. That mirror does not always tell the truth if your eyes are “seeing” ten or more extra pounds where there are none.

Diets for weight loss are just that – for losing weight. If you are at, or near, your weight range for your height and body type, you probably need to eat a healthy diet, rather than cutting calories to the bone.

If your doctor says that you need to lose a few, or more, extra pounds, that’s the time to really get yourself on a diet of some kind. All most diets are is a plan giving you nutritious foods in the reasonable quantities designed for your body type. Why starve yourself with a 1200 calorie diet if you only need to lose ten pounds? Ask your doctor for guidelines.