# How have you successfully lost a large amount of weight?



## Derek Wilson (Nov 24, 2019)

*My advice would be to stop trying to lose weight. By itself, losing weight is a bad goal. Weight loss is normally symptom of poor health.*


Think of physical activity as a basic hygiene habit. For example, showering daily is considered good, but if someone needs to shower only twice on a given week, it isn't the end of the world, but showering less than once per week starts getting unhealthy and downright gross, and the sooner they get back to showering regularly, the better off they'll be. Likewise, getting physical activity daily is a good habit, but it's okay if it happens only twice for a particular given week, and it gets unhealthy if it doesn't happen on a regular enough basis. Also, like hygiene habits, measure success in terms of the number of times you exercise instead of whether the number on the scale moves or not.


Think of food in terms of getting enough nutrition more than avoiding junk. Apparently, a lot of obese people are actually malnourished and don't get enough fiber and vitamins on a regular basis. Again, treat getting proper nutrition as a basic hygiene habit and measure it in number of times you eat your leafy green fiber and a wide variety of colorful vegetables (hopefully raw or lightly steamed with possibly some herbs and spices without drenching them in salty and fatty dips or dressings). If you feel like eating something, it might indicate that you're missing fiber or vitamins rather than missing sheer calories. The desire to eat might also indicate that you're lacking water or sleep. Getting enough water and enough sleep on a regular basis are healthy habits too.


So, don't try to lose weight. Try to develop healthy habits. Measure success in frequency of good habits rather than negative numbers on the scale. Explore different types of physical activity and different varieties of nutritious food to find something that you can stick with and keep doing on a regular basis. Losing weight without building long-term healthy habits will only make you sick. Tell yourself that you deserve to make time to take care of your body. If you have good habits, then your body will find its healthy weight. That might end up being higher or lower than what indexes recommend, but it doesn't matter. The important part is that you maintain healthy habits.


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