You know that weight loss trick where you put a magazine cutout of your ideal body on the refrigerator to stop yourself from eating? While that taunting picture of “perfection” may work for a select few (we’ve never met them), for the majority of us, it does little more than add to our shame of being less than perfect.
At Medarts Weight Loss Specialists in San Diego, we applaud the idea of working toward an ideal weight goal, but not at the expense of your optimism and motivation. Many of our clients find that focusing on the various ways that weight loss affects your body increases their confidence rather than thwarting it.
The Benefits of Losing Weight
Need a boost in your motivation? Take a look below at the following 9 ways that losing weight will affect your body, your health, and your wellbeing.
1. Better Sleep
Studies have shown that weight loss in obese adults results in improved sleep quality. Shedding excess weight can also help reduce snoring and symptoms of sleep apnea, so you’ll sleep better and longer and wake up feeling more refreshed.
2. Better Sex
Losing weight balances your hormones and increases both your sex drive and your stamina. It also provides more body confidence, which can significantly impact your experience in the bedroom.
3. Fight Depression
The accomplishment of shedding extra pounds can have the added benefit of decreasing your stress level. Together, healthy eating, balanced hormones, and the endorphins released from exercise all make for a much happier you.
4. Improved Memory
Obesity has long been known to increase the risk of memory loss, and some studies have found that losing weight can actually reverse obesity-associated memory impairment. Even with the increased memory, researchers noticed that brain activity decreased, leading them to believe that weight loss also helps improve the efficiency of functioning in some regions of the brain.
5. More Money in the Bank
For many people, learning to eat healthy starts at home. It’s easier to know what’s in your food when you make it yourself. That usually means buying groceries rather than ordering in or eating out. When you add up all the money not spent on tips, drinks, and delivery charges, we’re talking big bucks.
6. Strengthen your Immune System
Those who have lost a significant amount of weight understand that doing so is about more than just eating better. It’s about making significant changes in your lifestyle. Those changes (more sleep, healthier food, regular exercise) give your immune system a boost. So, yeah, losing weight could mean using your sick days for something more fun than staying home in bed.
7. Fewer Junk Food Cravings
When you first make lifestyle changes, it can be difficult not to fall back on old habits. But if you can stick with it, you’ll end up replacing them with new habits, making the old ones much less tempting and dangerous. The same is true for food. Once your body becomes accustomed to healthy snacks, you’ll find you rarely long for the unhealthy ones.
8. Better Overall Health & Wellness
Losing 5 to 10 percent of body weight can decrease your bad cholesterol, lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of diabetes, and decrease both inflammation and your risk of heart attacks and stroke.
9. More Confidence & Sex Appeal
Losing even just a few pounds can help you feel better about yourself. And when you feel better about yourself, others see it, too. The confidence boost that comes from successful weight loss boosts your attractiveness as well.
shed those extra pounds With Medical Weight Loss
At Medarts Weight Loss Specialists, we understand how difficult it can be to lose weight. But we also know how incredibly wonderful it feels to do so, especially if you’ve been struggling with it for a long time. If that picture on your refrigerator isn’t helping you shed those extra pounds, come see us. We offer fully customized weight management programs, including appetite suppressants, to help people just like you accomplish your weight loss goals. For more information on our services and programs, give us a call at (619) 866-3333 or stop by our clinic in San Diego today.