You might want weight loss to happen instantaneously, but that isn’t the way weight loss works. Learn how your body’s natural resistance to change plays into how long it will take you to start losing weight. It is this paired with good weight loss habits that will determine your success.
Small changes will have everything to do with your overall success.
If you are ready to lose weight, you likely want the results to be instantaneous. However, reality might set in soon after that initial thought, and you start wondering how long it will actually take to lose weight. The answer isn’t tomorrow, or even the next day. Healthy weight loss takes time.
The amount of time it will take before you start losing real weight will be determined by a couple of things. First, your readiness to commit to making many small changes will have everything to do with your overall success. Second, your body’s natural resistance to change will play a major role in how quickly you will start dropping pounds.
Let’s start with the changes you need to make in order to lose weight. Weight loss isn’t a wish, it’s the end result of a solid plan that you think through and enact every single day. Therefore, you have to make changes that are reasonable and that you can stick with consistently. Suddenly cutting out all junk food or carbohydrates is a recipe for failure. You might be able to stick to that for a week, but it’s unlikely to last for a year or more. Instead, make small changes, such as drinking more water throughout the day or not eating after 7 p.m. These are habits that will take a bit of effort to form, but you will readily adapt to them and stick with them for years, or maybe the rest of your life.
Weight loss habits come down to diet and exercise. If you can work your way up to exercising daily for 30 minutes or more and reduce the amount of ultra-processed foods you consume, you will be well on your way to losing weight. However, that isn’t the end of the story.
You may be thinking that as soon as you incorporate all of these healthy changes into your life, you will automatically start losing weight. For a small number of people, that’s true. However, for the vast majority, it will take a period of time before your body recognizes what it is supposed to do: lose weight. That amount of time (how long it will take to lose weight) varies from person to person. This is your body’s natural resistance to change.
Although this resistance may seem frustrating, consider it from nature’s point of view. A body that can function well and not drop all of its energy storage (a.k.a. fat) the second calories become limited and exercise ramps up is a positive thing. It means your chances of survival are higher. Some people’s bodies are more resistant to change, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s just something to know when it comes to understanding how long it might take before you begin losing weight.
This plays into expectations and attitude. If you want to lose weight, you will have to commit to making healthy changes even though you won’t see weight loss results right away. Likely, it will be a few weeks before your body really responds to these changes and you see the numbers start to drop on the scale.
That means the first few weeks in the weight loss process are the most difficult. Mentally, you may be frustrated because you don’t see results even though you are making changes. Physically, you may be pushed out of your comfort zone. If you can make it through these first few weeks, you will lose weight. Your body will eventually get the picture that it should burn your fat stores.
