Set a Target for Your Weight Loss

Children or adults who become great achievers in life are those who dare to set a target or a goal and then work hard to achieve it. The same happens with weight loss. It works when you set a target and work hard to achieve your goal weight. The big question is what is the goal weight ? And do you believe that you can achieve it.

We have been counselling people with various diet related problems, weight gain and weight loss problems, as well as counselling cricketers, badminton & tennis players and athletics over the last 13 years. We have counselled over 5000 people and a large majority of them have been people who have been counselled for weight reduction.

We have many success stories. Reena(names changed) who has lost 30 kgs and maintained it over the last 9 years in spite of 2 pregnancies during this period. Girish who has lost 35 kgs- aged 24 yrs. Both of them took about a year to lose this weight. Ragini aged 43 years has reduced her weight from 93 kgs to 58 kgs, from 14th Feb 2011 to 16 Feb 2012. She looked like a 60 yr old at 93kgs and now looks like a 25 yr old at 58 kgs. She is determined to lose anther 5-8 kgs as well. Reshma a 26 yr old has reduced 25kgs, 87-62 in 8 months and Rajiv a 49 yr old business man has dropped 10 kgs in 3 months, 98 kg -88kg recently. Jessy 122 kgs has reduced to 110 kgs, 12 kgs down in 3 months and is all motivated to continue till she comes down to 75 kgs. She is aged 43 yrs. Jessy came to me and said that her target was to lose 10% of her starting weight which is 12kgs and then go all the way down. Asha a 14yr old teenager has lost 6 kg in 3 months 90 kgs to 84 kgs. The best news that we want to share with you is that every overweight, obese or fat person can lose weight. Nobody is too fat to lose weight and nobody has to live this life thinking it is impossible. We have seen that any person, from any genetic back ground, any socio-cultural back ground or any age group can lose weight.

So the first step is to believe that it is possible for everybody, at all ages and with any genetic background to lose weight. The next step is to set a target of at least 5 to 10 kgs to start with and also know what the final goal is and work towards it systematically.

How do we decide what is the ideal weight or the goal I should try to achieve. The most important tool is to actually get your height measured in centimeters. Most people are guessing their height. Many Indian women are five feet tall or five feet and one inch, 152 to 155 cm. If asked their height they will confidently say they are 5ft 2 inches or 3 inches tall. Then they will calculate the centimeters by conversion and this will give the wrong values.

So please get your height measured with a measuring tape at home in centimeters or check at your doctors clinic or at a gym. Then the simple rule is that if you are 158 cm tall then minus 100 from this number, the answer is 58. Then deduct 2-5 kgs so your ideal weight would be to become 53-56 kgs.

If you are an adult man of 170 cm tall, then your ideal weight is to become 68-75 kgs. This rule applies to men and women and children from about age 13 upwards.

Now we have set the target weight, the next step is to decide the time frame. In the case of both men and women, boys and girls, we can all lose approximately 3 kgs per month, 3 kgs in 30 days. Due to individual variations, some of us may lose 2 kgs per month, while others may lose 4 kgs. So a minimum of 2 kgs per month up to a maximum of 4kgs is safe.