Adherence: The most important factor to lose weight. So you can get it

At the time of weight loss we have many resources at our disposal, however, the key is to find that or those that we can use today and sustain over time, because adherence is the most important factor to lose weight and we tell you how you can get it.

What is adherence?

Adherence is defined as the ability to add, make a link or connection, so if we talk about adherence to a diet can describe it as the ability to sustain behaviors or eating patterns over time to incorporate as their own themselves , to achieve a link with them or what would be the same, to transform them into something habitual.

Adherence well, including the ability to extend in time the characteristics of a particular diet characteristics or sustain long term the resources to lose weight.

This is how, if it is dangerous alternatives, which are a real sacrifice or that threaten our social life or cultural patterns, they are certainly options that will not generate adherence when losing weight.

The importance of adherence to the diet

The real success of a treatment to lose weight lies in the possibility of achieving a healthy weight but above all, to maintain that weight healthy over time as indicated by US scientists.

Thus, diets that are “effective” because they allow you to lose a lot of weight in a short time , are not really successful, since they include strict, inflexible and therefore unsustainable resources in time, that is, they do not generate adherence.

After these diets that work to remove many kilos from us in a short time, we usually suffer a metabolic adaptation that is responsible for the rebound effect as has been shown in research published in the Obesity magazine, and therefore, it is impossible to maintain the weight lost which demonstrates the lack of success of the treatment chosen to lose weight.

The fluctuations of weight are not healthy at all, they harm the organism both inside and out and demotivate us little by little while they resent our metabolism and therefore, prepare us for a worse prognosis in the next resource used to return to the desired weight.

So, in adherence lies the success of a treatment to lose weight, because if we are able to lose weight and sustain behavior over time, it will also be very likely that our body can maintain an adequate weight in the long term, minimizing the risk of recover the lost weight.

How to achieve adherence to a diet

If we want to achieve a healthy, comfortable and sustainable weight in time, it is essential to achieve adherence to our diet as well as other habitual behaviors.

The factors that will help you achieve adherence

To achieve a diet that we can preserve in the long term, different factors of both the diet itself and our environment can be of great help :

• The diet restricts calories in moderation , because although the caloric deficit is necessary to lose weight, the reality is that just sustaining a small decrease in calories over time can lose weight and it is advisable to reduce on average 500 Kcal daily. If 1500 Kcal are removed and the person is used to consuming 3000, we should consider that he will have to subtract half of what he was consuming, something very difficult to achieve and probably unsustainable over time.
• The food is varied and quality, which makes the proposal more flexible and of course, protects health, does not generate risks and therefore, it becomes easier to maintain in the long term as confirmed by a recent research published in the journal Circulation. Thus, to lose weight, we must not only look at calories, but it may be even more important to attend to the quality of what we eat.

• We have a healthy and safe environment to be able to carry out our diet without being perceived as “alien” to it. Our family or who lives with us share our meals and even, encourage us to move more and eat better, because the support of those around us is key to achieving adherence as indicated by a study published earlier this year.
• The treatment derives from the hand of an experienced health professional, that is, not any professional is prepared to address a weight loss plan of an obese person or with severe problems of excess weight. However, the important thing here is that said professional provides us with a diet appropriate to the particularities of those who seek it , considering previous habits, diseases or biological condition, possibilities, level of physical activity, among other characteristics that are key to achieving adherence to diet, as many experts point out.

The mistakes you should not make

Just as there are factors that can promote adherence to the diet, there are others that can hinder your achievement :

• Going to a diet miracle, fashion, magazine or that our friend passed us because “it worked for him”, because this breaks with the inviduality of the diet that is essential for us to sustain it over time and this has been confirmed in a study published in the journal JAMA that points out the low adherence to popular diets.

• Use food substitutes to avoid having to cook or think about what to eat while looking to lose weight. Although this resource can be useful, it does not help to modify habits and if we think about it, we will not be able to sustain it forever, so it is not something that favors adherence to reach a healthy weight and maintain it over time.
• Setting unrealistic or unattainable goals that discourage us shortly after having begun to try or that push us to seek strict diets or other resources that we can not sustain in the long term. The best thing is to set goals that guarantee success, that is to say, that we feel confident of being able to achieve because in this way we will not lose motivation and we will continue to strive in time or what is the same, we will achieve adherence.
• Avoid meals in society or events because of diet to lose weight . If this should be done without any option our diet is not adequate, it is too strict or not very flexible. If it is our choice we think that adherence is achieved by maintaining habits over time and therefore, it is clear that we will not be “forever” eating alone and avoiding outings with friends or canceling family invitations.

This is what you should know about the most important factor to lose weight: the adherence or the maintenance of long-term behaviors.