Losing Pounds Together: A Family Approach To Weight Loss

So you’ve decided to take the plunge. You’re committed to a new diet — eating healthy and avoiding most of the “bad stuff” — but your family members definitely don’t seem to be helping.

They keep offering us deep-fried snacks, high-carb fare, sweets — you name it. And this is after you already told them you were going on a diet.

While family support can be very important, experts say that you don’t need anyone but yourself to achieve your weight loss goals.

However if you are able to get a weight-loss buddy — it could be a friend, co-worker or neighbor — this could easily represent the encouragement you want and deserve.

How to Lose Weight 

While solely depending on family members to get you through each weight-loss day can set you up for diet disappointment, having them on board can really help, and can really make losing weight more fun.

Studies show that when someone in a family is struggling with weight, he or she is much more likely to be able to lose weight, and keep it off, if the family also makes an effort to eat healthier and exercise more.

According to U.S. News and World Report, “a family-friendly approach to eating must be safe and nutritionally sound enough to meet the needs of all family members.” 

That disqualifies extreme diets — like keto — which skimp on vital vitamins and nutrients.

Family-friendly diets should also allow for splurging and substitution. If one family member doesn't like fish, for example, it's OK to substitute a favorite lean meat. 

We should keep in mind that the more restrictive or difficult a diet is to follow — like a macrobiotic diet — the less likely you will be able to bring your family or friends on board for your weight-loss journey.

Here are some that can help us achieve weight-loss success:

  1. Keep good food grabbable! Whether it’s a bowl of healthy nuts or a basket of apples, keep good food and healthy snacks within easy reach at all times. 

  2. Don’t put too much faith in the bathroom scale. Weight fluctuates by up to 4 pounds throughout the day, depending on how much food and liquids you’ve consumed. In      addition, increased estrogen levels and other hormonal changes can lead to more water retention, which, again, shows up on the scale. So what’s the deal if the digits on the scale aren’t moving at all? Well, you could be losing fat but holding on to water. You can jettison excess water with regular exercise, sleeping more, reducing stress, making sure you’re getting electrolytes and drinking more water.

  3. Enjoy meals at home as often as possible, at least one meal per day. According to Katherine Bauer, PhD, in Today’s Dietitian, “We’re seeing more and more consistently how important family meals are,” noting that this doesn’t necessarily mean dinner. Whether it’s breakfast or dinner, Bauer adds that, “whenever families can find the time to sit down together, it seems to be a good thing.”

  4. Rid your pantry of super-sweet or super-fattening foods and snacks. 

  5. Avoid the fat-free fallacy. Saying no to all fat — including healthy ones like olive oil and avocado — is not only boring, it’s also dangerous. Even low-fat diets are completely worthless for weight loss, according to a recent review of 53 studies and nearly 70,000 people published in The Lancet.

  6. Make more time for exercise, but make it fun. Instead of saying, “Hey guys, let’s go exercise for an hour” consider saying, “Hey guys, let’s go on a bike ride!”

  7. “Unplug” the TV during family meal-times, as having the TV on can lead to mindless beasting.

  8. Get enough high-quality protein in your diet, like lean meats, nuts, wild-caught cold-water fish, and high-protein Almased!

Almased Diet Program

Low-glycemic Almased feeds the body at a cellular level to help boost metabolism and safely support both fat-burn and overall weight loss.

In fact, Almased’s core ingredients — non-GMO soy, yogurt and enzyme-rich honey — are part of a powerful formula that’s bursting with high-quality protein and amino acids, in addition to vitamins, minerals and trace elements.

Almased can help dieting families succeed where those “you can’t eat this” diets always fail.

It's easy to drink Almased dietary supplement shakes to replace some meals to safely lose weight fast, or as healthy snacks, so that you can hold on to that hard-earned weight loss success!

Like your trusted weight-loss buddy, Almased is here for you and will be there for you!