Are Your Fat Burning Goals Realistic?

The last couple of weeks, we’ve been doing some talking on fat-burning goals. As a matter of fact, we’ve been talking about goals in general. Setting goals and then seeing yourself reaching or exceeding them is a good thing. But, research has now shown that many dieters "sabotage" their own fat-burning efforts by setting unrealistic goals.

Recently, a study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reported that the average dieter "dreamt" of losing about 38 percent of her current weight. But the researchers delved a little deeper into the desires of these fat-burning desirers. If they couldn't lose 38 percent of their weight and only lose 31 percent, they said they would be "happy."

But what about a 25 percent weight loss? How would they feel about that? Well, that would be "acceptable," they said. But curiously few used the word "happy" with this type of loss. And most distressing in all of this research is learning that if these individuals could only experience a 15.7 percent weight loss, it would be disappointing.

How do these numbers transfer into real life? It tells us that a 200-pound person, who loses 30 pounds, would actually be disappointed with the results. Hmm! What's wrong with this picture?

Thirty pounds is pretty darn good. Health care professionals are disturbed by these facts. After all, a weight loss of just 10 percent can bring dramatic drops in your blood pressure level, in your insulin action as well as many other areas of your health.

And that is now what many public health officials as well as fitness specialists are now advocating. In addition to boosting your health in a variety of ways, this "10 percent solution" as many are now calling it, has a few more additional benefits as well.

For one thing, it's realistic. You can't get to your goal of 38 percent weight loss unless you lose your way through to it passing 10 percent first. So if you think you're going to lose 38 percent of your weight, you may, but why not break it down into 10 percent increments first. Once you reach each of these 10 percent goals, treat yourself to a little celebration.

In this way you get to celebrate three times (can you tell? I'm big on goal rewarding and celebration!) Okay, so this idea breaks some of the rules. Traditional weight-loss programs often feed upon the desires of the dieters involved to lose weight quickly -- especially at the start of the diet. This provides you with a feeling of satisfaction and the will to keep losing.

But what would happen if you were satisfied -- even happy with a 10 percent weight loss? And then continued on in 10 percent increments. Give it some thought. You may even want to see if you can be happy with the 10 percent fat burning solution.

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