Why do I want results fast?

Milax19

I’m 2 weeks into losing weight. My goal is to be “toned”. I currently weigh 61kg. My goal weight is 52-55kg. I’ve been lifting 4 times a week. I feel stronger. The thing is I don’t have patience. I want the physical results to come fast. I want abs overnight and my back fat gone. I know I’m being silly but I can’t help it. Honestly I feel really good inside and I look less bloated than 2 weeks ago. It’s just that my body hasn’t changed that much. The fat is still there. I know it’s a long journey but again I just can’t help it. I defo look less bloated but that’s about it. What can I do to stay patient? How do I change the mentality of wanting results too fast?

kshama2001

Tell yourself don't want to get to your goal weight only to have your hair start falling out from under eating. (Because of the hair growth cycle this doesn't happen for months after the precipitating event.)

Also read this:

What Are the Risks of Rapid Weight Loss?

Rapid weight loss creates physical demands on the body. Possible serious risks include:

• Gallstones, which occur in 12% to 25% of people losing large amounts of weight over several months
• Dehydration, which can be avoided by drinking plenty of fluids
• Malnutrition, usually from not eating enough protein for weeks at a time
• Electrolyte imbalances, which rarely can be life threatening

Other side effects of rapid weight loss include:

• Headaches
• Irritability
• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Constipation
• Menstrual irregularities
• Hair loss
• Muscle loss

jelleigh

A big change for me came when i stopped thinking of workouts/ eating plans as a "weight loss" effort and more of a "being healthy" effort. If you can switch your brain to realize that you will do something like this from now on (moderate mindful eating, varied activity) then the timeliness are less important. It's not a diet. It's not a short "get fit" effort. It's a new normal.

But i have to keep reminding myself about this too because I'm super impatient.

yourfitnessenemy

Same, it’s hard. But I didn’t gain the weight overnight, so I’m not going to lose it that way either.

lgfrie

Everyone wants fast results. Nobody is thinking "Gee, given the choice, I'd like to see my weight loss take longer."

The thing that separates people is, some have learned that "fast results" are not obtainable or especially sustainable, and others haven't.

There are so many reasons why rapid weight loss doesn't work that it couldn't possibly be covered in this thread. But the main thing is, the crash dieting and deprivation required to get super-fast results contain the seeds of their own destruction, which is why almost everyone who goes too fast regains the weight.

CSARdiver

You are guilty of nothing more than being human.

The only thing that needs to change is your perspective. Ever get what you "wanted" immediately? Was it better than waiting a significant period of time for it? What is even better knowing that you earned it? Was it even better-er knowing that you suffered greatly, earned it over a significant period of time?

Embrace the suck.

jennifer_417

The best thing you can do is just not quit. Wait out the impatient feelings. They'll pass sooner or later.

Duck_Puddle

Perhaps it might help to realize that you’re never “done”. You don’t lose weight and get “toned” - then go back to whatever you did before (unless you also want to gain back the weight and become not “toned”).

It’s understandable that you want to see changes quickly. But even if you did-you still need to keep doing the same work forever.

So maybe sit back and settle in? This is life now. Forever.

This mindset helps me focus on doing the work and setting my goals as the behaviors I can control. Did I eat “right”, did I do my workout? Yes? Score. That’s all I can do. The changes will happen over time as long as I continue to do the work. I’m also not in a rush to get to “done” since that’s ... dead.

cupcakesandproteinshakes

OP I’m sorry but you won’t get a toned body overnight. It’ll take a few years unless you are genetically gifted and a high responder to weight training.

That said, it is possible to see visible results after a few months of strength training. You do need to be patient though. Sorry.

ReenieHJ

We're all learning it takes awhile to 'get there' and a lifetime to stay there. Patience is challenging when you want something really really bad but it's a lesson everyone learns throughout their life and with maturity.
There have been so many times I've walked past people that are very thin and think to myself 'wow if I could give them 30 of my extra #s...' But life is reality and in this reality, slow and steady wins the race.
Stay on MFP and celebrate your victories as you go. Pretty soon you'll find yourself in maintenance and all your new habits will have taken hold. Good luck!!!

ReenieHJ

Another thought to add to this discussion is, all the hype that surrounds each and every diet plan out there tries to sell the get thin quick side of weight loss. Lose 21# in 21 days....they're all trying to sell something and get you to join. Oh sure, it can be done. You can starve yourself and become unhealthy, have an unsustainable lifestyle. But the way to really do it once and for all is slowly, healthfully, and keeping steady, always looking forward to small successes and developing different and better habits.

ElizabethKalmbach

You may be checking the wrong metrics over and over and getting bored. Sure, when I look in the mirror, I don't see a lot of change very quickly, but when I look at my weight lifting gainz from 5 weeks ago, the results are AMAZING. People can't see that by looking at me, and I may be a bit impatient for them to notice, because it's exciting! On the other hand, people at the gym nod at me because they know I'm a regular, and some of them have even noticed that I'm using "big-girl-plates" for squats already!

Your body is making a thousand different tiny improvements every single day, and you're only looking in one place! If you think about all the things your body is doing as a whole, you become a lot more appreciative of the vast improvements you've made in your life through discipline! Your cholesterol may be dropping! You're building lean body mass! Your heart rate is dropping as your body becomes more efficient! Your blood pressure may be improving! You may be less insulin resistant! You might be able to lift twice as much as before or RUN up stairs that would leave you puffing just a couple weeks ago! You have so much going on and you body IS changing super fast! Just - in way more places than you're looking or can easily measure.

MikePTY

Duck_Puddle wrote: »

Perhaps it might help to realize that you’re never “done”. You don’t lose weight and get “toned” - then go back to whatever you did before (unless you also want to gain back the weight and become not “toned”).

It’s understandable that you want to see changes quickly. But even if you did-you still need to keep doing the same work forever.

So maybe sit back and settle in? This is life now. Forever.

This mindset helps me focus on doing the work and setting my goals as the behaviors I can control. Did I eat “right”, did I do my workout? Yes? Score. That’s all I can do. The changes will happen over time as long as I continue to do the work. I’m also not in a rush to get to “done” since that’s ... dead.

This is the advice right there. Unfortunately, just like we can't get weight loss and abs overnight, we also can't just lose the weight, get in shape, and then be done forever. Maintenance is as much work as losing is. So buckle up for the journey. Healthy has no end date, so the date that you hit certain milestones along the way doesn't really matter.

I've been on the weight loss portion of my journey (with brief maintenence breaks) for over a year now, and I'm still not done with that phase. But I am never going to be done with managing my calorie intake and going to the gym, because even once I hit my goals, those things will stay with me forever.

riffraff2112

What helped me was to realize that I didn't get overweight in a month or two...it took years. So I told myself that losing it was not going to happen in the short term. It definitely helped me not get discouraged and once I got some good habits formed the time seemed to fly by.

Diatonic12

There are many people who want a fast food hack, trying to overcompensate for months or years of poor eating decisions. The body won't tolerate it and the brain will rebel. Edge your way down slowly. You don't have to kick a horse to make it run faster and the fastest horse doesn't always win the race.

76Crane76

Yoga helped me learn patience. How? Because when i first started yoga i was weak everywhere, trembling and inflexible. I heard that you were supposed to do whats good for your body and to practice and over time you will see results. It was hard but i did this. After 6 months i saw a change. At a year i saw more progress. It now helps me in my personal life to tackle school and work in small, steady increments and i am so much more laid back because i have confidence in the process. We are just so programmed to get what we want immediately that we need to slow the roll and unlearn these things.

seltzermint555

ReenieHJ wrote: »

Another thought to add to this discussion is, all the hype that surrounds each and every diet plan out there tries to sell the get thin quick side of weight loss. Lose 21# in 21 days....they're all trying to sell something and get you to join. Oh sure, it can be done. You can starve yourself and become unhealthy, have an unsustainable lifestyle. But the way to really do it once and for all is slowly, healthfully, and keeping steady, always looking forward to small successes and developing different and better habits.

I totally agree with this. We are brainwashed in a way, to think faster = better.
I'm not really competitive about my weight loss but I find it amusing when friends who are impressed that I've lost and maintained so much still look to others for advice because "they lost 10 lb in 2 weeks and that's what I need to do".

IAmTheGlue

I didn't read the other replies so this may have been said but... It's a now culture. Everyone wants everything now. I can get something delivered from Amazon today if I order early enough in the day or tomorrow if I don't.

Everything wants everything yesterday. You are normal in that regard.

But there is no real shortcut to lasting weight loss. You can absolutely starve yourself, work out until you can barely move but.. your body will not be happy. What happens 99% of the time is people get frustrated. They are so tired and so freaking hungry that they give up.

I would just do what is manageable in the long term. Do whatever you are planning to do in six months or a year or ten years.

And it does seem like BS that you are working so hard and noone can immediately tell. But, trust the process and keep pressing forward.

Lobsterboxtops

I think for me the fast thing wasn’t so much of an issue, because when I started exercising loss wasn’t a goal. I really just wanted more activity. I started losing as a result of the activity but it still wasn’t an active goal. About 3 months ago I added calorie tracking to my routine and that’s when I started to think about the time it will take me to get to goal...when I start finding myself getting impatient, I remind myself that I didn’t gain all the weight in a year, why would I think I’d lose it that fast....it helps keep everything in perspective.

AnnPT77

This is not really an answer to your question, but more like a counterpoint to it.

I think that something often lost in our "instant results" culture is the idea that some of the most profound and useful things will take a patient investment of effort over a very long time period. Learning how to manage that kind of "slow process, low incremental results, big long-term benefit" sort of thing can potentially have a very, very high payoff in quality of life.

If you think about it, this is how we achieve post-secondary degrees: We go to school for a long time, individual classes can sometimes be a drudge and we don't see how they contribute to our lives; then we get the degree, maybe qualify for better employment, see how some of those academic pieces come together in real life application. Or, just the process of starting a job in some field, even without a degree, learning more about the field, gradually building knowlege and skills, getting the promotion every once and a while as our knowledge/experience is more valuable, bumping up income as we go.

Lots of things work this way: Learning a creative art or craft (painting, sculpture, complex needlework, etc.), learning to play a musical instrument, getting good at a sport, getting our personal budgeting under control and saving meaningfully for retirement, and many more.

The basic skills of valuing the process, finding rewards in our discipline/efforts, learning how to manage our own psychology to chip away at a long-term stretch goal: These are things we can learn and practice via the weight management and fitness improvement effort. And, as we get better at those as abstract skills, we can apply them to education, career improvement, budgeting, or any other complex long-term project that may benefit us.

It's powerful stuff. Think about it. :flowerforyou: