Patterns of Weight Loss
There are two patterns of weight loss that occur when someone is attempting to lose weight. The psychological pattern is what happens to your brain when you start on a weight loss journey. The physical pattern is what happens to your body, which may involve shifts in weight loss and possible plateaus where there is no decrease in weight.
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Brain Activity and Weight Loss
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When people are of a normal weight, they don't train their brains to react to food cues. People who lose weight and keep it off have retrained their brains to react in certain ways when exposed to different foods. People who lose weight and keep it off start to gain control over the urge section of their brains, meaning that they do not let themselves indulge in every craving they have, and they utilize this in order to lose weight. Jeanne McCaffery from Brown Medical School believes that people might unknowingly involve different portions of the brain to lose weight, which is demonstrated in their changes in brain activity.
Mental Patterns
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When you lose weight, mental patterns begin to manifest themselves physically. A test conducted with women at Yale University showed that before losing weight, the women showed signs of being self-conscious, vulnerable and ignorant of the circumstances and reasons behind their weight. This was the first step in the pattern. After understanding what events made these women heavy, all showed determination in making a decision to change and a readiness to take action. The next step was making active choices in order to change their behaviors. These women incorporated positive changes in their behavior and found some kind of support system to reinforce those changes. As a result, they experienced increased levels of confidence, self-esteem and more control over their lives.
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High Weight Loss
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High amounts of weight loss occur when people just start incorporating more activity into their daily lives. Their bodies are not used to moving around, and so they start burning lots of calories and using up their body's storage of carbohydrates.
Low Weight Loss
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Low weight loss is a sign that your body is getting used to the various activities that you have started incorporating into your day. Often, low weight loss will develop into a plateau. The less weight you have to lose, the more stubborn your body will be to hold on to those extra pounds. Low weight loss can also be the result of your body building more muscle and slowing down on losing fat.
Plateau
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Plateaus occur when your body gets used to your current routine, or your routine becomes obsolete to your body. In order to avoid plateaus, your routine needs to be switched every one to three months to promote weight loss. These changes could be as small as switching from walking to jogging, or walking 20 minutes instead of 10.
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