1. Your blood sugar drops with just a 1-pound weight loss. In fact, with just the first ounces off, you’ve made yourself immediately healthier. (Overweight is also a huge risk factor for breast and ovarian cancer in women, prostate cancer in men, and colon cancer in both men and women.)
2. Your heart, which is the size of your closed fist, is a small, overworked muscle, pumping 24/7. And for every extra pound of fat you carry, your body has to grow seven new miles of blood vessels-- primarily capillaries but also small arteries (arterioles) and small veins (venules) -- and your heart has to work that much harder. Put on two pounds and that’s fourteen new miles of blood vessels; fifty extra pounds requires 350 miles of new blood vessels. On and on, do the math.
But good news: the opposite is true. For every pound of fat you lose, your body sheds seven miles of blood vessels. They just re-absorb, break down, and get excreted. Lose two pounds and that’s fourteen miles of blood vessels gone, lightening your heart’s load.
Know that even a little is a lot. Repeat that out loud to yourself: even a little is a lot. Let it be your mantra.
Dieting is a slooow process, like watching the grass grow. Try to accept that, and the next time you catch yourself groaning, “Oh it’s almost a week and I’ve only lost two pounds” – understand that that’s great. You’ve already brought valuable change to your body; taken a literal load off your heart. Try this too for reinforcement: take a can off the shelf that weighs one or two pounds, and heft it. Or, in the supermarket, keeping your elbow straight, lift some wrapped meat weighing two pounds. It’s heavy. And you’ll think, WOW, I lost this much?
