Filled Needlework Boxes
12 Tips to Maintain Your Weight Loss
If you have managed to lose weight, the next step in your program is to maintain that weight loss. This takes as much dedication and commitment as losing the weight in the first place, but is very much part of adopting a healthy lifestyle. There is no quick fix, and the only way to maintain your goal weight is to work at it, changing bad habits to good ones until they become second nature. Many weight loss programs provide a maintenance plan or guidelines for adapting the program to a maintenance program, but some do not. If you’ve been counting calories for months, you may want a break from that daily chore. Eating healthy and exercising are the cornerstones, but there are a few more things that can help you maintain the new, slimmer, healthier you.
1. Adapt your diet
Some diet plans are easier to adapt than others. Take the basic principles of your eating plan, and stick to them. Eating smaller meals more often, avoiding certain foods, and preparing food in a certain way are guidelines that can easily be carried over into your post-weight loss plan. You can allow yourself the occasional treat, but be aware that too many of the ‘wrong’ foods will have you back where you started in no time. A weight loss program that gives you flexibility in terms of food choices is easier to adapt to daily living, unlike fad diets that cannot be sustained.
2. Keep up the exercise
Studies have shown that exercise is the biggest predictor of weight loss maintenance. Maintaining your physical activity helps you maintain your weight loss easier, and for longer. In particular, keeping to your exercise regime means that you can afford a treat every now and then!
3. Increase your physical activity
You may have gradually worked up to a full workout while on your weight loss program, then maintained that level in order to lose weight. Now that you’ve lost the weight, you are fitter and stronger. Don’t let your body get into a groove where it is able to cope with the level of exercise you are doing without much effort. Rather push yourself a little bit, and keep your body burning some fat in order to cope with the change in your eating habits.
4. Eating out
Try not to eat out too often, as it really is difficult to order healthy food from most restaurants. Keep an eye on the portions – rather get a take-out box than finish a meal that is just too much for you. Watch the sauces and dressings, and stick to grilled instead of fried. Lean poultry and fish are better than red meat, and don’t forget how many calories alcohol can add to a meal.
5. Eating at home
Your weight loss journey will have given you some insight into your eating habits, as well as the emotional triggers that send you looking for food when you’re not hungry. Instead of seeking out comfort food, try to replace this coping mechanism with another activity. Whether it’s needlework, knitting or jumping on a bicycle, replacing eating with something else will help.
6. Portion Control
After weeks or months of dieting, you may feel that you have a good idea of what portions you should be serving yourself. Unfortunately, we tend to add more to the portions over time – albeit unconsciously – so this is something you need to watch for.
7. Change your mind
Many people who have been struggling to lose weight for years will have just about given up. It is not easy to overcome years of feeling that there is just no way to lose weight successfully, and many overweight people resign themselves to a life of being fat. You are not born fat, you do not have fat genes, and you are not doomed to be fat forever. If you have lost weight, then you’ve won half the battle, and if you can manage that, then you most certainly CAN keep the weight off. You need to be positive and enthusiastic about your new weight, and keep working in order to maintain it.
8. Keep track
At least for the first few months of weight loss maintenance, you should try to keep up your diary or journal. This allows you to keep track of your eating habits and exercise schedule, so that if you find yourself picking up weight, you can find out why and act to stop it happening again.
9. Follow your program
If you lost weight following a specific program or plan, why would you want to ditch it? Unless it was a radical, difficult diet to follow, you should be able to adapt it to daily living quite easily. Most of the recommendations for healthy weight loss are still applicable after you’ve lost the weight, although you may now be able to add a few favourite foods or treats that you really missed. The further you stray away from the basics of your plan, the more likely you are to pick up weight again.
10. Keep to the basics
Eat breakfast. Eat smaller meals more often. Watch your sugar intake. Avoid foods with a high fat content. Eat lots of raw fruit and vegetables. Drink water regularly. Get a good night’s sleep. You know these – just keep doing them!
11. Keep your support base active
Another good predictor of how successful you will be with weight loss maintenance is how well you maintain your support base. Whether you depended on family, friends or an online group to help you get through the weight loss plan, you will still need their support for the weight maintenance plan.
12. Your healthy lifestyle will become a habit
It takes self-control, self-discipline and commitment to maintain your weight loss, but it will get easier with time. Just as you had settled into the bad eating habits that led to weight gain, you will get used to the healthy eating and exercise, and they will become your new good habits. The longer you manage to maintain your weight, the easier it gets.
Losing weight and keeping it off is a major commitment that takes dedication, effort and time. The benefits to your health, emotional wellbeing and physical appearance are enormous, and well worth the hard work it takes. Think of it as an investment in your future.
About the Author
We have a free ebook full of tips for weight loss that you can download for free at http://www.getdown2it.net as well as weight loss programs reviewed to help you choose the right one for you. Start your weight loss journey today.