10 Steps To Maintain Your Weight Loss [Why Overeating Is Not The Answer]
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The majority of people who succeed to lose weight, unfortunately, eventually end up gaining it back. In fact, a small percentage of dieters successfully lose weight and keep it off in the long term. However, don't let this intimidate you. There are some scientific methods that can help you maintain your weight - starting from exercising to controlling stress and accepting setbacks.
Why People Regain Weight
There are a few explanations why people gain back the weight they lose, and most of these are generally linked to unrealistic goals and feelings of deprivation.
Restrictive diet plans
Severe calorie restriction can slow your metabolism and change your appetite-controlling hormones, which are both factors that lead to weight regain.
Wrong mindset
If you consider your diet as a quick fix, rather than a durable solution to improve your health, you will be more inclined to give up and regain the weight you lost.
Inconsistency of sustainable habits
A great number of diets function on willpower rather than habits you can include on a daily basis. They are based on rules rather than lifestyle alterations, which may intimidate you and block weight maintenance.
However, have a look at a few steps that can be just what you need to bend the statistics in your favor and keep your hard-won weight loss. 👇
1. Exercise At Least Three Times A Week
Daily regular exercise, or at least three times a week, can significantly influence your weight maintenance. It can help you burn off the extra calories and boost your metabolism, which are two components needed to obtain energy balance. To achieve energy balance, you need to burn the same number of calories that you consume. This way, your weight can remain the same.
It's important to keep in mind that exercise can influence your weight maintenance when it's combined with other lifestyle adjustments, including opting for a healthy diet.
2. Stand By Your Plan All Week Long, Including Weekends
One practice that usually leads to weight regain is choosing to eat healthy on weekdays and “cheat" on weekends. This mentality often influences people to indulge in junk food, which can block weight maintenance efforts. If you allow it to become a regular habit, you risk to gain back more weight than you lost at first.
On the other hand, studies also show that those who keep a constant eating pattern all week are more inclined to maintain weight loss in the long term.
3. Stay Hydrated At All Times
Drinking water is critical for weight maintenance and there are a few reasons for this. First off, it provides fullness and can help you maintain your calorie intake in check if you drink a glass of water before meals.
In addition, drinking water has been shown to slightly boost the number of calories you burn during the day.
4. Get At Least 8 Hours Of Sleep Every Night
Getting enough sleep automatically influences your weight control. Actually, sleep deprivation seems to be a big risk factor for weight gain in adult life and may prevent weight maintenance.
This is partly caused by the fact that insufficient sleep leads to increased levels of ghrelin, which is known as the "hunger hormone" because it boosts appetite. Furthermore, bad sleepers seem to have lower levels of leptin, the hormone responsible for appetite control.
Additionally, those who sleep for just a few hours a night are simply exhausted and less motivated to exercise and make healthy food choices.
If at the moment you're not sleeping enough, make sure to figure out a way to change your sleeping habits. Sleeping for at least eight hours a night is best for weight control and general health.
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5. Keep Your Stress Levels At A Minimum
Handling daily stress is vital to controlling your weight. Actually, high-stress levels can negatively influence your weight by increasing levels of cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress. Also, elevated cortisol is connected to stubborn belly fat, as well as increased appetite and food intake. Not to mention that stress is a common trigger for overeating.
On the plus side, there are numerous things you can do to overcome stress, including exercise, yoga, and meditation.
6. Create A Support System
It may seem difficult to obtain your weight goals on your own. One efficient strategy to conquer this is to create a support system that will hold you responsible and eventually partner up with you in your lifestyle choices.
Studies have shown that having a companion to follow your goals may be beneficial for weight control, especially if that person is a partner with related healthy habits.
7. Strive for Consistency
Consistency is crucial to keeping unwanted weight off. Rather than on-and-off dieting (which clearly means returning to old habits), it is best to keep your new healthy diet and lifestyle for longer periods of time.
Opting for a new "way of life" may seem crushing initially, but making healthy choices will become your second nature when you become used to them. Your improved lifestyle will become effortless, so you'll maintain your weight much more easily.
8. Improve Your Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is the habit of knowing your internal appetite cues and paying attention during your eating process. It implies eating slower, without distractions, so you can enjoy the aroma and taste of your meal.
When you eat in this fashion, you are more inclined to stop eating before you are truly full. Eating while distracted can make it difficult to notice fullness and you end up overeating.
Research shows that mindful eating influences weight maintenance by identifying behaviors that are associated with weight gain, such as emotional eating. Besides, those who practice mindful eating are able to maintain their weight under control without even counting their calories.
9. Be Mentally Prepared for Setbacks
Setbacks are unfortunately quite certain thing in your weight maintenance journey. There will be times when you might give in to an unhealthy craving or skip a workout. But, these random relapses certainly doesn't mean you should give up your goals. Just move on and make better choices next time.
It's also beneficial to plan in advance for situations that you know will make healthy eating a challenge, such as an upcoming vacation or holiday for instance.
10. Make Realistic Changes to Your Lifestyle
The reason why many people fail at maintaining their weight is that they choose unrealistic diets that are not doable in the long term. And they eventually become overwhelmed and feel deprived, which unfortunately leads to gaining back even more weight than they lost initially.
Maintaining your weight loss means making realistic changes to your lifestyle. These changes may look different for everyone, but basically, it means not being too restrictive, staying consistent and making healthy choices on a daily basis.
The Bottom Line
There are plenty of simple alterations you can make to healthy habits that will prove to be easy to keep and will also help you maintain your weight loss long term.
During your journey, you will experience becoming aware of the fact that maintaining your weight means much more than what you eat. And always remember that exercise, sleep, and mental health also plays an important role in maintaining your weight loss and giving up overeating.
In order for weight maintenance to become effortless, you need to adopt a new lifestyle, rather than starting a new weight-loss diet. If you are ready to make a change in your lifestyle, get in touch with me and let me guide you through the journey of weight loss so you can enjoy an improved life.
