12 Practical Ways To Maintain Weight Loss

A weight-management plan is just as important as a weight-loss strategy. Lasting weight loss comes from moderation in all things.

Changing your lifestyle to include healthier, whole-food choices and more exercise will boost your metabolism, help you lose weight, and increase the number of calories you’re regularly burning.

Here are 12 practical ways to maintain weight loss to keep that weight from returning.

How Do You Maintain Weight Loss?

1. Stay Active

Once you’ve lost the weight, it’s important to still maintain the habits you started during your journey, and exercise is key.

You need to do something every single day that benefits your physical self. Walking is a popular choice. You should also do something to work your muscles a few times per week, as well. This could be weight training, resistance work, yoga, or high-intensity interval training (HIIT).

Build activity into your daily routine, and make sure you keep moving, even after you reach your goal weight.

2. Eat Breakfast

When you start the day with a nutritious breakfast that fills you up, you have the energy you need to tackle your day, and you are less likely to make unhealthy choices later when you are starving.

3. Track Your Weight and Activity

Once you’ve lost weight, it can be easy to never want to step on a scale again. But, tracking your weight is valuable feedback. It can tell you if you’re slipping back into old habits and provide you with information to help you make minor adjustments in your habits.

Many people who lose weight stop monitoring themselves and are surprised when, six months later, they step on a scale for the first time and see 10 or more extra pounds. Stay on top of it by weight yourself once a week, and you can deal with it before it becomes a problem. You can also wear a fitness tracker that measures your steps, heart rate, calories, and other input. This data should be used to inform your activity and dietary choices. 

4. Focus On Why You Eat

Many people have an unhealthy relationship with food that led to their initial weight gain. It’s time to understand why you reach for food, when you are more likely to select unhealthy choices, and how to break these cycles.

Track your emotions as they relate to your eating habits, and make a note of times when emotions guide your food choices. If you’re eating from stress, it’s time to find new outlets for stress reduction. If you’re lonely or bored, seeking out other people is better than seeking out food. Eating out for anger or other intense emotion indicates a need for different types of support.

5. Be More Mindful

Learning to focus on just one thing can not only reduce stress but also lead to making better choices. Mindfully eating means being aware of all aspects of the eating experience. This can help you avoid overeating and making unhealthy food choices. Mindfulness makes it easier to recognize when you are full and to stop eating, too.

6. Get Some Help

Staying motivated to maintain a weight loss can be difficult without some support. A cheering section can help you when you are struggling, and some find the support of others who have struggled with similar weight loss issues to be helpful. You can also find comfort in friends and family members.

7. Goals Keep You Motivated

Once you’ve met a weight-loss goal, it’s important to set new challenges for yourself, giving you something toward which to work. Maybe you have a trip you want to be physically fit enough to take, or there’s an outfit in which you would like to feel better. Find a fitness or nutrition goal that works for your life, and begin making progress toward that aim. Goals help you resist temptation and remember why you’re opting for healthier habits.

8. Get Plenty of Rest

Sleep is necessary for many aspects of your health, including controlling your appetite and repairing your body from exercise. When you are sleep deprived, you are more likely to reach for unhealthy comfort foods or seek out quick but less nutritious sources of energy. Get to bed at the same time each night, and set your alarm for the same time each day, aiming for at least eight hours of uninterrupted sleep per night.

9. Fill Up On Fiber

Eat a diet that includes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and other sources of dietary fiber at each meal. Fiber keeps you feeling full longer, helps you maintain a steady blood sugar level, and prevents you from overeating. Eat your veggies raw or steamed, not fried. Use small amounts of healthy oils along with herbs and spices to add flavor and variety to your produce, too. Include fruits and vegetables in all types of dishes, filling at least one-half of your plate with produce at each meal.

10. Cook For Yourself

When you make your meals at home, you control your ingredients and portion size, unlike in a restaurant or with packaged foods. Foods made by others are likely to be higher in calories, fat, added sugars, and unnecessary ingredients like salt. Plus, cooking your own food helps you form healthier relationships with food, the process of cooking, and from where your food comes.

11. Make a Plan

Planning is the key to any successful endeavor, and healthy habits are no exception. Plan your meals, snacks, and fitness activities and build these into your schedule. Create time in every day to dedicate to your health and wellness, showing yourself and others that it’s a priority for you. Plans help you stick to your goals and avoid temptation, as well.

12. Drink Lots of Water

Staying hydrated helps you digest your food properly, keeps hunger at bay, and allows all your systems to work correctly. Hydration is just as important as nutrition, so don’t forget to drink at least 64 ounces of water each day.

The Simple Way To Maintain Weight Loss

Your diet needs to meet your individual needs based on your age, gender, body type, lifestyle, and goals. For example, a post-menopausal woman who is vegetarian will need very different recommendations than a 24-year-old male who smokes. For the most up to date and relevant diet to suit you and your lifestyle download My Food Diary.

This highly-acclaimed app, that’s available in desktop, iPhone and mobile versions,  contains over 100,000 foods to help you maintain weight loss beyond just counting calories.