Many people struggle to maintain weight loss long-term. While fad-diets and four-week bikini-body boot camps might help you drop pounds, keeping weight off is challenging. Research shows that 95% of dieters regain lost weight within one to five years, with up to two-thirds of dieters gaining more weight than they lost dieting
While a large number struggle to maintain weight loss long-term, quite a number actually maintain theirs, and some of the traits and strategies that can help increase your chances of successfully maintaining a healthy weight are highlighted below.
These and other long-term strategies discussed below can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
1. Ditch Diets for Lifestyle Change
Diets don’t work and can even be harmful in long-term weight loss maintenance.
For sustainable weight loss, focus on healthier alternatives, lifestyle changes and metabolism jumpstarts. Diets often represent a black-and-white, all-or-nothing approach. Lifestyle changes are more broad, generalizable and adaptable to your situations and needs. Some examples of long-term lifestyle changes you might adopt include eating vegetables with every meal and snack, or pairing carbohydrates with protein or fat to manage blood sugar levels.
2. Self-monitor
You can’t change a behavior unless you know what, when and why it’s happening. Monitoring how much you eat and exercise helps raise your awareness about your body.
This is quite important, and this is why on my 21 Days Metabolism Jumpstart, one of the results is that participants are able to determine any hidden food sensitivities that are causing you to hold onto weight and they get to learn which foods fuel their body, so they can feel energized, clear and confident.
A sample food log might include the following:
• What you ate
• How much you ate
• What you were thinking or feeling before you ate
• How much time it took you to eat
• What you were doing while you ate (e.g., watching television, answering emails)
• What you were thinking or feeling after you ate (physically and emotionally)
• Level of fullness or satiation after eating
3. Seek Support
Social support is critical for long-term behavior change. With supportive friends and family, healthy eating and exercise become fun group activities that foster adherence and enjoyment. If your inner circle finds carrots distasteful and exercise a bore, maintaining your healthy habits will be more challenging. Find a group of health-minded individuals (in person or online) with whom you can identify problems, brainstorm solutions, and offer and receive support. Long-term guidance from a health and fitness professional also improves weight-related outcomes. Maintaining contact with a qualified health coach can help you plan and prepare for success and overcome obstacles that may arise.
4. Don’t let Lapses become Relapses
Setbacks are normal. Planning for them can help you overcome setbacks when they occur. Consider possible barriers that may hinder your ability to be active or eat well (e.g., busy schedule, stress, financial issues) and brainstorm solutions to these barriers in advance.
Rather than berating yourself for “falling off the wagon,” view setbacks as opportunities for learning and growth. “Ugh, I ate so much ice cream last night. I knew I couldn’t do this!” instead becomes, “I wonder why I ate so much ice cream last night? Was I bored? Lonely? Stressed? Did I get enough to eat during the day?” With this, nothing is a failure and every “setback” is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and your needs.
5. Remember your Why
Weight loss is never truly about the weight — it’s about reducing some physical or emotional discomfort you feel. Once you’ve lost weight and feel better, it’s easy to fall back into old habits. Whether it’s to reduce your risk for heart disease, or feel more comfortable and confident in a swimsuit, figure out the “why” behind your weight loss and write it down. Place this note in plain view where you’ll see it frequently. This constant reminder can help you stick with healthy behaviors when the going gets tough.
It’s important to know that there’s no magic pill when it comes to weight-loss maintenance; rather, multiple lifestyle factors work together to preserve your weight and health. Focusing on sustainable eating changes, regular activity, social support and self-compassion in the face of setbacks is your best bet for achieving a healthy weight that lasts a lifetime.
Do you feel like you eat healthy and have tried lots of diets out there but still struggle to lose weight & actually keep it off? Or do you feel like you’re having trouble getting the weight loss started? And maybe you feel like the only way to lose weight is to follow a restrictive diet that leaves you feeling deprived? Which leaves you believing that you either have to live with the extra weight or you have to feel deprived all the time, there’s an easy way out for you and I have put it together for you in a program I named the Metabolism Jumpstart.
Just as it sounds, we’re literally going on a metabolism Jumpstart to help you revolutionize the way you think about food, and reshape your body from the inside out!
I want to show you how to throw out the fad diets that plague our society and teach you a simple system that really WORKS.
The 21 Days Metabolism Jumpstart starts November 20th and Registration ends soon.
Investment: #15,000
After payment of #15,000, you get the following;
• Complimentary 1hour free onboarding call with Coach Hafsah, currently worth #10,000.
• Daily protocol and guideline.
• Weekly meal plan.
• Weekly detox plan.
• Daily workout plan.
• Participant activity Journal.
• Daily toxin elimination bath.
What are you waiting for, click the link here to get started.