1. Exercise Often Regular exercise helps you burn off some extra calories and increase your metabolism, which are two factors needed to achieve energy balance. When you are in energy balance, it implies you burn the same amount of calories that you consume. As a result, your weight is more likely to stay the same.
2. Try Eating Breakfast Every Day Having breakfast may help you with your weight maintenance goals. Breakfast eaters tend to have healthier habits overall, such as training more and consuming more fibre and micronutrients. Furthermore, eating breakfast is one of the most common behaviours reported by individuals who are successful at maintaining weight loss.
3. Eat Lots of Protein Eating a lot of protein may assist you to maintain your weight since protein can help lessen starvation and boost fullness Protein boosts levels of certain hormones in the body that induce satiety and are essential for weight management. Protein has also been proved to reduce levels of hormones that increase appetite.
4. Weigh Yourself Regularly Observing your weight by stepping on the scale daily may be a significant tool for weight management. This is because it can make you conscious of your progress and encourage weight control behaviours. Those who weigh themselves may also eat fewer calories throughout the day, which assists maintain weight loss. How often you weigh yourself is an individual choice. Some find it helpful to weigh in daily, while others are more successful in checking their weight once or twice a week.
5. Be Mindful of Your Carb Intake Weight maintenance may be simpler to accomplish if you pay attention to the types and amounts of carbs that you eat. Eating too many refined carbs, such as white bread, white pasta and fruit juices, can be detrimental to your weight maintenance goals. These foods have been stripped of their natural fibre, which is necessary to promote fullness. Diets that are low in fibre are associated with weight gain and obesity.
6. Lift Weights Reduced muscle mass is a common side effect of weight loss.It can limit your ability to keep weight off, as losing muscle lessens your metabolism, meaning you burn fewer calories throughout the day. Doing some type of endurance training, such as lifting weights, may help counter this loss of muscle and, in turn, preserve or even recover your metabolic rate.
7. Be Prepared for Setbacks Setbacks are inevitable on your weight management journey. There may be times when you give in to an unhealthy craving or skip a workout. However, the rare slip up doesn’t mean you should throw your goals out the window. Simply move on and follow through with better choices.
8. Stick to Your Plan All Week Long (Even on Weekends) One habit that often leads to weight regain is eating healthy on weekdays and “cheating” on weekends. This mindset often leads people to fling on junk food, which can offset weight maintenance efforts. If it becomes a regular habit, you could gain back more weight than you lost in the first place.
9. Stay Hydrated Drinking water is essential for weight maintenance for a few reasons. For starters, it promotes fullness and may help you keep your calorie intake in check if you drink a glass or two before meals In one study, those who drank water before eating a meal had a 13% reduction in calorie intake, compared to participants who didn’t drink water
10. Get Enough Sleep Getting enough sleep significantly affects weight control. Sleep deprivation appears to be a major risk factor for weight gain in adults and may interfere with weight maintenance. This is partly because inadequate sleep leads to higher levels of ghrelin, which is recognised as the “hunger hormone” because it boosts appetite.
11. Control Stress Levels Managing stress is an important component of managing your weight. High-stress levels can contribute to weight regain by increasing levels of cortisol, which is a hormone released in response to stress. Consistently raised cortisol is linked to higher amounts of belly fat, as well as increased appetite and food intake. Stress is also a common trigger for impulsive eating, which is when you eat even when you’re not hungry.
12. Find a Support System It can be difficult to maintain your weight goals alone. One strategy to overcome this is to find a support system that will hold you answerable and possibly partner up with you in your healthy lifestyle.
13. Track Your Food Intake Those who log their food consumption in a journal, online food tracker or app may be more likely to maintain their weight loss. Food trackers are valuable because they improve your awareness of how much you are consuming since they often present specific information about how many calories and nutrients you consume.
14. Eat Plenty of Vegetables For starters, vegetables are low in calories. You can eat large portions without putting on weight, while still consuming an impressive amount of nutrients. Also, vegetables are high in fibre, which boosts feelings of fullness and may automatically decrease the number of calories that you eat during the day
15. Be Consistent Consistency is key to keeping weight off. Instead of on-and-off dieting that ends with going back to old habits, it is best to stick with your new healthy diet and lifestyle for good. While adopting a new “way of life” may seem overwhelming at first, making healthy choices will become second nature when you get used to them.
16. Practice Mindful Eating Mindful eating is the practice of listening to internal appetite cues and paying full attention during the eating process. It involves eating slowly, without distractions, and chewing food thoroughly so you can savour the aroma and taste of your meal.
17. Make Sustainable Changes to Your Lifestyle Maintaining weight loss comes down to making sustainable modifications to your lifestyle. This looks different for everyone, but essentially it involves not being too restrictive, staying consistent and making healthy decisions as often as possible.
