It so sad that normally people who lose weight eventually end up gaining it back after sometime. As a matter of fact it is only about 20% of the entire dieters who begin the process of losing weight end up being successfully and maintain their new body weight for a long time.
But this shouldn’t be the reason to make you feel discouraged. There are several scientific approved methods out there that can help you maintain your body weight. These range from doing exercises to maintaining stress. These scientific proven methods, might be what you need to maintain your body weight at your desired and favorable weight.
But why do people regain weight in the first place?
There are some common reasons as to why people gain back their hardly lost weight after some time. Normally the cause are more related to nothing more than unrealistic expectations as well as feelings that are associated with deprivation. These include;
Limited diets: using extreme calorie diet meals in maintaining your body weight might lead to slowing down your metabolic functions as well as shifting your appetite. This might regulate your hormones and this will eventually contribute to your weight gain.
Besides, having a wrong mindset such as thinking a diet to be a quick solution rather than looking for a long-term solution that will not affect your health. If you are among those who do this, then you are likely to give up and that means you will go back to square one.
There is also lack of consistence as many diets are connected to willpower as compared to habits that you can introduce in your daily life. Diets focus much on rules and not life style changes, and this is the reason that might make you get discouraged and fail to maintain your weight.
But do not give up if you have tried several times and failed. Just try again to follow these techniques and we are quite sure that you will be able to maintain your body weight.
Regular Exercising
To maintain your body, you need to make exercising as part of your daily routine. This helps in burning off additional calories and enhance the rate of metabolism, which are the two major factors that are needed in being able to reach energy balance.
When you achieve energy balance that means that the same number of calories that you consume will be entirely burnt. If this happens that means you are likely to maintain the same body weight.
Several number of studies have come to a conclusion that people who use at least 200 minutes doing normal physical activities per week after they have lost their weight are the most likely to maintain their new body weight.
In some number of cases, even extreme levels of physical activities might be needed in order to maintain your body weight. One of the research concluded that a single hour of exercising per day is minimal for people who wish to maintain weight loss.
What you have to understand is that, exercising is the foundation for maintaining the body weight, but it has to be combined with other life style transitions which include making sure that you always have a healthy diet.
Make sure that you have your breakfast every single day
Having your breakfast on a daily basis might assist you in your body weight maintenance process. People who have their breakfast every day and on time tend to possess healthier habits in general, such as doing exercises and eating foods which are more rich in fiber as well as micronutrients.
Besides, having breakfast is one among the most natural behaviors that have been reported by successfully people that have managed to maintain their weight loss.
There is a study that showed that 78% of 2,959 individuals who have successfully maintained a 30-pound weight loss for a period of a year have all reported that they always have their breakfast.
Despite of many successfully people admitting to take their breakfast as a way of maintain their weight loss, but the evidence is still mixed. As studies have still not proved that skipping breakfast can be direct linked to weight gaining or depreciate eating habits.
To some people, skipping breakfast might be so helpful in achieving their goal in losing weight as well as maintenance.
Therefore if you think that eating breakfast plays a big role in making you stick to your goals then go for it. In case you think eating breakfast or you do not feel hungry in the morning hours then there is no problem if you decide to skip it.
Consume enough amounts of protein
Consuming a lot of protein is essential in helping you maintain your weight loss as protein is known to lead to the decline in appetite as well as enhancing fullness.
Protein works to increase the levels of particular body hormones that trigger satiety and which are so important when it comes to weight regulation. Besides studies have shown that protein work to reduce levels of hormones that are known to increase hunger.
The protein effect upon your hormones as well as fullness will eventually reduce the amount of calories that you consume on your daily basis, which is an important factor when it comes to maintaining your body weight.
In additional to that, protein needs a huge amount of energy to be broken down by your body. This means that consuming a lot of protein will require your body to burn too much calories so as to break the protein during the day.
Several studies have shown that, the effect of protein upon metabolism and appetite works effectively if about 30% of calories are consumed from the protein meal. This means that 150 grams of proteins upon a 2,000 calorie meal.
Make sure that you often weigh yourself
The first step in maintaining your weight is to make sure that you monitor it by using the scale. You have to do this on a regular basis, as it will help you to notice if there is any remarkable changes in your body weight. It will also make you determine your progress and that will enhance your weight control habits.
Normally people who weight themselves consume less calories throughout the entire day and that is an important factor in body maintaining as well as body loss.
One of the study results showed that, people who at least weighed themselves six times a week, consumed less than 300 calories per day as compared to those who did not monitor their weight on a regular basis.
How many times do you weigh yourself depends on your choice. Some will find doing it daily to be perfect while others will do it twice a week.
Be careful of your carb that you consume
Maintaining your body weight might be an easy task to accomplish if you make sure that you pay attention to all types and quantity of carbs that you consume.
Eating a lot of refined carbs, like white bread, fruit juices, white pasta can ruin your body weight control goals.
During their preparation these foods get stripped off their natural fiber. And as you know fibers are essential in promoting fullness. Diets which have been rated to have low fiber are associated with weight gain as well as obesity.
Restricting your carb consumption in general might play a major role in maintaining your weight loss. Some of the studies have shown that, under some cases, individuals who abstained or consumed low carb diets after weight loss were more likely to maintain their weight loss for quite a long time.
Also, people who consume low carb meals have a low possibility of consuming more calories which they cannot burn. This is so important in maintain the body weight loss.
Weight lifts
Loss in muscle mass is a bad side effect when it comes to weight loss and maintenance.
This is can restrict your body capabilities in keeping weight off, as losing muscles leads to the reduction in your body metabolism, and that means you burn fewer calories throughout your entire day.
Practicing some kind of resistance training for example lifting weights, might help in protecting you from losing your muscle mass.
In order to acquire these benefits, you need to engage yourself in extreme strength training at least two days a week. You will need to follow expertise guidance so as to work the entire muscle groups for having the maximum outcome.
Prepare yourself for setbacks
Setbacks cannot be avoided when it comes to weight maintenance journey. There will be moment when you will fail to follow your daily exercises or skip maintaining your healthy diets.
But what you have to understand is that, occasional slip up should never make you go astray and abandon your targets. Just get back into your right track and do what is right.
Besides, it can help in planning ahead prior to the occurrence of such situations that you think will lead to setbacks after you lose your weight. It is possible to overcome setbacks by just planning prior and getting right back on the right track as soon as possible.
Never back off from your plan all week long
If there is a thing, which makes many people regain their lost weights, is consuming healthy diets during weekdays and then cheating on weekends.
Such mentality normally leads people to eat junk food, which can ruin weight maintenance efforts. In case it turns into a habit, then there is a high possibility that you will regain your entire lost weight back.
Researches have shown that individuals who are consistent in their eating pattern throughout the week have a high possibility of sustaining their weight loss in many years to come.
One of the studies showed that being consistent with a healthy diet throughout the week including weekends made individuals more as likely as twice in maintaining their body weight along 2.2 kg over a year, as compared to those who changed their healthy diet during the weekends.
Drink enough water
Drinking water is so critical in weight maintenance due to the following reasons;
For the beginners, it enhances fullness and that means you will not consume a big number of calories if your drink a glass of water or two prior to taking your meals.
One of the study showed, that individuals who drank water prior to eating their meals had a 13% drop in the calorie consumption as compared to those who didn’t.
Besides, researches have shown that drinking water helps in a slight increase in the number of calories which get burned throughout the day.
Make sure that you have a enough sleep
Getting enough is very essential as it affects your weight maintenance. As a matter of fact not having enough sleep has proven to be one of the main risk factors that lead to an individual to gain weight especially in adults, and can also interfere with weight control.
This is caused due to the fact that insufficient sleep leads to the production of higher levels of ghrelin, which is a hunger hormone as it leads to the increase of appetite.
Besides, people who do not have enough sleep tend to have low leptin levels, which is a hormone that is necessary in controlling appetite.
And to make matters worse people sleep for a short period of time are always feeling that their bodies are tired and that means they are not motivated to exercise and opt for healthy diets.
In case you are not having enough sleep, you have to make sure that you find a way of adjusting that bad habit. You have to make sure that you sleep for at least seven hours if you really want to control your body weight and have a healthy life.
Make sure that you maintain your stress levels
Managing your stress is so important when it comes to controlling your weight.
It has been proved that high stress levels play a big role in increasing cortisol levels, which is a hormone that is released in a way of responding to stress.
Constant increase of cortisol is connected to extreme amounts of fats along the belly, as well as increasing appetite and food consumption.
Besides, stress is also a natural trigger for increased consumption of food amounts, and you will find yourself eating even when you are not hungry.
Luckily, there are many things that you can do to help you combat stress and this includes, exercise, meditation and yoga.
Come up with a support technique
Maintaining your weight goals is so difficult. But one of the technique that you can use to successfully maintain this is to come up with a support technique that will help you in weight control, especially if the individual is a spouse or partner who has the same healthy habits.
One among the many studies that examined different health habits of about 3,000 couples came up with results that if one of the two among the couple is engaged in a healthy habit such as exercising, then there is a high possibility that the other will follow.
Keep track of your food consumption
Individuals who keep records of the food consumption in a journal, such as an online food tracker or mobile application have a high possibility of maintaining their body weight loss.
Food trackers are so important as they help to promote awareness about the amount of food you are consuming, as they normally offer specific information about the amount of calories as well as nutrients that someone consumes.
Also, many of the food tracking apps let you stamp in exercise, so you are able to make sure that you are having the right amount that is needed in maintaining your body weight.
Consume a lot of vegetables and fruits
Many studies have linked consuming high amount of vegetables and fruits to weight maintenance. You can consume a huge amount of them without risking your body, as you will not be exposed to gaining weight. Besides, vegetables and fruits have a great amounts of nutrients.
Vegetables and fruits consist of high amounts of fiber, which are known to increase the fullness feeling and that means they will automatically lead you to consume less calories that you eat throughout your day. For better results, it is advised that you consume two vegetables and a fruit per each served meal.
Consistence
Make sure that you maintain your diet and exercising trend and avoid being on and off as his will lead you right back to your old habits. It is very important to make sure that you stick to your best lifestyle for your entire lifetime.
Adopting to a new lifestyle might seem initially overwhelming, but with time making healthy choices will turn out to be natural and habitual for you once you get used to them. During this time you will no longer struggle to maintain your healthy life, but everything will come out naturally.
