The 5 Best Ways to Maintain Weight Loss

You’ve worked hard to get to your goal weight, and now you want to stay there.

Preventative care is the best way to avoid gaining that weight back, yet sticking to your diet routine forever doesn’t make sense. You’re already where you want to be; you don’t need to keep doing what you were doing.

It’s not easy to maintain weight loss, though. Only 1 in 5 people can lose weight and keep it off.

You can be that successful person. All you have to do is use these five tips to create a healthy daily maintenance routine.

1. Keep Exercising

Exercise is a necessary part of a successful weight loss and health program. The type of physical activity you’d do to lose weight is similar to maintenance exercise.

But your goal is only to burn extra calories while keeping your metabolism up. These two factors create a balance of energy that lets you use the calories you eat so you don’t lose or gain weight.

Thirty minutes of moderate exercise every day is the recommended level of activity for weight maintenance.

2. Eat a Balanced Diet

Your weight loss diet was full of things you couldn’t eat. A balanced diet doesn’t restrict your meals. It teaches you how to consume whatever you choose to eat in a way that still gives you all the nutrients you need.

Eat, But Eat Right

Healthy choices start as soon as you wake up and don’t stop until you fall asleep.

Begin by eating a healthy breakfast. Skipping the most important meal of the day interferes with your metabolism.

You’ll start burning calories you didn’t eat, making you hungry by lunchtime. People who skip breakfast or eat an unhealthy meal are more likely to binge on junk food the rest of the day.

Fill up on protein-packed healthy snacks when you feel the urge to munch. Don’t buy chips and cookies. Load your cupboard and fridge with things like nuts, berries, pickles, and yogurt.

This article guides you as you learn how to create a balanced diet in your day.

3. Pay Attention to Your Body

Weight gain doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a gradual process that you can stop if you pay attention to what’s going on in your body.

When you start eating junk food again after your system gets used to healthy nutrition, you may become bloated, gassy, or constipated. Sleep cycles that were restful could be interrupted. You’ll feel tired and foggy.

These are all warning signs that you’re back on the slippery slope to weight gain.

Weigh yourself regularly. You’ll know when your pounds start inching back on. At that point, you may need a few weeks of the intensive weight loss regimen you were on previously.

4. Read Your Cravings

When your body is deficient in a nutrient, it shows up as a craving. For most of us, these are usually unhealthy. It’s pretty rare that someone with calcium deficiency says, “I’m dying for a kale salad.” Instead, they’ll start craving ice cream.

Reading your cravings helps you replace the desire for junk with a healthier alternative.

You can also prevent cravings altogether by keeping your body balanced. This homeostasis starts in your endocannabinoid system. If you suddenly start noticing urges for junk food, the problem might be much deeper than a sweet tooth.

5. Plan Ahead

Meal planning is a vital part of weight loss and maintenance. Planning for every meal seven days a week gives you the chance to make sure your diet is balanced.

Our society tends to take the weekend off from doing the “right” things. Weekends are the time to let go, unwind, and cheat on our healthy eating. With meal plans, you can avoid this temptation.

Plan to Succeed

Do you really want to throw away the hard work you did all week and that good, clean feeling your body has for a day or two of binging? Remember, you’ll be more likely to keep the weight off if you stay in a preventative mindset.

The next time you want to indulge in an unhealthy meal, check the calories first. Then, do the math to see how many minutes on a treadmill you’d need to exercise to neutralize those calories.

It may be a deterrent that convinces you to say no and pick something healthier instead!

Conclusion

Losing weight is an ongoing struggle that billions of people deal with daily. You’ve beaten the odds and reached your goal! Now it’s time to work on staying there.

These five tips are expert-proven ways to maintain weight loss. Just like losing weight in the first place, maintenance is a combination of strong mental dedication and physical behaviors.

You don’t want to have to start over again, so keep these tips in mind as you go through each day.