First of all, losing weight is quite a struggle for most, but to finally lose and reach your goal weight, and 6 months later you have gained it all back and added a few, well that’s just downright awful!
Gaining back weight previously lost is quite common after initially experiencing rapid weight loss from drastic measures such as surgery, fad diets, stressful life events, illness, etc. Often when weight loss happens because of rapid or drastic measures, the necessary healthy habits needed to create or maintain the weight loss were never learned or implemented in the first place.
For sake of today’s topic, “Top 3 Strategies for Maintaining Weight Loss,” we are going to address how to keep the excess weight off, no matter how you lost it.
Build a Healthy Dietary Strategy.
Know how to choose the right nutrition plan for you. I wrote a blog on this exact topic that may help if you are not sure. Click here to read that first. Use John Clear’s 4 steps to Atomic Habits mentioned in that blog to create your desired habits: Make it Obvious, Make It Attractive, Make it Easy, Make it Satisfying.
Develop a Self-Monitoring Strategy.
Once you have your strategy, determine how to monitor, and track your progress. Examples of this would be a fitness tracker app, meal tracker app, written food journal, written fitness journal, accountability partner, personal trainer, or health coach.
Depending on your personality and your specific needs for accountability you may have strong will power to stick with monitoring on your own, or you may need back up help to encourage and motivate you along the way.
Practice Psychological Coping Strategies.
Practice daily affirmations to overcome insecurities or limiting beliefs that could cause you to fall back into bad habits like emotional eating or stress eating.
Incorporate ways to “reset” when you feel like your habits are beginning to slide back into old negative patterns due to burnout or boredom. One way to reset is to create a fresh new workout or meal plan every 3 months that has a fun reward at the end when you achieve the goals you have in place.
Planning out stress management techniques. Write down the stress triggers you already know you have, and plan out a healthy response to those triggers that will help redirect your once negative reaction, to a now positive response that keeps you on track with your goals.
For example, if you are recently divorced, maybe loneliness creates anxiety or stress, which may lead to going out to mingle with friends, maybe drink alcoholic (high calorie-no nutrition) drinks, then eat high calorie-no nutrition appetizers to go along with the socializing, leading to a next day sluggish hangover and the beginnings of weight gain. Reset that known trigger of loneliness and divert to a more productive activity. What about a 24 hour gym? Instead of going out for drinks and appetizers, maybe go to the gym and walk on the treadmill or join a group workout? You could meet friends that have the same interests which also helps with the loneliness.
How about end of day stress, and that glass of wine, that really leads to a bottle of wine each night? What could you replace the wine with to respond to your need to wind down? Maybe a 20 minute bedtime yoga routine, a warm bath, an evening walk listening to your favorite podcast or relaxing music?
These are just my top 3 based on a study I read in IDEA Fitness Journal, where scientists surveyed 4,786 people who were able to maintain a weight loss greater than 9.1 kilograms (about 20 pounds) for more than 3 years. Responses indicated that building healthy dietary, self-monitoring and psychological coping strategies were key to siphoning off weight and keeping it at bay.
There are most certainly many more habits and techniques that can be helpful in this journey. What works for some, may not work for others. The key is finding what works for YOU!
If you need help in finding out what works for you, please reach out and ask for help. There’s no wrong question when it comes to learning about how to take care of your mind and body.
We are here to help! Ladies, schedule a free consultation with me, men schedule with Brian, if you have questions or would like to talk through what YOUR next logical step might be in this process. Click HERE to book a free Phone/Zoom Consultation.
Sources:
Top Strategies for Maintaining Weight Loss. (2020, June 08). Retrieved August 25, 2020, from https://www.ideafit.com/nutrition/top-strategies-for-maintaining-weight-loss/
Clear, J. (2018). Atomic habits tiny changes, remarkable results; an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones. NY, NY: Avery.