The Best Ways to Maintain Weight Loss

People in most of the regions around the world are facing the problem of weight gain. The Health and Diet association of America has recently published an article, in which the expats of the organization had claimed that three-fourth of the world population is obese or overweight. This does not mean that people have compromised with their overweight, many of them are struggling to get rid of extra calories and try hard to weight loss maintenance. They also succeed in achieving their goal but the problem is how to maintain weight loss? What to do for Weight Loss Maintenance? 

According to different survey reports, a large number of people spend more than $60-70 billion each year on pound-shedding measures, and weight loss supplements. This shows losing weight is tough. Many of you don’t know the right way to achieve the maximum results. 

When it comes to weight loss, the two keys to success are:

• Find an approach that can work for you specifically, which can make you feel good and keeps you motivated.
• Taking your required time because weight loss occurs slowly but steadily.

Then set a goal for you by knowing correctly what you are trying to achieve. Then try to add achievable increments to your weight loss journey by introducing some lifestyle changes that may help lose weight gradually. Keep yourself ready and enthusiastic to adapt the decided changes which are necessary to maximize the chances of success in your weight loss journey and its maintenance. 

What is Maintenance of Weight Loss?

It’s a common misfortune experienced by most people, they make intense efforts to lose weight and end up gaining it back. Analytical studies show that only 15-20% people become successful in maintaining their weight loss by keeping it off in the long term.

However, this is not a thing to become disheartened. There are a number of people who are struggling to maintain weight loss and they are successful because they know about the scientifically proven ways which help them keep their weight off. These ways include exercising, taking a balanced diet, controlling stress, tracking of your food intake and weight loss regularly, and many more.

In this article, you will find ways to maintain weight loss which are just just like what you need in this regard. Keep reading to achieve your goals easily. 

Causes of Regain of Weight

Many reasons are found by the experts that explain why people gain back the weight they lose. Most of them actually related to prevailed feelings of deprivation and unrealistic expectations. For example:

Wrong Mindset: If you think that diet is a quick fox, you’re wrong. Diet is actually a long term solution to your weight loss struggle. You may be more likely to give up and gain back the weight you lost.

Restrictive Diet: When you try to restrict calorie intake at  extreme points, this may slow your metabolism and shift your appetite-regulating hormones. These factors contribute to regaining weight.

Lack of Sustainable Habits: Sometimes hints you incorporate into your daily life don’t work for weight loss maintenance , willpower based diet plans can help you instead. So focusing on rules cannot help you in this regard. You have to concentrate on your lifestyle changes.

Important ways to maintain weight loss are jotted below:

Regular Exercise

Weight maintenance is directly depends on regular exercise. It helps you increase your metabolism and burn off extra calories as well. These two factors are essential requirements for achieving energy balance. Energy balance means you are successfully burning the same number of calories that you consume. This practice helps you maintain your weight and you stay the same.

Studies found that if you do moderate exercises regularly for 20 to 30 minutes a week after losing your desired weight, you’re more likely to train your weight loss. However, in some cases, intense workouts become necessary for successful weight maintenance after weight loss. Another study revealed that an hour of strenuous exercise power day can be enough for maintaining weight loss successfully.

It is another point to remember that exercise when combined with some lifestyle changes, with addition of a healthy diet prove more helpful in weight maintenance.

Eating Breakfast Regularly

Skipping breakfast is a major cause of weight regain after losing it. Berating breakfast is a good habit promoting your overall health and assisting you with your weight maintenance goals. 

Moreover, eating breakfast regularly is the most common habit of the people who successfully maintain their weight loss. A 2017 study revealed that people eating breakfast regularly can maintain 15 kg weight loss for at least 12 months. However more evidence is needed to prove the effectiveness of this claim. Many studies do not find any results that can confirm that skipping breakfast automatically leads to weight regain. 

In fact, sometimes the repertoire of skipping breakfast helps people maintain their weight and help achieving weight loss maintenance goals. This may vary from individual to individual. So if you feel that eating breakfast can help you achieve your goals you should eat it rather. If you don’t like to eat breakfast, feel free because there is no harm in skipping breakfast, studies say.

Eating Lots of Protein

It is an effective way to maintain your weight loss. Proteins help promote fullness and reduce appetite. It increases levels of beneficial hormones in your body that induce satiety which is essential for weight management. It also helps lower levels of hunger, increasing hormones which compel you to eat more. 

In addition, studies support that since controlling the production of hormones affects your fullness and hunger, protein automatically reduces the number of calories you consume, which is a crucial factor in weight loss maintenance.

Moreover, your body needs a lot of energy to break down protein. Eating protein regularly can increase the number of calories you burn during the day. Several studies support the idea that protein has effects on your appetite calories. Increase in burning more calories and consuming lots of protein can help stabilize your metabolism leading to a permanent weight loss maintenance. 

Weighing Yourself Regularly

Stepping on a scale regularly to monitor your weight is the basic step to help weight loss maintenance. This habit makes you aware of your progress and accountable for your eating habits. This practice may encourage weight control behaviors in you. Weighing yourself may cause the urge to eat fewer calories throughout the day which is an important tool for maintaining weight loss. Studies found that people weighing themselves regularly throughout the week consumed 300 calories less  per day than those who do not monitor their weight after a weight loss. Thus, it is your personal choice how often you weigh yourself. If you find it helpful continue this.

Being Mindful of Your Carb Intake

Paying attention to the types and amounts of carbs you eat can help weight maintenance. This is easier to eat too many refined carbs like white pasta, white bread and fruits and vegetables. These foods can be detrimental to your weight maintenance goals. They also help strip off your natural fiber, which is essential to reduce your hunger and promote fullness. Eating foods low in fiber can cause obesity and weight gain. 

In addition, controlling your carb intake can be helpful in maintaining your weight loss. Many researchers found that if you follow a low-carb diet after weight loss, you’re more likely to keep weight off in the long term. 

Moreover, avoiding carb intake may lead to eating more calories than you burn, which can ruin your weight maintenance.

Lifting Weights

Weight loss always comes with a side effect, reducing muscle mass. Reducing muscle mass makes it difficult for you to keep weight off, because reduction in muscle mass limiting your metabolic rate, means you burn less calories throughout the day. Resistance training such as weight lifting is an effective technique to prevent muscle mass loss. Weight lifting also helps improve your metabolism. Studies suggest that weight lifting after a weight loss can help keep weight off with muscle mass maintenance. To enjoy these beneficial features, it is good to engage yourself in weight lifting or resistance training workouts at least thrice a week. Your all muscles group should be engaged in your workout regimen.

Stay Hydrated

Weight maintenance is associated with staying hydrated because it promotes fullness and helps you keep[ your calorie intake in check. Make a habit to drink a glass or two before meals. According to studies, drinking water before eating a meal can reduce your calorie intake 15% more than not drinking water. Additionally, staying hydrated is also linked with the increase in the number of calories you burn throughout the day. 

Getting Good Quality Sleep

Weight maintenance strategies directly affected by your sleep quality and quantity. Having a good quality and enough amount of sleep can lower the risk of weight gain. Sleep deprivation may become a major cause of weight gain and ruin your weight loss maintenance as well. This means inadequate sleep may cause higher levels of ghrelin, the well-known hunger hormone because it increases the appetite. 

Moreover, when you don’t have a good quality sleep, the level of appetite controlling hormone, leptin, goes down. Sleeping for a short period of time causes tiredness and lack of motivation. So, if you’re not sleeping for the recommended time, try to find the techniques to follow good sleep habits so that you may get sleep of at least eight to nine hours for optimal health and weight loss maintenance.

Controlling Stress Level

Your stress managing strategies also play a key role in maintaining weight loss. High stress levels increase the levels of cortisol, a stress causing hormone, that leads to weight regain. Continuously increasing cortisol levels are closely associated with increased appetite, increased food intake and higher amounts of belly fats. In addition, stress is the causative factor of impulsive eating. In this condition, you eat more even when you’re full. This thing leads to obesity and weight gain.  

However, you need not worry because you have many options to control your stress, such as meditation, exercise and yoga. 

Practicing Mindful Eating

Paying full attention while you’re eating your food and listening to your internal appetite signals is known as mindful eating. Mindful eating practices involve eating your food slowly and chewing it thoroughly so that it may relish your taste buds and you can enjoy the aroma of your meal. Eating mindfully can help you stop eating when you truly feel full. Distracted eating can make it difficult to recognize when you feel fullness or end up overeating. 

In addition, several studies suggested that mindful eating helps in maintaining weight loss as compared to distracted eating. 

Moreover, if you eat mindfully, you may be able to maintain your weight loss without calorie count.

Being Consistent

This is the most effective and beneficial step in weight loss maintenance journey. As consistency is key to success, sticking to your planned healthy diet and lifestyle is good. People who do on-and-off dieting end with going back to old habits and making a loss for their weight loss journey. So try to adopt new ways of life and then make them your second nature when you get used to them. This practice will be effortless and help make your life healthier. Consistency is also necessary for maintaining your weight. 

Conclusion

How to maintain weight loss is a question that needs a realistic answer. Most of the diet plans people adopt are restrictive and unrealistic, which often leads to weight regain after losing it. Thus, you need some changes in your lifestyle and eating habits which can help you stick easily with your weight loss achievement in the long term.

Controlling your weight not only involves what you eat but it also includes your eating style, your lifestyle, the amount of your physical activity, stress level you are experiencing and the sleep quality. Your mental health also is an essential factor, affecting your weight.  

Thus, adopting some simple lifestyle changes can make your weight loss journey effortless and help you maintain your weight loss for a longer period of time as well.