Maintaining Your Weight Loss: 3 Tips

It's common knowledge that most people who lose weight end up gaining it back. That's because very few people take time to maintain their weight loss. They spend a lot of time and energy on the diet and then once they reach their goal weight, they normally give up on their dieting rules and slowly start to gain weight. If you want to lose weight and keep it off, you need to develop a plan for staying at or below your goal weight.

1. Maintaining weight loss starts with losing weight in the right way. Many people who are able to keep the weight off have actually lost the weight over a long period of time. They don't follow crash diets or attempt to lose five pounds a day. They slowly and surely change their eating habits and increase their activity levels so that they lost weight regularly. Since they took time to learn their new eating habits and slowly incorporate them into their way of life, they've been able to stay healthy once they reach their goal weight.

You can do the same by following a diet plan that has you losing no more than 2 pounds a week. A program based on healthy eating habits (and not wacky fads) will equip you with the tools that you need to keep the weight off later on.

2. Once you reach your goal weight, it's time to start gently increasing your food intake so that you create a plateau in weight loss. You don't want to lose more weight, but you don't want to start gaining either. During your weight loss program, you probably kept a food diary of what you ate. Start increasing your food intake in increments of about 30 to 50 calories per day. Monitor your weight carefully during this experimental period so that you know how your calorie increases are affecting your weight. Find a comfortable range of calories where you won't be losing weight, but you won't be gaining it either.

3. Another key to maintaining your weight loss is to keep exercising. Your exercise level should stay on par with what it was while you were learning weight. To avoid getting bored with your exercise routine, try a new activity, such as martial arts or belly dancing. Find ways to incorporate more activity into your daily life. Take the stairs, park far away from your destination and look for family friendly activities that you can share together.

The most important thing to remember when trying to maintain your weight is to stay committed to your weight loss. Keep reminders of how much weight you've lost and be proud of your accomplishments. Don't spend time thinking about the foods you've given up. Take pleasure in you new healthy lifestyle.

Think back often on the accomplishments that you've made. Look for new ways to experiment with healthy foods and reinforce your activity level. People who successfully maintain weight loss know that their lives have changed for the better.

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