Staying Thin

After you’ve managed to shave off all of those extra pounds, the last thing you need is to see them creeping back up on you. What takes us months to lose sadly can be back in no time. The easy part about any weight-loss program is to lose the weight, the tricky part is to keep it lost!

The bad news: only 1 in every 20 people who lose weight, stays at that weight.
The good news: it really is not that difficult to be that 1 person.

Though staying the size that you are now can be quite challenging, it is not unachievable. The trick to keeping the weight off is to break it up into small attainable units. Before you try out a new diet and to ensure that you don’t put some weight on, try these few simple steps first.

Keep a regular track of yourself: Though it is not important to weigh yourself every day, keeping a track of weight, body fat percentage and photographs can help keep your fatty days in the albums from the past. If you notice the weight trying to pull a fast one on you, out do it by employing your weight-loss techniques – eating the right foods and exercise.

Stay off the miracle programs: If it sounds too good to be true, then it is. The sooner you learn that there are no shortcuts to losing weight, the better off you will be. If a program promises you a weight loss of 8 pounds in a week, it will put it all back on you in 5 days. The quick-fix routines are nothing but an eyewash to trick your body into a very temporary starved state before it bounces right back.

Spice up your fitness routine: Bored of the same work-outs every day? That is probably going to get you to lose interest in fitness faster than you can lose weight. Just to ensure that you stay on top of things, keep changing your routine every few months or at least shuffle it up a little. Take up new routines or classes to keep you interested. Another benefit of this is that you will be working on a different part of your body and increasing your overall fitness.

Set realistic goals: It works the same way after as it did when you were going through your weight-loss program. Setting realistic goals means that you are able to achieve them and not be disappointed. Staying off your favorite sweet for good does not really happen. Instead, tell yourself that you will only have it once for every three times you used to earlier.

Do your homework: Rather than blindly believing a colleague when she says ‘you don’t have to count calories’, do your research and figure out if there is any truth to what she has to say. Falling for myths is quite often the silliest of mistakes we make in our effort to lose weight or keep it off. It can get especially confusing when there are so many myth-mills spinning out a new fitness related one every other day. What doesn’t help at all is the existence of as many myth-debunkers – with many of them being as baseless as the myths themselves. So researching your way through it is the only option you got.

If you’ve managed to shed the weight, you will be able to stay there with a little bit of effort. A few small steps here, some mindful steps there and before you know it, you will be zipping through life – paused at the same dress size.

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