It’s been difficult, but you’ve finally lost the excess weight. Now it’s on to how to maintain weight loss after low calorie diet?
It’s no secret that dieting can be difficult. You’ve learned to be vigilant about the number of calories you consumme, and how many you burn. But, maintaining that hard sought after weight loss can be more difficult than losing it.
Why do people gain back the weight they lose from dieting?
Dieting is often seen as a quick fix for weight loss, vs lifestyle changes that include healthy eating habits. Even though the weight loss can be slower, lifestyle changes produces more permanent weight loss.
Many people who lose weight through dieting end up gaining it back. Here’s 3 possible reasons why this can happen:
- You’ve been on a low calorie diet and your body realizes you’ve deprived it of food. So, it went into a starvation mode. This means that your body starts to hold on to fat stores and burns fewer calories. As a result, when you start eating again, you may gain back the weight you lost, plus more.
- Dieting often leads to cravings and binge eating. When you restrict your food intake, you may find yourself obsessing over food and eventually give in to your cravings. This can cause you to overeat and regain the weight you lost.
- Many people who lose weight through dieting regain the weight because they never develop healthy eating habits.
All of these factors make it difficult to stop dieting without gaining weight. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s important to do it in a healthy way that you can maintain over the long term.
How to Maintain Weight Loss After Low Calorie Diet?
This list highlights the things you can do to prevent gaining weight after you’ve lost it.
1. Educate Yourself
Despite what the old cliché would have you believe, ignorance is not bliss. Getting knowledgeable about nutrition and fitness is essential for leading a healthy lifestyle.
You do not need to become an expert in either one, rather, you should arm yourself with basic knowledge. You can always ask for advice from an expert when you have questions about your weight flucuating.
Some of the aspects that are important to learn about are: reading food labels, identifying the potentially harmful ingredients in highly processed foods, recommended daily allowances, how to safely perform exercises, recognizing injuries, etc.
2. Get Organized
Getting organized can be accomplished in several different ways. One way of getting organized is developing a daily routine. Establishing a daily routine helps you remain healthy.
Routines have been shown to have positive effects on eating habits, better sleep, memory, and mental health. Another way of getting organized is by making lists. A list can help you keep track of the things you need and of things you need to do.
A grocery shopping list is highly recommended. Adhering to this type of list enables you to eliminate splurging on bad foods you find in the grocery stores. Setting goals and keeping journals are also great organizational methods that promote weight maintenance.
3. Monitor What You Eat
Monitoring your food consumption is very important. Food journals are a great way to keep track of the amount of food you consume each day.
Keeping a journal holds you accountable for your intake, helps you eat balanced meals (if you menu plan), helps you keep track of your goals, and helps you connect your emotions with what you eat and the amounts.
Other ways of preventing weight gain through food monitoring and mindful eating include:
- Preparing your own meals helps you keep track of what is in your food and the amount in each serving.
- Avoid highly processed foods (can contain additives that promote weight gain), fast foods, and junk foods
- Choose water or 100% fruit juices over other beverages.
- Carry your own snacks with you. This helps to prevent you from making poor food choices when you are away from home.
- Eat when you are hungry. Forcing yourself to wait can promote binge eating.
- Eat at the table. Eating while watching television, working on the computer, or reading can lead to overeating and poor food choices.
- Get your daily recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals. – Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can lead to food cravings.
4. Stay Aware of Your Body and Health
Routinely assessing your weight can help you identify weight gain early. Early identification is important because it allows you to take a closer look at your lifestyle and implement changes before it becomes a worse issue.
Scheduling routine checkups with your doctor will also help you identify potential causes. Health-related conditions like hypothyroidism, pregnancy, or menopause can promote weight gain and can only be diagnosed by a doctor.
5. Drink Water
Drinking water helps prevent your body from retaining excess water weight. The amount of water you consume also has an effect on the blood volume in your body.
6. Do Not Deprive Yourself.
For some people, maintaining a healthy weight could be as simple as not depriving themselves of food. For others, food deprivation causes them to binge eat.
Instead of severely restricting calories or cutting out specific types of food, look for ways to change your lifestyle to maintain your health.
7. Exercise
When someone says exercise, most people automatically think of going to a gym. Going to gyms is a great way to stick to a fitness program. You have access to professionals who can teach you how to properly perform exercises and use equipment. You can enroll in specialized classes or schedule personal training sessions.
The important thing gym users need to remember is to keep your exercise routine interesting. Many people who try the gym method end up getting burnt out, from either trying to do too much or boredom from repeating the same routine.
The gym, however, is not for everyone. The good news is that there are plenty of alternative ways to get exercise at home: walking, fitness videos, personal training sessions at home, home equipment, sport activities with friends, hiking, swimming, etc.
Just doing the activities that you love in your spare time is enough, just make sure you schedule it and stick to it when you make the commitment.
8. Reduce Stress
Reducing the amount of stress in your life is very important for preventing weight gain. Stress elevates the levels of cortisol in your body. Higher and prolonged levels of cortisol has been shown to suppress thyroid function, decrease muscle tissue, increase blood pressure, and increase abdominal fat storage.
Ways to reduce your stress level include:
- Identify the causes. Are you constantly worried about something? Are you stressed at work? If so, why? Are you having marital problems?
- Once you have identified the cause, make a plan of action to deal with it (work on finding a resolution to the problem, talk to your co-worker or boss, get counseling, etc.).
- Learn to relax. You aren’t going to be able to fix everything.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Learn to ask for help.
9. Find a partner
Finding a partner to help you has its benefits. It keeps you motivated and on the right track.
When you find a partner, go over the expectations (make sure the plan works for both of you). You can do all the above steps together, or do them separately and compare notes.
In either case, two head are better than one and you will find that it makes the process easier. It also helps to have someone to talk to who knows exactly what you are going through.
10. Take A Day for Yourself
Take one day a week where you do whatever you like. Doing so will help prevent you from experiencing burnout while dieting.
This doesn’t mean eating a whole pizza in one sitting. But if pizza is what you want, have a slice. If you wish to go to the movies and have a bag of popcorn, go ahead. You will find that having time to enjoy yourself makes sticking with a healthy lifestyle much easier.
Summary
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Weight gain can be a difficult thing to prevent. Many factors, such as metabolism and lifestyle choices, can play a role in how easily someone gains weight.
However, there are some things that everyone can do to help prevent unwanted weight gain after a low calorie diet:
- Eat a healthy diet. This means eating plenty of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and avoiding processed foods and sugary drinks.
- Get regular exercise. A combination of cardio and strength training is ideal, but any type of movement will help to burn calories and keep the body moving.
- Be mindful of portion sizes. Overeating can lead to weight gain, even if the food itself is healthy. Following these simple tips, can help to prevent weight gain and live a healthier life.
I’ve always found that prevention is easier than cure, especially when it comes to weight gain. The weight gain comes on so slowly that it’s hard to be aware of what’s happening. Using these 10 tips will aid in preventing weight gain before it takes over your body, life and lifestyle.