What’s the best way to lose weight? What are the best things to eat to lose weight?
These are the questions that most people ask when they want to know how best to maintain their weight loss.
Only 20% of dieters who start obese successfully stay reduced in weight over time, and most people who lose weight end up gaining it back.
Yet, there are many ways to keep your weight off. Some of the most proven methods range from exercise to managing stress.
This blog post will answer these questions and more! Here, you’ll find the 17 best ways to maintain your weight loss for everyday life!
Why People Regain Weight
There are lots of reasons why people gain the weight back. One reason is that they think they can’t eat anything. Other reasons are that they think things are too hard or too complicated.
Restrictive diets: Extreme calorie restriction can slow your metabolism and shift your appetite-regulating hormones. Those are both factors that contribute to weight regain.
Wrong mindset: When you think of the diet as a quick fix, you will want to quit it faster. It won’t have any effect on your health.
Lack of sustainable habits: Some diets are based on rules instead of habits. They make you follow a bunch of rules that can be hard to keep up with. But other diets help you develop good habits and change your lifestyle. Ones like these are better because they can also help you maintain your weight when the diet is over.
Exercise Often
Regular exercise is important for weight maintenance. You can burn off some extra calories by going to the gym. You will want to go when you do not have work and when you need energy.
When you are in energy balance, you burn the same number of calories as you eat. When this happens, your weight does not change very much.
After people lose weight, they need to keep themselves busy and active. Studies show that if people get at least 200 minutes of moderate activity each week (30 minutes per day), they are more likely to maintain weight.
Sometimes, people who are trying to maintain weight loss need more exercise. One review found that exercising for one hour a day is best.
Exercise is really the best way to maintain your weight when you also eat a healthy diet.
Try Eating Breakfast Every Day
Eating breakfast may help you to keep your weight.
People who eat breakfast are healthier. They exercise more and have more fiber and micronutrients in their food.
People who lose weight for a long time report that eating breakfast is important.
One study found that 78% of 2,959 people who lost 30 pounds or more for one year ate breakfast every day.
Eating breakfast is often recommended as a way to maintain weight loss, but the evidence is mixed.
Studies do not show that you will automatically get fat or have worse eating habits if you don’t eat breakfast.
Some people may lose weight by skipping breakfast. They can do this if they want to lose weight and maintain it.
This is up to the person. If you want to eat breakfast and think it will help you stay on your goals, then you should eat. But if you don’t like eating breakfast or are not hungry in the morning, there is no problem in skipping it.
Eat Lots of Protein
Eating a lot of protein can help you stay slim because it can reduce your appetite and make you feel full.
Protein helps your weight because it increases certain hormones that make you full. Protein can also reduce hunger hormones.
Protein can help your hormones. It will make you feel full, which means that you will eat less. You should eat more protein when you want to lose weight.
Eating protein can help you get strong. Protein is hard for your body to break down, so it might make you burn more calories.
Some studies show that people are healthier when they eat about 30% of their calories from protein. That is 150 grams of protein for someone who is eating 2,000 calories a day.
Weigh Yourself Regularly
You should weigh yourself regularly to make sure you are gaining or losing weight. This can help you because then you will know how much weight you have lost.
Those who weigh themselves may also eat fewer calories. This is helpful for weight loss.
A study found that people who weighed themselves six days a week consumed 300 fewer calories per day than those who monitored their weight less often.
Some people weigh themselves every day. Other people weigh themselves every week. It is up to you which option you want to do.
Be Mindful of Your Carb Intake
Weight maintenance might be easier if you pay attention to the types and amounts of carbs you eat.
Eating too much white bread, white pasta, and fruit juice can affect weight.
Some healthy foods have been taken away from their natural fiber. This makes them not as healthy, and they are associated with weight gain and obesity.
Eating fewer carbs might help you lose weight. It may be better to eat this way after losing weight. It is usually easier to maintain weight when you eat fewer carbs than when you eat more carbs.
People on diets that don’t have carbs are less likely to eat more than they burn. This is good for people who want to lose weight.
Lift Weights
Weight loss can lead to reduced muscle mass. The more muscle you lose, the fewer calories you burn. It can be hard to stay thin.
When you do resistance training, it might prevent muscle loss. This can help your metabolism.
Studies show that people who do weight-lifting after losing weight are more likely to keep the weight off.
Every week, you should work out. You should do this at least twice a week. You need to make sure that you work all the muscles to get the most from your workouts.
Be Prepared for Setbacks
On your weight loss journey, there will be times when you give in to unhealthy foods or skip working out.
It is okay if you make a mistake sometimes. Keep going forward and make better choices.
Plan for things that will make healthy eating difficult, like vacations or holidays.
Stick to Your Plan (Especially on Weekends)
One bad habit is eating healthy all week and then cheating on the weekends.
When people are sad, they might eat too much junk food, which can make them gain weight. If you return to unhealthy eating habits, you will gain more weight than when you started.
People who follow a regular eating pattern all week are likelier to lose weight in the long term than those who don’t.
Some people trying to lose weight were twice as likely to maintain their weight if they did not allow any flexibility on the weekends.
Stay Hydrated
You should drink water to help your weight. Drinking water helps your body work better. It works for a few reasons.
Water is good for you. A few glasses of water before meals can help you eat less.
In a study, people who drank water before eating had 13% fewer calories than people who did not drink water before eating.
Drinking water increases the number of calories you burn throughout the day.
Get Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep can help you control your weight.
If you don’t sleep, you will gain weight. It seems like it might make it harder to lose weight too.
This is partly because when people don’t get enough sleep, their ghrelin levels are higher. Ghrelin is a hormone that makes people feel hungry.
Moreover, people who do not sleep well have lower levels of a hormone that helps with appetite control.
It is hard to be motivated when you are tired. You may not want to exercise or make healthy food choices.
If you don’t sleep enough, it will be hard to control your weight or be healthy. You should try to sleep for at least 7 hours every night.
Control Stress Levels
Stress is important to weight control.
High-stress levels can make you gain weight again. This is because when stressed, your body releases a hormone called cortisol.
Cortisol is a hormone that makes people hungry. When they eat, it gets in their belly and makes them fatter.
You might eat even when you’re not hungry if you are stressed.
Stress is hard. You can fight it by exercising, doing yoga, and meditation.
Find a Support System
It is hard to maintain your weight goals by yourself.
A strategy to help you change your life is to find a system that will help you. You can ask your friends or family to be on this team. They might tell you if they see something wrong, and they can hold you accountable for the things that are going well in your life.
Some studies say that having a friend who will go on your diet with you may be helpful. This is especially true if the friends are spouses or partners and they both have healthy habits.
One study looked at the habits of 3,000 couples. They found that when one person exercised, their partner was more likely to do it too.
Track Your Food Intake
It can be hard to keep track of what you eat. If you use a journal, app, or tracker, your weight might not go up.
Food trackers are good because they make you aware of what you eat. They provide information about how many calories and nutrients you eat.
Additionally, many tools let you log food or exercise. This way, you can eat and work out the right amount to maintain your weight.
Eat Plenty of Vegetables
Several studies show that people who eat a lot of vegetables can control their weight better.
Vegetables are low in calories. You can eat large portions of vegetables without putting on weight. Vegetables have a lot of nutrients too.
Vegetables have fiber, and they make you feel full. So then, maybe you will not want to eat so many calories.
To lose weight, it is good to eat vegetables. Have them at every meal.
Be Consistent
If you want to lose weight, be consistent. If you stop, then your weight will go up again.
If you want to have a healthy diet and lifestyle for the long term, it is important not to go on and off.
When you change your life to be healthy, it will get easier. You might not think it is easy at the beginning, but when you get used to it, you will like living this way.
You will have less effort in your weight if you eat healthily. You’ll be able to maintain it much easier.
Practice Mindful Eating
Mindful eating is about listening to your body during the meal. You should pay attention and not watch TV or talk with other people at the table.
Savor your food by eating slowly and without distractions. Chew your food in order to taste it fully.
If you eat this way, you might stop eating when you are full. Eating while watching TV will be hard to know when to stop, and you might overeat.
Studies show that mindful eating helps you not gain weight. It helps people stop emotional eating, which is when someone eats because they are mad or sad.
If you eat mindfully, you may not need to count calories.
Make Sustainable Changes to Your Lifestyle
Many people who try to lose weight do not succeed because they are on an unrealistic diet. They will get hungry and give up.
When people do not eat enough, they feel bad and often start to gain weight again.
Maintaining weight loss comes down to making sustainable changes to your lifestyle.
This means not being too strict, staying consistent, and making healthy choices.
Conclusion
Diets can be hard to follow. People often end up getting the weight back.
Here are some changes that you can make to your habits. They might be easy to stick with and help you maintain your weight loss.
As you go on, you will realize that there are more things in life than what you eat. Exercise, sleep, and mental health all play a part.
It can be possible to maintain weight if you start a new lifestyle. You can do this instead of going on and off different diets.
