How to Keep Weight Off

In general, how to keep weight off is a lot harder than just losing it in the first place, and it’s something that many ‘repeat dieters’ struggle with. You may have experienced this before – you go on a diet, experience good results at first, but fairly quickly you reach a plateau. This leads to a loss in motivation, which causes you to reduce your efforts, and before you know it, you’ve put the weight right back on.

Why is it hard to keep weight off?

One reason why it’s hard to keep the weight off is simply that it’s hard to stay motivated to eat right and exercise regularly. It’s easy to be enthusiastic when you start something new, but it’s inevitably a lot harder to keep your enthusiasm when it’s no longer new. This applies to jobs, hobbies, and home improvement projects just like it applies to dieting.

Another reason why it’s hard to keep weight off may be that your weight loss program wasn’t a good one in the first place. This is common with diets that restrict your calorie intake too severely.

It’s now pretty well-known that diets that restrict your calorie intake can trigger your body’s ‘famine’ response, meaning that your metabolism slows and your body starts to shed muscle tissue.

This is particularly true if you aren’t doing any resistance training in your workouts, it’s entirely possible that the majority of the weight you lose in the early part of a new diet is muscle tissue rather than fat.

This is exactly the opposite of what you want, as muscle burns more calories just to maintain than fat. Losing muscle makes losing fat that much more difficult, so once you’ve lost a lot of muscle tissue your weight loss will probably plateau. This leads to the loss of motivation that we talked about at the start of this article.

Tips for how to keep weight off

If you’re wondering how to keep the weight off, the answer is threefold.

First of all, make sure that your diet is not too calorie restrictive, and that you space out your meals so that your metabolism remains high. Also, do some weight training along with your cardio to maintain and increase your lean muscle tissue.

Second, approach losing weight not as a short-term matter of dieting, but as a life-long matter of eating right and getting the exercise you need. This means that you aren’t allowed to slack off just because you’ve already lost some weight.

Third, take up a physical activity as an alternative to the gym. While going to the gym is probably a necessity, you’re more likely to keep up a sport that includes a social element. If you miss a night of going to the gym no-one but you will know, but miss a game of tennis or volleyball with your friends and you’ll hear about it.

And Finally, Remember to eat small meals and snacks often and make sure they are of good nutritional value. Look around for recipes that have good nutritional value as well as being tasty and give yourself a good selection to choose from.

You will still have to plan your meals and snacks but if you spice them up a bit by having the variety it wont be a chore. You can still have fun and eat well too it’s all the way you approach it.