Everyone who cares about weight loss has heard of yo-yo dieting where you lose weight and then slowly (or quickly) put the weight back on and then lose it again and so on. It is unhealthy to treat your body in that fashion, and it puts a lot of stress on your organs and cardiovascular system. In fact, you can do permanent damage to your body’s ability to maintain equilibrium.
Maintaining the Right Weight and a Lifestyle
When you lose weight by following a calorie restricted fad diet, you are not making a lifestyle change. You are simply dieting. This makes it very difficult to keep lost weight off, because as soon as you start eating again the weight will return.
The ideal healthy diet is really not a diet but more of a fitness plan. You learn to eat right and get regular exercise. The fitness plan is not something you follow for a few weeks until the weight is lost, but it is a plan for living a healthy life. There is a big difference between dieting to lose weight and getting fit while losing weight.
Maintaining weight loss is a lot easier when you adhere to a healthy lifestyle. The key is to make your fitness program interesting by eating a variety of healthy foods and choosing physical activities you enjoy.
If you are uncomfortable working out at the gym then you can hire an in-home trainer who can develop a varied exercise program. If you like exercising outdoors, there are many different athletic and recreational activities which you can do to burn calories. You can play tennis or start a walking program.
Paying Attention to the Details
The key to weight loss is to continue your weight maintenance program in your daily living while paying attention to habits which could lead to weight gain.
- Stay focused on your daily weight loss maintenance program by becoming aware of physical symptoms indicating the body is distressed (i.e. eating high fat food that causes indigestion)
- Weigh yourself regularly without being obsessive
- Learn how to choose a variety of healthy foods
- Learn how to cook foods in a healthy manner
- Exercise 5 to 7 days a week
- Change your exercise program regularly so you don’t lose interest
- Don’t let your body feel starved which lowers your resistance to eating junk food or extra calories you don’t need
- Only eat when you are hungry and not because it is “meal time”
- Eat smaller meals more frequently
- Make sure your exercise program includes aerobic and strength training exercises
- Look for ways to burn more calories as you go through the day (i.e. stand instead of sitting, parking far from the store door and so on)
Keeping the pounds off for weight loss is not difficult as long as you pay attention to your diet and continue to exercise regularly. Even as you age and the metabolism naturally slows down, low fat diets coupled with increased exercise can help you stay at the right weight.
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