After you’ve lost your desired amount of weight, the next challenge is keeping that weight off permanently. Losing weight is actually the easy part of the equation and it’s during the maintaining phase that most people end up right back where they started. It can be especially difficult to keep off the unwanted weight if you were primarily focused on losing weight fast and lost an incredible amount of body fat in a short period of time. But here are six tips to help you maintain your new physique and health:
1. Check Your Weight Every Day
Always check the scale regularly so you can ensure that you’re not gaining any additional body fat. According to some studies, weighing yourself on a weekly basis can help you keep it off long term. But this is not the only thing you need to do; if you notice that the scale weight has been gradually increasing over the past several weeks, you need to make adjustments to your diet and workout program to stop this from continuing. Just keep in mind that scale fluctuations do occur, so weighing yourself once per week is not going to be enough – you’re going to have to judge accordingly over the course of several weeks. Each week you weigh yourself, weigh yourself at the same time each morning (when you first wake up) and jot down on a piece of paper what your weight was so you can keep track of it from week to week.
2. Change Your Fitness Routine
In order to maintain your new body fat, a solid workout routine is important for doing so. But doing the same routines over and over again is not the answer, since you will most likely get bored with them and your body will get used to them as well. Always make sure you’re changing your workout program every 12 weeks or so. Find ways to make your workout program fun instead of a chore.
3. Build Some Muscle
Muscle loss will occur as you age and consequently your metabolism will slow down as well. If you want to maintain your new body weight, then you need to be hitting the gym and not only doing cardio, but also lifting weights as well. Not only does it burn more calories, but it can help you speed up your metabolic rate and help you gain muscle fast.
4. Add New Food to Your Diet
Just because a diet is healthy does not necessarily mean it must be boring. You can spice up your diet by simply introducing a few new foods. You can read cookbooks and watch cooking shows to learn about new recipes that are healthy for you and taste good as well. So forget about brown rice and chicken all the time. Get some variety in your diet and start eating some foods that you actually enjoy. Just make sure they are nutritious as well!
5. Get Adequate Sleep
It’s common sense that if you don’t get enough sleep the previous night, you’re bound to be tired the next day. And when you’re tired, your motivation is going to take a downward spiral and you’re not going to have the energy to hit the gym. Not to mention that your fat loss hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone will take a drop while your fat storing hormones such as leptin and cortisol will take a sharp rise. To avoid these things from happening, always make sure that you get at least eight hours of sleep each night.
6. Get Support from Family and Friends
If your family and friends don’t know about your new lifestyle, you are going to have a much harder time keeping the weight that you lost off. For example, if it’s your birthday your friends might surprise you with some ice cream and birthday cake and expect you to eat it – and they would feel insulted if you don’t. You don’t want to disappoint them, but at the same time you know that eating such foods would compromise your fitness goals. To prevent this from happening, always tell your friends and family about your new lifestyle and tell them about any fitness goals you may have. If you have good friends and understanding family members, they will not nag you for making such a positive change in your life and might even help you out – maybe by bringing celery sticks to your birthday instead of cake! LOL.
