Very nearly half of all Americans try to lose weight each year. Many are obese or overweight when they start their efforts, while some fall somewhere in the healthy weight range but decide to try to work their way lower down it.
It's no wonder that finally hitting your goal weight can represent a bit of an anticlimax! As I write this, I'm 400 grams away from mine, and I can already say that weight maintenance isn't nearly as motivating as weight loss. It is, however, just as important. At this time, we're at risk of returning to old habits and yo-yoing back up to higher weights.
You don't want that? Nope, neither do I. And that's why the mindset we adopt while we're actively losing weight shouldn't be thrown out the moment we hit our goals. Weight loss might be a finite process, but living our healthiest life shouldn't end when the numbers on the scale stop going down.
What do you need to keep in mind if you don't just want to get to your goal weight, but also stay there?
1. Don't buy into the idea that you can't maintain your new weight!
The frequently thrown-about idea that it's easier to lose weight than to maintain a healthy weight exists for a reason, yes, but it doesn't have to apply to you. Whether you've just lost 100 pounds or 10, if you've done it healthily and gradually, you already have the tools you need to also stay there.
2. Don't abandon the successful strategies that allowed you to lose weight
People who lose significant amounts of weight are more likely to keep those pounds off, science confirms, if they stick to the healthy habits they adopted when they were losing:
- Stay physically active! Whether that means hitting the gym most days of the week, going for a morning jog, walking to work, or whatever else, people who spend at least an hour a day moving their bodies in some way are more likely to maintain a healthy weight.
- Yes, you can increase your calorie intake once you hit maintenance, but you will have better chances of staying at your new weight if you can stick to the same healthy eating patterns. That includes eating a protein-rich breakfast on most days, by the way.
- Keep weighing yourself regularly.
For me, that means I'll keep staying away from fast-food joints and sugary snacks, and cooking two out of three meals a day at home. I'll keep using my legs as my main form of transport and hit the gym at least twice a week. What will it mean for you?
3. Take your mental health very seriously
Things like depression, anxiety, and stress increase your risk of binge-eating or generally falling off the healthy eating, healthy physical activity wagon. We're not just saying that — there's research to back that up. So, post-weight loss, commit to making your mental health a priority. That means radically different things for different people, but can include steps like:
- Seeing a therapist
- Working on improved work-life balance
- Making sure you have time to engage in the kinds of things that really mean something to you
4. Set some new goals!
Weight loss is very goal-focused. You probably had a daily calorie goal along with all sorts of daily nutritional quotas to hit. You might have committed to not eating chips, putting sugar in your coffee, eating out, or eating a protein-rich breakfast each day. You may well have decided to get to the gym four times a week, or to walk a certain number of steps every day. The underlying goal was to see the number on the scale go down, perhaps by a certain amount each week.
We, humans, like rewards — and a weight loss journey is full of them. It's easy to say no to that cookie or that beer when you know why you're doing it. That kind of ends when you're done losing weight, so the trick is to set new goals to reach towards. Maybe it's running a half-marathon, being able to lift a certain amount of weight, trying to get the recommended daily amounts of important vitamins and minerals each day, or something else. The important thing is that the new goals you set are objectively measurable, so you give yourself something new to work on. It can even be completely unrelated to weight loss — perhaps increased productivity at work, more time spent with your family, or taking and finishing a course is the right next step for you.