Maintaining a Healthy Weight

You have worked hard to lose your excess body fat and developed new eating and exercise methods that now need to become habit.

Once you have achieved a desired weight, a positive attitude is very important in your efforts to successfully manage it. To lose weight permanently, you must make a commitment to gradually adopt a healthier way of life. Maintaining your new weight will become easier over time once your choices become new habits.

13 Tips to Help Maintain Your New Weight

Keeping your new weight is not an impossible task. It simply means burning the same amount of calories that you eat. View the listing below for helpful tips to maintain your desired weight.

1. Motivation is a key to maintaining a healthy weight. Remind yourself of your motivation daily.
2. With the help of your dietitian, determine a calorie goal for weight maintenance.
3. Set a maximum weight for yourself – a weight which you will not let yourself go above. Then weigh yourself daily. If you are nearing your maximum weight, increase your focus on portion sizes, food choices, exercise and attitude.
4. Eat fewer calories by cutting down on portions and/or decreasing the total amount of fat and sugar in your diet.
5. Limit added fats such as fried foods, margarine/butter, salad dressing, rich sauces, gravy, and mayonnaise. Season instead with herbs, lemon, vinegar, wine and low-calorie marinades.
6. Do not skip meals: 4-5 “mini-meals” may help to satisfy your hunger while keeping your weight under control.
7. Do not "starve" yourself. That can leave you to feeling deprived and increase the temptation to binge. Rather apply the techniques that helped you meet your goal weight.
8. Keep low calorie, low-fat snacks on hand such as popcorn, raw vegetables with low calorie dips or fruit.
9. Choose foods high in fiber such as whole-grain breads, high fiber cereals, brown rice, whole wheat pasta and fruits and vegetables.
10. Keep a food and exercise journal. Write down everything you eat or drink including portion sizes. The food journal will help you learn about your eating habits.
11. Limit the variety of foods available to you to only the healthiest options. Avoid buffets and stuffed refrigerators.
12. Keep trigger foods out of the house and/or office.
13. Aim for a minimum of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise most days of the week and a minimum of 20 minutes of strength training twice a week. You may need 45-90 minutes of exercise per day; try breaking up sessions into three – 15 minute periods. Look for small chunks of time that you can get in some exercise.