Maintaining your ideal body weight is tough, no matter where you are in your weight loss journey. Use these tips to set yourself up for success.
This means higher risk for many serious health problems, including heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.
If you’re overweight, losing even a few pounds can improve your health, so every step in the right direction counts!
When your weight is in a healthy range:
- Your body more efficiently circulates blood.
- Your fluid levels are more easily managed.
- You are less likely to develop diabetes, heart disease, certain cancers, gallstones, osteoarthritis, breathing problems and sleep apnea.
- You may feel better about yourself and have more energy to make other positive health changes.
Losing weight isn’t easy, but there’s no doubt it’s worth it. It sounds simple enough: To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you eat. And to stay at a healthy weight, you need to balance healthy eating and physical activity. Most fad diets and quick weight loss schemes don’t work, because they don’t help you learn how to maintain a healthy weight over the long haul.
There’s no “secret” to success, but there are a few basic steps to losing weight you can take.
Keeping the Weight Off
OK, you’ve lost some weight. Now you can relax, right? Not so fast! Maintaining weight loss can take just as much effort as losing it. Here are some tips:
- Know your triggers, roadblocks and favorite excuses. We all have them!
- Don’t kid yourself. This is a long-term effort. The first year or two after significant weight loss may be the hardest, but if you can stick it out you’re more likely to make it in the long run.
- Learn from others who’ve succeeded and follow their example.
- Make sure you have a social support network of friends, family and health professionals who will support your new healthy habits.
- Find healthy ways to motivate yourself to stick with it.
- At the end of the day, it’s up to you. Hold yourself accountable for the decisions you make.
- And remember, you can’t do it by diet alone. For people trying to keep weight off, exercise is even more essential. The American Heart Association recommends 200 to 300 minutes of physical activity a week to keep those extra pounds from creeping back
A healthier approach to food
You can lose body fat by making a few easy changes to your eating habits. It will help you lose body fat if you:- Avoid yoyo diets.
- Eat a wide variety of food from all food groups. Check that you eat from the following food groups every day – wholegrain bread and cereals, vegetables, fruit, milk and dairy, and meat, fish or legumes and where possible, choose low-fat varieties.
- Increase your fruit and vegetable intake, particularly vegetables, as most are low in calories and contain fibre, which helps you feel full.
- Reduce your intake of foods that are high in added fat, sugar and salt. Make soft drinks, lollies and snack foods an occasional 'extra'. Most adults should eat no more than one or two 'treats' a day. If you are overweight or inactive, you may need to limit treats to less than one a day.
- Try to balance an 'extra' food with extra exercise. The more energy you burn, the more treats you can afford to have. Remember, you should only add extra foods after you have covered your nutrient needs with choices from the healthier food groups.
- Cut down on saturated fats and alcohol.
- Replace sugary drinks with water.
- Avoid using food for comfort, such as when you are upset, angry or stressed. Explore other healthy ways to cope with these feelings.
Get moving – it will give you energy
Some people feel too busy or too tired to exercise regularly, but exercise will actually increase your energy levels and help you to feel less tired. Exercise does not have to be overly strenuous, even moderate amounts of physical activity of about 30 minutes a day can speed up your metabolic rate and help weight loss.The amount of energy you 'burn up' depends on your age, your gender and your activity level. Young people burn more energy than older people. Men burn more energy than women. More physically active people burn more energy than your average couch potato.
A healthier approach to exercise
The best approach to increasing the level of physical activity in your life is to take it slowly. You can increase your activity levels by simply increasing movement throughout the day. The human body is designed for movement and any physical activity brings benefits.Moderate intensity exercise – walking, gardening, cycling, and even mowing the lawn – has been shown to help reduce body fat.
Other suggestions for a more active lifestyle include:
- Play a sport that you enjoy.
- Walk instead of taking the car on short trips.
- Get off the train, bus or tram one stop early and walk the rest of the way.
- Play more outdoor games with your children.
- Walk the dog.
- Take stairs instead of lifts.
- Choose exercise activities you think are fun, rather than those you think are good for you. You could try dancing or kicking the footy around with some friends.
Lapsing and Relapsing
A lapse is a small mistake or slip into old habits. This can happen when you have a bad day and overeat or skip your workout. A relapse is when you go back to old habits for several days or weeks.
Remember that having a lapse or relapse is not failing. You can get back on track. Try to find new, healthier ways to handle life’s stresses besides overeating or becoming one with your couch. Take a walk, talk with a friend, or do something to help someone else. Just don’t give up!