Successfully Maintaining Weight Loss
Posted at 07:42 in Food, Personal, Training
As it is now coming up to 9 months for maintaining my 3 and a half stone weight loss, I thought I would re-post this for anyone just nearing or entering their maintenance phase.
This post is prompted by the fact that today marks the 3rd month of successfully maintaining my weight loss.
Reaching my goal was the best moment ever because I know, with my hand on my heart, that this time it is forever.
The last time I lost weight, which was about 4-5 years ago, I had already started putting it back on by this time. Old habits had started creeping back in, I had the mentality that I was at goal so could eat a few more treats, and before I knew it, I was back to where I started, with extra weight for good measure. One thing you can always guarantee – the weight goes on a lot easier than it comes off!
So, what is different this time? My attitude. I believe that to truly succeed at maintaining weight loss, your attitude towards food, exercise and yourself has to completely change.
I was reading a diet/fitness board the other day, where a girl was singing the praises of Slimming World, saying how good the diet is and how it “works for her”. What she failed to mention to the person asking advice is that yes, it worked for her, but only for as long as she followed the plan. She lost around 3 stone. However, she went on to gain about 5 stone. That is not a success is it?
So, let’s talk about the word diet. Everyone has a diet – mine is healthy, the next person’s might not be so healthy, the person after him might be downright terrible. The only context the word diet should be used is in the “everyday diet” sense.
Many people, when wanting to lose weight, say they are going on a diet. The word diet, in this context indicates something that is started, so will consequently be stopped. This is just setting yourself up for failure.
The most important thing to remember when trying to lose weight that bad habits have to be broken, new habits have to be formed and these changes need to be made for life.
I always remember at the start of my journey, a girl I know said something that pinged on that light bulb in my head. She said “If you want to be a size 12, you have to eat like a size 12 for the rest of your life”.
Does that mean I will have to monitor everything I eat for the rest of my life? Most likely. Is it worth it to look good, feel good and be healthy? Absolutely! There are some people who can eat whatever they want and not have to worry about gaining weight – good for them! However, I am not one of them.
I also know that it’s not just about how you look on the outside. There are plenty of skinny young things who have the metabolism of a 200lb, hulk of a man, that can eat what they want, drink what they want and not gain an ounce. However, I can guarantee their insides will not be as lean as their outer side.
Some doctors think that internal fat, that surrounds the major organs like the heart, liver and pancreas is just as dangerous as the adipose tissue that bulges out underneath the skin. Being “thin” does not protect one from diabetes or heart disease.
Dr Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, and his team have scanned over 800 people with MRI machines to show how people carry fat around their vital organs.
Out of all the women scanned by Dr Bell and his team, 45% of those with normal BMI scores, and 60% of men, actually had excessive levels of internal fat.
This post is prompted by the fact that today marks the 3rd month of successfully maintaining my weight loss.
Reaching my goal was the best moment ever because I know, with my hand on my heart, that this time it is forever.
The last time I lost weight, which was about 4-5 years ago, I had already started putting it back on by this time. Old habits had started creeping back in, I had the mentality that I was at goal so could eat a few more treats, and before I knew it, I was back to where I started, with extra weight for good measure. One thing you can always guarantee – the weight goes on a lot easier than it comes off!
So, what is different this time? My attitude. I believe that to truly succeed at maintaining weight loss, your attitude towards food, exercise and yourself has to completely change.
I was reading a diet/fitness board the other day, where a girl was singing the praises of Slimming World, saying how good the diet is and how it “works for her”. What she failed to mention to the person asking advice is that yes, it worked for her, but only for as long as she followed the plan. She lost around 3 stone. However, she went on to gain about 5 stone. That is not a success is it?
So, let’s talk about the word diet. Everyone has a diet – mine is healthy, the next person’s might not be so healthy, the person after him might be downright terrible. The only context the word diet should be used is in the “everyday diet” sense.
Many people, when wanting to lose weight, say they are going on a diet. The word diet, in this context indicates something that is started, so will consequently be stopped. This is just setting yourself up for failure.
The most important thing to remember when trying to lose weight that bad habits have to be broken, new habits have to be formed and these changes need to be made for life.
I always remember at the start of my journey, a girl I know said something that pinged on that light bulb in my head. She said “If you want to be a size 12, you have to eat like a size 12 for the rest of your life”.
Does that mean I will have to monitor everything I eat for the rest of my life? Most likely. Is it worth it to look good, feel good and be healthy? Absolutely! There are some people who can eat whatever they want and not have to worry about gaining weight – good for them! However, I am not one of them.
I also know that it’s not just about how you look on the outside. There are plenty of skinny young things who have the metabolism of a 200lb, hulk of a man, that can eat what they want, drink what they want and not gain an ounce. However, I can guarantee their insides will not be as lean as their outer side.
Some doctors think that internal fat, that surrounds the major organs like the heart, liver and pancreas is just as dangerous as the adipose tissue that bulges out underneath the skin. Being “thin” does not protect one from diabetes or heart disease.
Dr Jimmy Bell, a professor of molecular imaging at Imperial College, London, and his team have scanned over 800 people with MRI machines to show how people carry fat around their vital organs.
Out of all the women scanned by Dr Bell and his team, 45% of those with normal BMI scores, and 60% of men, actually had excessive levels of internal fat.
This MRI scan image provides a detailed look at where fat is stored internally in the human body. The image is of an average-sized man who is 6-foot-2, weighs 174 pounds and has a normal index of 21.7. Internal fat is shown as yellow, external fat is green and muscles are red.
Doctors are still unsure just how dangerous internal fat can be, but it is suspected that it can contribute to the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
It’s really not worth the risk though is it?
At the start of my post, I talked about how attitude has to change. A good friend of mine Stella recently posted on Weight Loss Resources about how she used to have the “diet mentality”. She wrote:
”I wanted the weight watchers way of “eat what I like” to work, but I failed, then I failed, then I failed again. Then I changed how I eat and 8 months later I’m still succeeding. I’m the same weight I was back in Uni but I’m 2 clothes sizes smaller and look better. I can’t understand why anyone could think the best diet involves un-natural processed foods? Even when I did WW I was never a fan of heavily processed stuff and I always knew that by continuing to eat crisps and chocolate as long as it fell within my points, I was never going to have long term success”
As you will see from looking at her blog, her progress has been staggering and that is because she changed her attitude. She knew that to lose weight and successfully keep it off, she had to ditch the diet mentality and create an everyday diet that is sustainable in the long term.
So, here are my top tips for successful maintenance:
It’s really not worth the risk though is it?
At the start of my post, I talked about how attitude has to change. A good friend of mine Stella recently posted on Weight Loss Resources about how she used to have the “diet mentality”. She wrote:
”I wanted the weight watchers way of “eat what I like” to work, but I failed, then I failed, then I failed again. Then I changed how I eat and 8 months later I’m still succeeding. I’m the same weight I was back in Uni but I’m 2 clothes sizes smaller and look better. I can’t understand why anyone could think the best diet involves un-natural processed foods? Even when I did WW I was never a fan of heavily processed stuff and I always knew that by continuing to eat crisps and chocolate as long as it fell within my points, I was never going to have long term success”
As you will see from looking at her blog, her progress has been staggering and that is because she changed her attitude. She knew that to lose weight and successfully keep it off, she had to ditch the diet mentality and create an everyday diet that is sustainable in the long term.
So, here are my top tips for successful maintenance:
Eliminate the word diet from your vocabulary, unless in an “everyday diet” context
Don’t create too big a calorie deficit – this will make it too restrictive and will mean your weight loss journey risks being marred by “falling off the wagon”, berating yourself and feelings of guilt
Remember you are creating habits that will last a lifetime. Make switches such as swapping refined carbs (white bread, pasta & rice) for complex carbs (wholemeal bread, brown basmati rice and wholewheat pasta), swapping cakes and biscuits for healthier snacks such as fruit, raw nuts and yoghurt.
Eat foods that are nutritionally sound. I know I say this all the time but filling your body with nutritious foods will nourish your body, leaving you glowing with good health. Fill it with chemically enhanced foods, that have been through excessive processing (removing any goodness that was in it originally) can leave you feeling bloated, sluggish and hungry. Most of these convenience foods have had excessive sugar or salt added to them, excessive preservatives to make them last longer and artificial flavours to make them taste better.
Keep an eye on your portion sizes. Don’t fall out of the habit of weighing and measuring what you eat – it’s so easy for that 50g of porridge to become 60g and before you know it, your portion size has doubled.
Indulge a little. By this I mean allow yourself to eat what you fancy for about 20% of the time. This could be a weekly “treat” meal where you get to eat whatever you want, it could be a few glasses of wine at the weekend or a tiny bit of chocolate every day.
Continue exercising. Many people exercise only as a way to burn off calories when trying to lose weight. Find a form of exercise that you enjoy and carry on doing it after your goal weight has been reached.
Enjoy your new shape. Since I reached my goal, I have overhauled my wardrobe. I want to wear clothes that show off my new body. I put so much work into it, that I want other people to see how good it looks. I don’t mean that I go around half naked all the time, but I no longer wear clothes that to try and disguise my shape.
Ditch your fat clothes. Once I reached goal, I went through my wardrobe and tried on every item of clothing. Anything that was too big was discarded. Don’t keep them there to fall back on – that attitude is defeatist and not conducive to successful maintaining.
Remember that anything worth having is going to be hard work. The only time you will find success before work is in the dictionary!
