How to Maintain Your Weight Loss

For many of us, losing weight is a difficult battle that requires constant work. However, let’s say that you put in the time and lose a significant amount of weight. While that is a tremendous achievement, one of the biggest fears is gaining everything back. In fact, the vast majority of the time, people who lose weight gain back every pound and then some. So what do you do? If you have reached your target goal, you can’t keep dieting, otherwise, you will continue to lose pounds. What’s the best way to ensure weight loss maintenance? Stay tuned, and we’ll tell you how.
 
Do the Math
 
While each person responds differently to various diets, the fundamental principle is this: to lose weight, you have to burn more calories than you are taking in, and to maintain weight, you need to burn an equal amount of calories that you eat. Of course, things like processed vs. raw food and your metabolism will come into play, but starting with this formula will help you achieve your weight loss maintenance goals. Count the number of calories you are eating per day and subtract the number of calories you burn with exercise. The closer the sum is to zero, the better you will be at maintaining your weight.
 
Counting calories and tracking your food may not sound appealing, but for your weight loss maintenance, we suggest starting off with exact numbers, then rounding up to the nearest hundred for long term tracking. The better you can be about guessing how many calories are in a meal, the better you will be at keeping your weight loss maintained.
 
It’s a Journey, Not a Destination
 
So many of us become so focused on the result that we end up not knowing how to proceed once we reach it. Instead of trying to hit a “goal weight”, instead, focus on making your weight loss efforts a part of your lifestyle. Fad diets or crash diets can be good for shedding pounds quickly, but do nothing to help with weight loss maintenance. As they say, if you fall in love with the method then the goal will be achieved no matter what.
 
Ultimately, to keep your weight loss maintained, you have to plan on eating healthy and incorporating exercise forever, not just for the short-term. Whatever method you use to lose weight should be easily adaptable for weight loss maintenance. If you can change your mindset to be healthier in general, you will do far better at keeping the weight off.
 
If you’d like to learn more about weight loss or fitness programs in Los Angeles, call A4 Fitness today to speak to one of our fitness experts.

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