Probably one of the most frustrating things ever is to go through all the work and effort to lose weight, and then in the blink of an eye, you gain back all your lost weight with some extra pounds. Today, My Woven Words shares 7 ways to help maintain weight loss to avoid gaining back the excess weight.

Change Your Mindset

Avoid thinking of how you are eventually going to be free to eat whatever whenever when you finally lose the excess weight, and start accepting the very important fact that you became as big as you once were because you were nonchalant and careless with your eating. You thus need to change your lifestyle and start eating the right way at the right time, not eating whatever whenever.

Be Mindful of Your Food Intake

The exercise of watching what you eat is something that will never stop even after losing some or all of your excess weight. You should always be watchful of what you eat and how much you eat. Eat out of respect for your body, don’t be reckless with your food intake, don’t subscribe to just eating anything because you feel you can.

Avoid Restrictive Diets

Crash diets, detox diets and restrictive diets are three of the worst things ever conceived to help individuals lose weight. Because of how restrictive they are, they actually slow your metabolism and shift your appetite-regulating hormones which are two of the main factors that contribute to subsequent weight gain. Rather than considering these diets and their extreme and near impossible rules, stick with lifestyle changes that will help you develop habits you can incorporate to help maintain your weight loss in the long run.

Don’t be Immobile

Physical activity is important to maintain weight loss. If you’re not a gym or an exercise person, engage in activities that get you moving as opposed to just sitting and lounging all day. Physical activity helps to burn off extra calories, increase your metabolism and achieve energy balance. This energy balance means you burn the same or close to the same number of calories that you consume. As a result, your weight is more likely to remain the same.

Stay Hydrated

Don’t be so quick to chew on something, consider drinking water the next time you feel like eating something without actually being hungry. Most times, you really are just thirsty not particularly hungry. Water promotes fullness and helps you keep your calorie intake in check. Drinking water before meals also helps reveal your true level of hunger and reduces calorie intake by more than 10%.

Get Back On Wagon As Soon As Possible

Holidays, vacations, owambe’s and many other celebrations and activities happen that interfere with your plan to eat properly and responsibly. It happens. Even models fall off the wagon and overeat or eat carelessly sometimes. What matters is for you to get back on course as soon as possible. Make it a learning experience, not a failure. Remember, weight maintenance is a journey not a sprint.

Don’t Do It Alone

Weight maintenance is easier when you have support and are accountable to people. Get some help from family, friends and even co-workers you can trust to help keep you in check when they see you are starting to fall off the wagon.

Source: Opinion