When it comes to weight loss, there’s a lot to learn from people who have lost the weight long-term.
Although it’s relatively easy to lose weight initially, especially if you follow a structured diet or program, keeping the weight off is a much harder task. Nutrition researchers are still uncovering the best approach to weight loss, but some interesting findings have come out of American research that tracks people on a National Weight Control Registry.
3,000 plus participants who had successfully maintained weight loss over a five-year period were quizzed on their habits. The research revealed that even though people followed many different plans to lose weight, they had a lot of eating and lifestyle habits in common during the maintenance phase.
Let’s look at four of these habits and look at how you could adopt them into your weight loss plan.
2. Keep a record Making changes that last requires you to analyse your current habits and patterns. You might think you know your own emotional cues for comfort eating, but it’s amazing how patterns emerge when you write everything down. TIP: A food log, also called a food diary, can help you analyse your eating habits and patterns.
3. Pack a snack Participants on the registry commonly ate up to five meals a day. Healthy snacks keep your energy levels up between meals and stop that ravenous hunger that means you’re more likely to overeat at the main meal. Including mid-meal snacks into your healthy eating plan is a great way to assist your weight loss goals. TIP: If you’re out and about a lot, pack snacks to go like grain and fruit based bars, fruit snacks in natural juice, air-popped popcorn or drinking yogurt.
4. Monitor weight Participants also regularly monitored their weight, usually weekly, in order to readjust their habits if the weight started to creep back on. TIP: After achieving your healthy goal weight it’s a great idea to treat yourself to some new, well fitting clothes. By getting rid of your “old me” clothes you’ll be forced to make some fine tuning if you feel the waist line pinching a little.
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