Despite the general conception that hardly anyone can maintain a weight loss, statistics prove otherwise. According to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) about 20 percent of people who’ve lost weight do maintain their weight loss for a long period of time. The AJCN defines this as dieters who have lost at least 10 percent of their initial body weight and have kept it off for at least one year.
On the other hand, these statistics also show that more people put the weight back on than maintain it. That’s why it takes just as much thoughtful planning and hard work to keep the pounds off as it did to lose them in the first place.
Calories Needed to Maintain Weight Loss
Although people vary in how many calories they need to maintain their weight, the average number is about 1,400 to 1,500 calories daily once a weight goal is accomplished. Of course, the older you are, the fewer calories you need to maintain your weight.
Counting and recording calories at every meal can be difficult if you live a busy life and can’t always sit down to add up the numbers. But if you see your weight starting to climb again or your new smaller-size clothes feeling tight, you'll need to take the time for adding and recording, as you did when you were losing weight.
Tips for Maintaining Your Weight
- Be realistic. Before even starting maintenance, carefully consider what your goal should be. Maybe you did get down to 125 pounds, but what are the chances of staying there? Ensure your goal is both realistic and healthy for your age before settling on a goal weight and then reassess your goal weight periodically.
- Slowly add extra calories. Keep a journal of what you eat, including nutritional information, such as calories, carbohydrate grams and other data. Be sure to weigh yourself every day at the same time wearing the same clothing. This way you can see how many calories your body needs to maintain your weight.
- Discard or give away your fat clothes. Don’t even think about keeping some of your large-size clothes as backup clothing. Just the suggestion in your mind that you may need them, again someday if you “fall off the wagon,” will jeopardize your goal of maintaining your new weight.
- Post photos of yourself on the refrigerator at your highest weight next to a picture of the new, slimmer you. This will force you to think twice when tempted to overeat.
- Know your red-light foods. Even if you can eat an occasional doughnut now and then, if it’s a red-light food that will trigger a binge, don’t get near it.
- Continue to exercise. Once people have lost the weight, there’s a temptation to slack off on being as physically active as they were when they were dieting. Spend time doing brisk walking. A busy lifestyle, which includes activities such as housework, gardening and even running after kids, can also count. According to the University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care website, walking up and down stairs three times a day, for 10 minutes each session, burns the same amount of calories as walking those stairs in a 30-minute, non-stop session.
- Get group support. For example, if you reached your goal weight in a weight loss program, such as Weight Watchers, continue to go to meetings to learn about maintenance tips, as well as get support from others who are also trying to maintain their weight. If there’s not already a maintenance group, start one.
Finally, never let your guard down, thinking it’s okay to gain back “just a few pounds.” This type of wrong thinking is what gets most people in trouble. Besides being depressing, it's expensive to have to buy bigger clothes, again. Tell yourself, “It’s time to get off the weight loss cycle and move on with living life in a new, trimmer and healthier body.”
Sources
- American Journal of Clinical Nutrition: Long-term Weight Loss Maintenance, Rena R Wing and Suzanne Phelan (date accessed 2/25/2011).
- University of Massachusetts Memorial Health Care: Weight Maintenance Tips (date accessed 2/25/2011).
- How to Do Things: How to Avoid Putting Weight Back On, Mike Tattersal (date accessed 2/25/2011).
Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for educational purposes only and should not be used for diagnosis or to guide treatment without the opinion of a health professional. Any reader who is concerned about his or her health should contact a doctor for advice.
Venice Kichura - Venice Kichura is a freelance writer who writes on a variety of subjects. She holds a special passion for topics relating to art and ...
