How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off Forever

It’s one thing to finally reach your goal weight and it’s another to maintain your figure forever. Unfortunately, the work is not done after achieving your goal weight. You have to work harder to maintain that weight. The kind of food you eat daily will cause weight loss and gain. The key is to do light exercises and limiting your caloric intake. Now, the recommended daily amount of calories for men and women is 2,000 and 2,500, respectively. If you go over that amount, you are eating more than you need. To minimize your caloric intake, you can either watch what you eat or workout daily.

Also, you have to exercise to tone your muscles. You don’t need to spend hours at the gym. Just 30 minutes of walking is enough to keep the weight off. If you can run or walk, do so. This will give you another opportunity to exercise daily. Below are other tips that will help you track your progress and maintain your ideal weight:

Understanding Subtle Cues

Keeping a slender frame takes a lot of work. You have to be mindful of the food you eat. Start by learning how your body responds to eating. Do you really feel hungry or you’re just bored? Do you really need to finish that extra-large burrito or you’re full at ½ burrito? When you learn the subtle cues that your body gives, you avoid overeating. Also, chew your food slowly. It should take you 15 to 20 minutes to finish your meal, not five seconds.

Keep a Food Journal

Keeping a food journal is an effective method of tracking what you eat every day! It also helps keep the pounds off. In fact, people who keep food journals lose 40% more weight than those who don’t. Achieve your long-term weight goal and keep it off by writing down all the foods you eat throughout the day!

Eat Fresh Fruits and Veggies

Instead of noshing on fast food or sweet treats, replace them with greens. Vegetables make you feel fuller without the added calories. Some vegetables are so low in calories, you can eat so much without gaining weight. Ideally, you want to boost your consumption of fresh produce daily to keep the body healthy and in tip-top shape! The same thing goes for fruits. But be wary of fruits that contain high sugars like mangoes and melons.

Embracing Slip-Ups

Nobody’s perfect. At some point, you will lose all inhibition and go on a binge. That’s normal. It should not discourage you from trying again! If you went off track, continue tracking what you eat. Learn to develop ways to prevent another binge. Also, don’t deprive yourself. If you feel like eating chocolates, eat two squares of dark chocolates. Dark chocolate is not just healthy, it also promote weight loss.

Develop a New Mindset

Maintaining your weight successfully starts with careful planning. You want to achieve your goals with long-term plans. Also, learn to change your mindset about food. Food is not the enemy. You just need to work on your urges to prevent overeating. Keep your portions conservative. Believe that you can keep the pounds off forever and you might do just that! If you went off track, don’t stop! Try again.