What Does It Take To Maintain Weight Loss?

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Have you often wondered what does it take to maintain weight loss? This is always a question people who yo-yo diet find themselves asking. Losing weight is never a problem for a yo-yo dieter. Their problem is never being able to maintain weight loss and it’s a scenario that is all too familiar.

Yes, my closet was full of clothing of all different sizes, because usually within months of losing weight, I would need bigger sizes.

It’s been 14 months since I reached my weight loss goal of losing 100 pounds and I feel phenomenal! Not just in the physical sense, but mentally and emotionally as well. Sometimes I still can’t believe I did it. I can still remember how miserable I felt carrying so much bodyweight around.

I’m beyond excited that I can still fit into all of the smaller sizes that I was wearing last year at this time when I reached my goal. Some people believe I make maintaining my weight loss look easy. Well, let me be the first to tell you, sister, it’s ain’t easy!

Change Your Perspective To Maintaining Weight Loss

When I made myself a promise to never to be in that state of health again, my work was cut out for me. Maintaining weight loss is definitely harder than losing weight.

I first summarize by saying weight loss maintenance is about figuring out your “forever” plan. This forever plan looks nothing like the plan I developed when I decided I wanted to lose weight.

Much like my weight loss strategies, my forever plan is still evolving. I’m experimenting and taking notes about what feels good and what doesn’t, and what I can live with and what I cannot.

I spent 2017 working on mindset, changing my eating habits, and paying attention to what I ate, how much, when I ate all the things, and how I felt. It may sound like it was tedious, but it really wasn’t. I enjoyed paying such close attention to myself for a change.

Reaching my goal at the beginning of 2018 meant I had to shift my mind to maintenance mode. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. Continuing what I did to reach my goal was part of it, but knowing how to maintain my goal was a new skill set I needed to learn.

In the past, I would feel like I didn’t have to pay attention to what I ate so much, so I had no experience with this part of the journey.

Accept That Maintaining Weight Loss Will Be Challenging

Turns out, I did have to pay attention to all the same things I did during my weight loss journey, but I just didn’t have to do it in the same way. It would have been so easy to get lazy about it. That’s how I ended up yo-yoing my way through life in the past.

This time I took on the challenge (because of my promise to myself) and decided to create incentives to help me stay committed to maintaining my weight.

First of all, I kept doing what I enjoyed about my way of eating. Whenever I saw myself getting stuck in a rut with my food choices, I would try another recipe, or change my way of eating altogether. Portion control was never an issue so I continued doing that. But, I decided to try experimenting with a different eating style.

Enter The Low Carb Lifestyle

It was the spring of 2018 that I realized eating more of a low carb style helped me maintain my weight. Whenever there was a special occasion and a little too much indulging, I would feel absolutely miserable the next day. The brain fog was unbelievable.

Keeping my diet very straight forward by eating lean meats, fish, veggies, a little fruit, healthy fat, nuts, seeds and tons of lemon water would have me feeling better in no time.

I experimented with doing the ketogenic diet right after the 4th of July in 2018. Keto has it’s share of controversy and I didn’t go into it without doing my research. Doing this allowed me to go 15lbs below my weight loss goal!  I felt so good on Keto, I continued it well into September.

Learn How Your Body Responds To Certain Foods

The lessons I learned in my first year of maintaining my weight loss taught me that when I am consuming carbohydrates (grains, starches, sugar) on a regular basis my cravings increase. Not only do my cravings increase, but I feel fatigued, foggy, groggy and my eczema and asthma flare ups increase. I even have more nagging aches and pains – which all boil down to an increase in systemic inflammation.

Oh, and another fun fact I learned: Eating carbs also accentuate the unpleasant hormonal fluctuations women go through at my stage of life. When my diet consists of cleaner foods, my mood is better, and I don’t have the uncomfortable (unmentionable) hot flashes. Hello?!

Appetite control is what I’m after but I get so many other benefits by living a low carb lifestyle.

I know low carb eating is popular right now but in general, it still gets a bad rap. Especially Keto. However, I have done my research and I do understand the science. I have tried and experimented with different  levels of low carb eating and it makes sense to me.

Reducing your carbohydrate consumption makes weight loss much easier and it reduces your cravings. If you’re reducing your carbs as low as say, under 20gms, you have entered into the ketogenic way of eating.

I tried it y’all, and it’s amazing. Once you get over the dreaded carbohydrate withdrawal also known as the “keto flu”, your body will switch from burning carbs for energy to burning fat and ketones for fuel. It’s also pretty easy to avoid the withdrawal symptoms if you prepare for them.

You lose weight for sure, but your skin clears, you have more mental clarity, physical endurance, and you sleep better. And these are only the surface benefits, but it actually works.

In the fall of 2015, my husband and I decided to try Keto to see if it worked. I lost 12 pounds in 2 months without exercise, but I decided not to use this as a method for losing weight.

At that time, I didn’t have the mindset I needed to have in order to make it sustainable for me. This experiment was for informational purposes and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Embracing Low Carb Life To Maintain Weight Loss

Low carb living is not for everyone, I get that. When I decided in December of 2016 that I was ready to go all in to transform my health and lose 100 lbs, doing low carb consistently was not an option.

The low carb lifestyle takes a level of commitment and discipline I hadn’t demonstrated to myself at that time. But, now that I have spent an entire year proving to myself that I can keep my word to myself, I’m positive that this is the right way for me to eat now.

I like this way of eating because it eliminates decision fatigue. I never have to wrestle with thinking “should I, or shouldn’t I” when it comes to eating certain foods.

My decision to eat or not eat anything that doesn’t meet my criteria is pre-determined, so it’s a no brainer. I LOVE this!

Let’s be clear. Losing weight on my terms is what gave me results. This same philosophy still holds true in maintaining my weight loss. For me, eating a low-carb/ ketogenic diet doesn’t mean that I will never have dessert on holidays, or birthday cake, or any of those things that I knew I couldn’t swear off of when I first began my weight loss journey.  

I’m choosing low carb/keto as my primary way of eating because it works for me.

What About Exercise?

I’ll be honest here. I’m still a work in progress when it comes to making exercise a regular part of my life. Regular movement is another one of those things that have to be on my terms.

Exercising isn’t my favorite thing on the planet. I love how I feel afterward, but like anything else, it depends on what I’m doing for exercise. The reason is that I have a tendency to become bored pretty easily.

I’m not against going to the gym, but I haven’t found a gym membership that made me excited to leave the house. Within the time it takes to drive to the gym and back home I could have a workout done. Doing all of that just to fit in 30-45 minutes of exercise makes it become a chore.

I don’t ever want to think of doing something that’s good for me as a chore. I won’t give up on the idea though. The search for the perfect gym membership is still on.

I have a collection of exercise DVDs because I enjoy the variety of having different workouts.  Besides, exercising at home saves a lot of time. So, for the time being, I’ll keep moving by walking, stretching and hitting the mat for some light yoga.

What’s Next?

In the coming weeks and months on the blog, I will be posting content about how I’m incorporating a low carb lifestyle as a way to maintain my weight loss. I’m also planning on launching a YouTube channel to show you a real life example that this can be a livable lifestyle for anyone.

Now, I want to hear from you! Have you tried a low carb/keto way of eating? Are you opposed to the idea of trying it?

Please share in the comments!

Source:

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/maintain-weight-loss

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