Stay Thin

After you've completed a diet and you've reached your goal weight, you'll want to continue to maintain that weight long-term. Weight maintenance requires a somewhat different strategy compared to active weight loss. In some ways maintaining your weight may seem a bit easier compared to when you were losing weight. You'll still need to eat a nutritious, balanced diet, be physically active and continue with any other modified behaviors. If you ditch your diet smarts or quit exercising you run the risk of gaining back the weight you lost. Stick to what you learned and monitor your weight so you can stay thin.

Steps

Eating for Weight Maintenance

1. Balance your calories. When you were losing weight you may have been focused on following a low-calorie diet or making sure you had a daily calorie deficit to help you lose weight. Now that you're maintaining your weight, you'll need to balance your calories differently.
   • In general, when you want to maintain your weight, you'll need to consume roughly the same amount of calories from food as you burn through daily activity. For example, if your total calorie burn during the day is around 1,800 calories, you'll need to eat about 1,800 calories to maintain your weight.
   • You can use a food journal or smart phone app to help you count your calories throughout the day.
   • Use online calculators to help provide you with an estimate of how many calories you should consume to maintain your weight.
   • Keep your total calorie intake in mind or note it in a food journal. If your weight changes, you can make adjustments to your current average caloric intake.
2. Eat a balanced diet. Eating a balanced diet will help you maintain your weight loss long-term. This type of diet will provide you with all the essential nutrients your body needs.
   • A balanced diet includes foods from all food groups each day and throughout the week. Unless you have an allergy or cultural/religious reason to avoid foods, it's ideal to include all foods in your diet.
   • It's also important to eat a wide variety of foods within each food group. Every fruit, vegetable or protein source offers you a different set of vital nutrients.
3. Eat high-calorie foods in moderation. When you're trying to maintain your weight, you'll be able to indulge more often in your favorite, more decadent foods. You may have restricted these more when you were actively losing weight.
   • While you can snack or have a favorite treat, it's still important to only eat these foods in moderation. If you go back to having them on a daily or more regular basis, you run the risk of gaining your weight back.
   • Consider using the 80/20 rule. This is a general rule sometimes suggested by health professionals. Aim to eat healthy, nutritious foods 80% of the time and have a more indulgent treat 20% of the time.
4. Eat until you're satisfied. When you were dieting you may have been counting calories, points or measuring portions on a regular basis. In maintenance mode, you might not want to do this type of monitoring and don't necessarily have to if you only eat until you're satisfied.
   • If you eat until you're satisfied, not full or stuffed, you take in less calories. This can help you stick to smaller portions and a lower calorie diet.
   • When you're eating, think about eating until you are 80% full. This may help you get a better idea of what satisfied is. It takes about 20 minutes for your body to register that you have eaten, so eat slowly at a table.
   • Satisfied may feel like a lack of hunger, a decrease in the desire to eat and a feeling that you'll be satisfied for the next few hours.
5. Drink adequate fluids. Drinking more water may be one of the new behaviors you've picked up during your weight loss plan. Being adequately hydrated can help you keep extra pounds at bay.
   • Drinking enough water throughout the day has shown to decrease your hunger levels and desire to snack.
   • Aim for at least eight 8-oz glasses (2 liters) daily; however, some health experts even recommend consuming up to 13 glasses (3 liters) daily.
   • Choose beverages that are sugar-free and caffeine-free like water, flavored water, decaf coffee and decaf tea.

Maintaining Weight with Lifestyle Behaviors

1. Exercise regularly. One of the best ways to maintain your weight long-term is to be active. Studies have shown that those who exercise on a regular basis maintain their weight easier compared to those who are not active.
   • Regular physical activity actually helps you maintain your weight much more than it does for weight loss.
   • Include at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity daily and two to three days of strength training throughout the week.
2. Manage stress. Taking care of stress is another important item to keep in mind when you're trying to maintain your weight. Stress can make healthy eating and sticking to healthy habits more difficult.
   • High amounts of stress can cause increased appetite and cravings for more indulgent foods.
   • If you're feeling stressed, try to engage in other activities to help calm you down or make you feel more relaxed. You can: go for walk, talk to a friend, read a good book, take a long shower, or listen to good music.
   • If you find that stress is something that you encounter frequently and it makes it harder for you to maintain your weight, it may be helpful to see a behavioral specialist or therapist. They'll be able to give you more guidance to stress management.
3. Sleep seven to nine hours nightly. Sleep is important for your general health and many studies have shown that lack of sleep has a significant affect on your appetite and hunger levels.
   • When you don't sleep enough you may experience increased hunger throughout the day. This may make it difficult to make healthy choices, follow portion sizes or pass up on a snack.
   • Try to hit the sack early enough that you can get in the recommended seven to nine hours of shut eye each night.
   • Go to bed earlier, set your alarm later (if you can) and shut off all lights and electronics.
4. Continue with successful aspects of previous diets. You may have tried a variety of different diets in the past. What made you successful in some of those diets may be behaviors that you need to continue in order to maintain your weight loss. Maintaining weight less about dieting and more about making permanent changes to your lifestyle — how you eat, your relationship with food, etc. Even if you are no longer following a diet to the letter, try to stick with the concepts that made you successful (making half your plate a fruit or vegetable, eating only lean proteins, etc.).
   • If you completely give up the good habits you picked up and learned through diets and go back to old habits, you're at risk for regaining your weight.
   • Think about the small lifestyle changes you made that helped you lose weight. It might include measuring portions, writing a food journal, keeping tempting trigger foods out of your house or being active regularly. Keep these changes in place.
   • If they feel too difficult to keep in place or not fit into your lifestyle, change them as needed so they can continue to be an easy to keep change in your life.
5. Surround yourself with support. Support is important for both weight loss and maintenance; however, the type of support you need may differ.
   • When you surround yourself with others who are physically active, eat well and engage in other healthy behaviors, you're more likely to do so yourself.
   • Find friends or family members that have the same mindset or life goals as you do. You may find it easier to continue with your healthy lifestyle when you surround yourself with these types of people.
   • You may also want to find an online support group. This will be helpful if you don't have many friends or family members with the same healthy mindset.

Monitoring Your Weight

1. Weigh yourself regularly. Getting on the scale might have been an exciting part of your weight loss. While it may not be as exciting, weighing yourself weekly or even daily is extremely important for weight maintenance.
   • People who successfully keep weight off after dieting weigh themselves frequently. If you rarely check-in with your weight you won't notice little fluctuations. More consistent weighing will allow you to catch a small unwanted weight gain or loss and allow you to make the appropriate changes quickly.
   • If your target weight is 150 pounds, you'll need to give yourself a weight range. Every time you step on the scale it won't be exactly 150 pounds. It might fluctuate between 148 – 153 pounds, which is appropriate. Give yourself an appropriate weight range with strict limits. If your upper limit is 153 pounds, if you weigh that amount, you'll need to review food journals, exercise journals and behaviors so that you can get your weight down into a safer part of your range.
   • Since your weight fluctuates throughout the day, weighing yourself at the same time every day, wearing the same clothes (or no clothes, if possible) will help you get the most accurate weight.
2. Keep a journal. Keeping a journal is great for weight loss. It's equally good for long-term weight maintenance and accountability.
   • Food journals help keep you honest and mindful of the choices you're making. Even if you're not as accurate as you once were, the habit of regular journaling can help keep you on track.
   • Food journals are also a great thing to have on hand if you notice your weight changing. You can return to your journal and review your most recent food choices. You might notice you're snacking more or going out to eat more and can change these behaviors.
   • You can also track your exercise in your journal. Seeing these trends may also be helpful long-term.
3. Measure yourself. One method for checking up on yourself is to keep track of body measurements. These measurements give you a different perspective on your size and weight.
   • You may have tracked these prior to your weight loss and know how different they've become. Many times even slight weight gain will be noticed if you're continually measuring yourself.
   • Measure your bust and hips (for women only), abdomen, thighs and upper arms. These are the most typical places to measure and where you'll see results if you've lost or gained weight.

Tips

• Always talk to a doctor before making any changes to your diet or exercise routine.
• Staying thin requires the right balance between calories in and calories out.

Related Articles

• Eat Right for a Fitness Program
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• Choose a Diet That Suits You
• Establish a Diet Plan
• Create a Weight Loss Plan That Works for You
• Maintain a Diet Journal for Life
• Diet Without the Myth of Fat Burning Foods
• Stay Healthy and Balance Your Diet

Sources and Citations

See also

• Stay Away from Junk Food
• Choose Low FODMAP Foods As a Vegetarian
• Count Macronutrients
• Eat Properly
• Stop Being Hungry Quickly
• Develop Healthy Eating Habits
• Make Yourself Less Thirsty
• Avoid Food Triggered Seizures
• Cut Down on Junk Food
• Add Flavor to Quinoa

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