Section 9 - Identifying Weight Loss Maintenance Issues
Written by Sky Taylor, Diet Bites
Diet Article: Stumbling blocks in the area of weight maintenance.
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Once you lose all the unwanted weight, you sure don't want to gain it back. You worked too hard, too long for that.
Therefore, please keep the following tip in mind because it can assist in fueling you to remain on track with your weight maintenance plan - and yes, that's the plan that you need to go on after you achieve your weight loss goals. More on that in just a bit; for now - keep in mind that most dieters not only gain back the weight they lost while dieting, they end up gaining back more weight than they lost.
After all your hard work, this is the last thing that you want to happen. To regain the weight would absolutely shatter all of your excellent accomplishments.
As long as you keep your focus on retaining your recommended weight, then weight gain won't be an issue.
You'll need to remain on top of things from here forward; maintaining your ideal weight will be a life-long process.
And now let's discuss this weight maintenance thing, shall we? When you initially went onto your weight loss plan, if you're like most dieters you didn't realize that once the weight was gone that your dieting days would be behind you for good. Fact is, individuals who have been overweight have an eating problem - a disorder along with a love for food and drink. They initially gained weight because they were unable to control the amounts of food that they consumed. This of course excludes individuals who gain weight because of a particular health condition which is totally out of their control.
In order to keep your new, thinner shape - you'll have to keep monitoring everything that you eat and drink going forward.
This is the old weight maintenance thing. I've been on my personal plan for going on two decades now; I'll be on it until the day I sail over that rainbow in the sky. I know that if I relax in this area - I'll start to gain weight.
At my age, it's not so much the appearance that matters, rather my level of health. I don't want to deal with high blood pressure issues and an increased risk of getting diabetes and heart attack. For you - your reasons for wanting to keep your thinner shape may be different. It might even be a combination of things. Whatever that reason - or reasons might be, use those to motivate you to keep off the weight that you lost.
Directly following your restricted diet plan, you may have issues in keeping your new weight in balance. You might go up or down a tab with your weight. At some point, you'll discover the amount of calories that your body requires to maintain your ideal weight. As we've said so many times at Diet Bites - your perfect or ideal weight depends on several factors. Those include any of the following: how you look, how you feel, your state of health and your state of mind.
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Determine how you plan to handle the following questions as your answers will help you devise a strategy for weight maintenance.
How often do you plan to weigh? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?
We suggest that you weigh at minimum weekly. Directly following your restricted weight loss plan, we suggest that you weigh-in daily because you're going to need to closely monitor your progress until you are certain that your new weight is completely stabilized.
If you see a weight gain, what do you plan to do?
Your answer would be to reduce your daily calorie intake and combine that with increased activity. Try taking a long walk to work off the spike in weight gain.
Also, take a moment to examine what you ate over the last few hours - or even the day before.
Were your menu selections mined with sodium content? If so, this can contribute to false weight gain and the weight may take a few days to become stabilized. Sodium encourages water retention; to counteract the effects add more water to your diet - but do not over-do as you'll create an imbalance in your electrolytes: calcium, sodium and potassium - which will cause some very serious health issues.
How do you plan to incorporate activity into your schedule?
As with your daily diet continuing forward for an infinity, the same should apply to your activity plan. Remember - the two go hand in hand where your good health and weight maintenance are concerned.
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