Everything You Need to Know About Maintaining Successful Weight Loss!

We all know the basics about weight loss, right? It’s in our face every day everywhere we look. Eat Better. Exercise More. Blah, blah, blah. But I’m here to tell you a few little tidbits that you may not know and can make things a little easier for you.

Give it to me, sister!

There is an organization called the National Weight Control Registry. They investigate what it takes to maintain long term successful weight loss. They are tracking over 10,000 people who have successfully lost weight (30-300 lbs!) and who have kept it off for a long time.

Why not follow what they are doing and keep it simple?? With a few little tweaks to your routine, you can achieve success too!

Success leaves clues, baby! – Tony Robbins

Interestingly enough, 80% of the participants are women and the average age is 45 with an average weight of 145 pounds.

Here is what they found along with my two cents:
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98% of participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight. Ok, we know this one. (See my reference to ‘blah, blah, blah’ above.) Instead of instantly thinking DIET, think of ways to reduce your daily caloric intake by 250 calories a day. It’s easier than you think. I was drinking coffee with creamer every morning. I realized that was about an extra 100 calories a day…which then could turn into an extra pound every 5 weeks! I switched to tea on weekdays. Now, my coffee on the weekends becomes a welcome, relaxing treat. Or swap out the bread on your sandwich and make it a wrap. That will cut the calories in half and you’ll still feel satisfied!

94% increased their physical activity, with the most frequently reported form of activity being walking. We know this one too, but it doesn’t have to be an effort either. Work on burning an extra 250 calories a day. Park your car in the back of the parking lot when you go to the grocery store. Take the stairs. When you’re at work, instead of meeting someone in a conference room, go for a walk around the building and discuss what you need to. You’ll get fresh air and keep your stress levels down!

78% eat breakfast every day. I am a big advocate for eating breakfast. I talk about it all the time. Then one day I realized that by the time I got up, showered, hair, makeup, made food for the day, drove to the office, and sat down to eat my breakfast that I had been up for 2 hours already! I switched my routine and started eating breakfast within 30 minutes of waking. I immediately lost the 5 pounds I had been struggling with. Try to have a balanced meal of carbs and proteins. It works, my friends!

75% weigh themselves at least once a week. When you weigh yourself weekly, its much easier to make adjustments the next week to get you right back on track. If you see that you put on 3 pounds, you can have salad a couple of nights for dinner and say no to dessert and those will easily disappear the next week. If you didn’t weigh yourself regularly, those 3 become 6 and then when its 10, you finally notice because your jeans are miserably tight!

62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week. It’s really easy to mindlessly eat when you’re in front of the TV. Or it makes you lazy in general and you don’t really feel like doing much afterwards. (We’ve all had the marathon Saturday on the couch getting sucked into watching an entire season of [insert favorite TV show here]!) Use the time learning something new or doing something you love. It will make your heart sing!

90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day. This may feel like a lot, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be time on a treadmill. Incorporate some of the tips above, play with your kids, ride a bike, walk outdoors…get creative, but GET MOVING!

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If you’re wanting to lose 10 lbs. or more it can feel daunting, but it doesn’t need to be. If you follow the suggestion of eating 250 calories less and burning 250 calories more through daily activity, that is a 500 calorie/day deficit. Times that by 7 days a week equals 3500 calories. BOOM! One pound of fat gone!