First of all congratulations on reaching your weight loss goal, you have accomplished something that many people desire but few work hard and long enough to realize. This is a time to celebrate, but you must continue to be vigilant to avoid putting the weight back on.
During your dieting phase you most likely developed a structure to your eating. You developed a pattern of eating that worked for you and allowed you to lose weight on a consistent basis. This doesn't mean it was easy, but it was structured and predictable.
Your maintenance phase must also be structured and designed in such a way that it gives you the guidance needed to manage your weight for the rest of your life. Look at your maintenance phase as an opportunity to solidify the healthy eating habits you have established.
Maintaining your weight loss allows for more flexibility than you had in your dieting phase, you can increase your calorie intake, provided your physical activity level does not change. However, this increase may only be a few hundred calories a day. You will need to test different calorie amounts and monitor your weight on a weekly basis to be sure you are not gaining.
Most people will be able to maintain their weight with an increase of 300 to 600 calories per day. So it is important for you to understand what this calorie increase looks like. If, for instance, you increase your breakfast by a half bowl of cereal (100 calories), add an extra piece of bread to your lunch (100 calories) and have a chocolate chip cookie for dessert after dinner (150 calories) then you have added approximately 350 calories to your day. Adding any more food could result in weight gain.
So you will notice that while no food is "off-limits", you must continue to exhibit a degree of self-control over your eating.
The longer you maintain your weight loss the less likely you are to regain the weight. Believe you can keep this weight off for the rest of your life and focus on all the wonderful things this weight loss has brought into your life and you will achieve the success you deserve.
If you have tried diet and exercise but have had difficulty sticking with your plan then you will benefit from my FREE e-report Think and Grow Thin!
By Dr. Becky Gillaspy
Check Our the Related Article : How to Lose Weight Quickly
0 comments:
Post a Comment