I Need Help Losing Weight: How To Keep Weight Off Forever

Statistics and clinical research show that more than 95% of people do not keep off weight they lose while dieting. To lose weight in a sustainable way, dieting involves much more than exercise or food intake. If you’re telling yourself “I need help losing weight”, here are tips to keeping off weight forever.

It’s not all about dieting. The first step to sustainable weight loss is to realize that physiological elements such as food, exercise, and rest are only half the battle. Behavioral components are crucial to keeping weight off. Food is a soothing mechanism. Emotional attachment to food is common and can be seen in all chronic dieters. So here are some tips to deal with both the physical aspects of losing weight and one way to deal with the emotional part.

Eat consistently throughout the day. Eat every 3 hours to stabilize hormones and include protein and fiber in every meal. Your portion sizes should be enough to satisfy you, but never fill you up completely. Furthermore, drink water consistently throughout the day. Often we interpret our need for water as hunger. Don’t wait until you are thirsty to drink – you are already dehydrated by then.

Keep food as close to nature as possible. At fast food restaurants and shopping markets, foods are often riddled with preservatives. A good rule of thumb is the more processed a food is, the less nutritional value it has. Non-processed foods are key to a healthy diet and the nutrients that make it easier to be at your ideal weight.

Find moderation. Do not deprive yourself of food. Many dieters fail at sustainable weight loss because they struggle to stick with their diet and they get stuck in an all-or-nothing approach. As dieters deprive themselves of food, stress rises and so does the need to soothe themselves. Then it is too easy to go back to old patterns and regain the weight. Many times when dieters fall off their diet, they will let go completely because of this all-or-nothing mentality. Consider adopting the 90/10 rule where you eat healthy at 90% of your meals and allow yourself to indulge at 10% of them. This generally translates to 2 – 4 meals per week. Understand that, as a human being, you seek pleasure naturally, and occasionally breaking from your assigned diet is completely normal. The trick is to depart from the diet in moderation, enjoy it, and then get back to your healthy foods.

Replace food with a passion. Here is one of the tips to dealing with the emotional component. Pay attention to the things that really make you feel alive and present. For example, research shows that music can automatically calm the system and tap into the same pleasure centers as food. To find your passions, ask yourself what you always wanted to do but have never tried. Then consider how you might introduce it into your life or make a bigger part of your life.

Start slowly. Commit a small amount of time you can actually stick to everyday to explore your passion. Make sure you can realistically afford to spend the time you set. Even 5 minutes can be a big enough starting block. Build up your passion consistently and, over time, your brain can develop a pattern of seeking out pleasure in your passion rather than food.

Practice, practice, practice. When you are in a moment of intense desire for something to soothe you, you will fall back on food if you do not practice your passion. Practicing your passion on a regular basis makes it more natural so that when the time comes, you will actually choose your passion over food.