Maintaining Weight Loss
Once you reach your weight loss goal several aspects of your wellness program will change. Instead of trying to burn more calories than you consume, it is best to find balance in your energy expenditure and consumption. During this time, take steps to become more aware of your body, including how you feel mentally and physically. Growing cognizant of how you feel at your healthiest point will help as you work to maintain your weight loss long-term.
Commitment and Maintenance
It takes a lot of commitment to reach your weight loss goal. Once you reach your goal, don’t abandon this commitment. Instead, shift it towards maintaining the weight loss you’ve achieved.
Think about how hard you worked to reach your weight loss goal, and imagine what it would feel like to go through that process all over again. Committing to maintenance will help prevent weight re-gain.
Even after you’ve reached your goal, stick closely to your post-bariatric diet. You’ll have to follow the same dietary guidelines as you did while losing weight to stay in good health.
This includes:
- Taking multivitamins
- Avoiding foods Dr. Taylor has advised you to stay away from
- Eating small portions
Accountability and Maintenance
Think about the tools that you used to lose weight and try applying them to your life now. If you found support groups essential after weight loss surgery, then don’t disconnect from them. As someone who has reached your goal and is working to keep the weight off, you may become a valuable form of social support for others who aren’t quite there yet. In return, your support group can act as a form of valuable accountability and a motivational resource that will help you to stay on track.
Take the time to find other sources of accountability in your life:
- Express your content with your new body to your family and encourage them to help you continue with your healthy habits.
- Keep up with your weight loss journal to hold onto the habit of writing down everything you eat.
- Focus on managing time efficiently and hold yourself accountable for regular workouts, just as you did while losing weight.
Becoming more accountable will help you stay aware of slight changes in your body, allowing you to make quick changes as needed to prevent large-scale weight gain.
Keeping weight off requires many of the same healthy habits you developed to lose weight after surgery. To prevent weight gain, do your best to preserve these healthy habits for good.