No More Diets

How do I stop losing the same weight over and over again and just keep it off? I can’t get to my goal weight because I start eating too much as soon as it looks like I am getting even close to my goal.

That’s a question I often get asked - “How do I lose weight permanently”. Many people manage to lose weight  but so few keep it off.

There may be a number of factors working against you here, separately or in combination.

1. There is the feeling of deprivation after “being good” for so long and the feeling that you deserve a reward
2. Boredom with whatever diet you have chosen
3. Rebellion against rules (even though they are self-imposed)
4. Seeing a diet as a temporary measure needed to reach a target weight rather than a lifestyle change
5. Self-sabotage where a person finds it a bit uncomfortable to experience the attention being more attractive brings.
6. Just slipping back into what you are comfortable with - your habits, how you look etc

It’s no wonder that more than 95% of dieters fail to keep off the weight they worked so hard to lose - you’re in good company.

To become one of the few who succeed, you need to

1. Choose changes to your eating and exercise habits which are you happy to live with forever. This generally means making small changes and getting used to them one at a time.
2. See weight control as a lifetime project not as a one-off goal
3. Continue to monitor your weight weekly (or even daily) and take action if you see you are slipping
4. Don’t set rules - make choices based on your own best (long-term) interests
5. Allow yourself to get comfortable with changes by going slowly and work on improving your confidence at the same time as you improve your shape

I’ve already lost 52 pounds, but I’m having trouble with the rest. I would be grateful for any tips and especially motivation. I sometimes think about giving up and just settling with my current weight as it is still better than before. I seem to have lost my motivation and I need a good kick in the pants, so to speak.

Far from needing a good kick in the pants I have to tell you that you are very special. Do you know how hard it is for most people to succeed at losing 52 pounds? Please see this huge achievement for what it is and reward yourself for how much you have done so far (just don’t choose a food reward!)

However I have to warn you that the most dangerous time is now, when you have come so far and still have a way to go. This where it’s easy to slide back into old habits and put the weight right back on again. How heartbreaking is that?

If you are finding it hard to keep on losing it may be that you are just bored with your food and bored with your exercise routines.

It is probably not you who needs to change but them! Remember that food quantities need to be readjusted as you lose weight especially if you have lost a lot - it takes a lot of calories just to keep 52lbs alive and ticking over.

Rather than adjusting portions downwards again and feeling hungrier take the opportunity to hunt out some new recipes that will excite your taste buds as well as kick start your weight loss again. And try some new activities too so that you are not bored with the same old routines.

This is the time to inject some new life into your efforts so that you enjoy the process as well as the sense of achievement.

How Do I Lose 15kgs?

If you have weight to lose - whether it’s 10lbs or a hundred - there’s only one way to do it - one ounce or one gram at a time.

It’s all about creating a deficit in the calories you eat compared to the calories you use up each day. If you eat 100 calories less than you use every day you will lose a pound of fat in 35 days - and it will take you 1155 days to lose 15kgs.

If you want to lose weight faster than that you need to do more - by eating fewer calories and moving more to create a greater deficit - just be aware that a deficit of more than 500 - 1000 calories a day is not recommended by most weight loss experts (and most recommend 500 giving a weight loss of 1lb a week). More than this and your metabolism tends to slow down.

Now you can create this deficit and lose weight the hard way by going on a strict diet and exercise regime and STICKING TO IT - you will find these types of weight loss programs in every book store and all over the internet. Look for one which suits your lifestyle and/or preferences so that you have the best possible chance of sticking with it.

I don’t like diets - although they may work for some and do a good job on a temporary basis.

I don’t like them simply because they don’t work forever. Unless there is a maintenance option, they don’t teach you to permanently modify your eating habits - and even when there is a maintenance option are you prepared to live with that kind of restriction forever?

In any case we tend to see diets as temporary. We go on a diet, and then we come off it and put all the weight back on by going back to “normal” eating and activity levels. At least the statistics show that 95% of us do - and they are not good odds.

What to do instead?

Examine the habits which made you 15kgs overweight. What do you do which slimmer friends do not? And what do they do which you don’t? What do you eat? How much? How often? What do you drink? How much? How often? What kind of exercises do you take? What are you doing differently to them? What do you need to change?

Gradually change your “fat habits” one by one at a rate which is comfortable for you. Change those which are easiest for you to change first before tackling the ones which are more difficult. Lose weight by starting to live a healthier lifestyle one small step at a time.

Even if you insist on dieting work on your habits too - each small habit you change permanently will reduce the rate of weight gain after you stop dieting.

Can I Lose Weight Permanently?

Losing weight permanently is one of the hardest things - that’s because it’s easier to lose weight than it is to keep it off.

Now if you’ve ever struggled to lose weight you might think that strange - and that once you lose weight your problems will be over but over 95 people out of 100 who diet and reach their target weight gain all the weight back quite quickly (and usually end up heavier than ever).

The thing is it’s one thing to make an effort to meet a specific weight loss goal - you can see an end to your “suffering” and you have a great slim body to look forward to. But once you achieve that there’s seems to be no need to stick to your diet - and so you go back to eating just like you were before - the very eating habits that got you overweight in the first place.

So the answer to losing weight permanently is to change your eating habits (and to a lesser extent your activity habits) permanently.

Does it mean you have to be on a diet for the rest of your life?

No - in fact I would suggest giving the whole diet idea a miss even while you are losing weight.

Just examine your habits and decide which of them are contributing to your weight problems and then change these gradually one by one. Every habit you change is another step towards enjoying great health and a slim body permanently. The aim is to never have to think about dieting again because you are simply living your life just like the slim people you see around you everywhere.

There is nothing special about them - they just have different habits from you. That’s all.