7 Best Ways to Keep Weight Off for Good

By dietitian, juliette kellow

Congratulations! You’ve lost weight and are now at the weight that suits you. You look and you feel amazing. Now follow these tips to make sure you keep those pounds off…

1. Stick with the habits that helped you lose weight

What you do to keep the weight off is just as important as what you did to lose it, so keep up the good habits you developed while losing weight. Slipping back into old ways such as having biscuits with coffee, nibbling on cheese or supersizing portions will soon see those pounds returning. So carry on eating the same healthy diet that helped you lose weight in the first place. That means having a low-fat, high-fibre diet that contains five portions of fruit and vegetables every day.

2. Carry on eating breakfast

Hopefully, after following a plan to lose weight, skipping brekkie will be a distant memory so keep it that way. Data from the US National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a large on-going study that monitors the habits of people who have lost weight successfully, reveals that 80 percent of those slimmers who kept the weight off ate breakfast every day.

3. Continue to control your portion sizes

Obviously, supersizing fast food meals or opting for extra-large stuffed crust pizzas should remain off limits. But it’s also important to control the amount of ‘healthy’ foods you eat like muesli, pasta and rice. As a golden rule, fill a third of your plate with veg or salad, a third with starchy foods like potato or pasta, and the remaining third with protein-rich foods like meat, fish or chicken.

4. Watch those treats

If you want to keep the weight off, you’ll need to continue keeping a close watch on the number of treats you have. Treating yourself to three large glasses of wine, a chocolate bar, a bag of crisps and a Danish pastry every week – which is easily done – could mean you end up 11/2 stone heavier in a year! Instead, find treats that don’t involve food such as a chat with a friend, an extra half hour in bed or a facial.

5. Use it or lose it

One of the easiest ways to lose weight and keep it off is to maintain an active lifestyle – and that means walking more according to NWCR data, which found people who stayed slim walked twice as far as those who didn’t. Try making exercise more fun too – go ice skating, take up dance classes or workout on your Wii Sport every day. Vary your exercise routine too, so that you don’t get bored. Try new classes such as martial arts, Pilates, even pole dancing can help you loose weight!

6. Get support from others keeping it off

Lots of people use WLR to keep off the weight they have lost – the tools enable them to monitor their eating and exercise habits and stay within a weight range they are comfortable with.

You’ll get loads of support on the WLR maintainers board, check it out by taking a free trial of WLR

7. Get some attitude

If you can’t believe this new slim person is you, then chances are it won’t be for long. So get used to your new shape and start celebrating it