Imagine being someone who, for majority of your life, have been clinically labeled as obese. For years you bore the weight of this label and all that came with it; insecurities about your appearance, self- loathing, eating disorders, health issues, and much more. All of this troubled you until one day you decided to take a hold of this situation and change your physical fitness destiny forever. To your delight, over the span of 3 years you managed to lose 85 pounds, looking and feeling the best you’ve felt in years.
This process was by no means a walk in the park. With a daily caloric intake of only 1500 calories and a 6 day weekly training split, you fought for every pound lost and kept this down consistently with very few fluctuation.
However something changed… after your annual physical you learned an interesting bit of news. Dread begins to sink in as your doctor tells you that you’ve gained back 60 lbs. “I give up. I feel so defeated. Honestly what’s the point? It feels like every moment I can’t help but think about food and when I try to stop eating after one serving, I can’t stop myself from eating more. I don’t know what to do!”
While a very general story, this is a very real, very personal nightmare experienced by countless fitness enthusiasts. It’s hard enough to lose weight as it is, but the fact that (according to a meta-analysis of 29 studies) half of people regain their weight after 2 years and by year 5 more than 80% of their weight is regained.
So the question becomes:
How do you lose significant amounts of body fat and KEEP it off for good?
The good news is that despite the studies, long term weight loss is possible. However (like losing weight to begin with) it will take focus, dedication, and more work than most people are interested in. I believe though if you’re still reading this you might not be most people and may have the fortitude to make it happen.
In this article we’ll break down the factors that generally cause weight regain and delve into sustainable strategies to help you keep the weight off not only long term, but for good.
Environmental Factors
There are a couple of factors like biology and behavior that influence a person’s success with weight loss, but one of the biggest tripping points is ones environment. A lot of the rise of obesity in America can be credited to the country’s increased food marketing, portion sizes, processed foods, and restaurant culture.
Because the food industry and marketers have had decades to perfect their art of processed foods Over the last several decades the food industry has perfected the art of ultra-refined foods that have led to health complications across the board.
These are just the upfront factors, but they’re not the only ones. When you consider the rise of technology and convenience, it’s become easier than ever to order food without leaving the home. Fitness (while more accessible than ever via apps and gyms) is practiced by fewer people, most falling prey to the comforts of modern living. This kind of living has left the masses spiraling down a path of sedentary living that has put their health and livelihood at risk.
Physical response
One of the largest illusions surrounding weight loss is the belief that the body consistently responds to weight loss over extended periods of time. For years it’s been pushed that making small adjustments to one’s diet will consistently lead to significant weight loss- assuming a rate of one pound per 3500 kcal of accumulated dietary calorie deficit.
The truth is that changes in appetite may have a greater influence on long-term weight loss opposed to how many calories you actually burn. To clarify, for every kilogram of weight lost, your calorie burning drops around 20–30 kcal per day, but conversely your appetite shoots up by about 100 kcal per day compared to how it was initially in the beginning of your weight loss journey.
These are completely natural biological responses, but without this knowledge it’s easy for people to blame themselves. Many see their weight gain as a sign of laziness and lack of commitment to a healthy lifestyle when in reality it’s simply the body’s response to change.
Nutrition and Diet Composition
Based on the body’s response, it’s metabolic triggers (appetite, satiety, etc.) play a huge role in bodyweight, nutrition is still an essential component.
On paper eating could alter how many calories your body takes in or burns, ultimately causing changes in your weight. It also has the potential to manipulate your hormone levels, factors that play into the likelihood of gaining body fat or even feelings of hunger and fullness.
The weight loss community however doesn’t just consider the laws of thermodynamics (calories in, calories out), but also how specific caloric ratios affect weight loss.
If you consider the energetic density of the 3 macronutrients (fats, protein and carbohydrates), a specific diet may actually cause positive hormonal and metabolic states conducive for weight loss. Conversely though, this line of reasoning has become a selling point for the diet industry to prey on the hopes of the obese, promoting a specific diet as the key to weight loss.
Believe it or not, it could be just as possible for someone to drop weight on one diet just as effectively on a different one. Basically, it’s not just what you put into your body, but also how your body reacts to extended weight loss and numerous other factors outside of a single diet.
How To Stay Locked In Long-Term
Mind games and motivation
Weight loss is obviously a physical process, but the key to winning with it long-term is how you approach it mentally. Success with weight loss long term is about understanding yourself; your capabilities, your limitations, and giving yourself grace when and if you fall short of your standards. Most people when approaching weight loss want to make sweeping, drastic changes when they don’t realize there fitness journey is a marathon and not a sprint. There’s lots of tripping points between you and your goal, and if you go all out right out the gate it’ll be easy to get discouraged and quit. If you’re shooting for super strict, all-out efforts and crystal-clear results in the never-ending game of managing obesity, you’re just setting yourself up for frustration. Flexibility is the name of the game—having a goal being cool when things don’t go as planned is the key to making lasting changes and managing that weight over the long haul!
Continue Using Weight-Maintenance Counseling
To manage obesity you have to manage what keeps it at bay. The keyword is “manage”, meaning that long term weight loss is going to require frequent, repetitive, intentional action. You can’t take your foot off the gas and wonder why the pounds begin to creep back on the scale. During this process your body is going through numerous biological changes and if you’re not aware of that and actively adapting along with it you’re going to get left behind.
Studies indicate that keeping your healthcare provider or support group(s) involved in your journey correlates with your long-term success, much more than short term interventions.
While there are many roads to the same destination, you’ll likely find some pretty consistent patterns that lead to long term weight loss. These include consistently (but not constantly) monitoring your progress, decreasing calorie intake, choosing smaller meal portions, incorporating physical fitness, eating breakfast regularly, meal prepping and cooking food at home, limiting screen-time, and occasionally using portion-controlled meals or substitutes. Tips for consistent weight loss
Keep Your Foot on The Gas
What people don’t realize is that weight loss isn’t a goal, it’s a lifestyle. The two are intertwined but certainly not the same. A weight loss goal can imply that, after reaching your target weight, you have the option to take your foot off the gas and loosen your training and nutritional discipline. A training lifestyle
A weight loss goal uses fitness as a means to an end, but with a fitness lifestyle- fitness is the goal. A fitness lifestyle is a discipline that keeps you in a perpetual state of growth at best or maintains your current state at worse. When you take your foot off the gas after achieving your target weight, the opportunity for weight gain becomes greater because the body is trying to do everything in its power to return to its former weight.
To keep the weight off, consistent fitness and nutrition is a must. As per the NWCR, around 90% of those who effectively shed pounds commit to roughly one hour of daily exercise. Similarly, the American College of Sports Medicine advises a minimum of 250 minutes of moderate-intensity activity per week (equivalent to 50 minutes per day, five days a week) for sustaining weight loss(1). While training five days a week is a lot for most, the intensity of each workout doesn’t have to be crazy to reap the weight loss benefits. Walking, identified as the most commonly practiced exercise in the NWCR, alongside other moderate-intensity activities, can aid in weight maintenance and bring about various enhancements in health.
Incorporate Strength Training
Strength training can seem intimidating but incorporating it into your workout routine can be extremely beneficial for weight loss. Lean muscle mass aids in the firing the metabolism which in turn works to burn stored energy.
To get started, shoot for working your aim major muscle groups at least two times a week. Not sure where to kick things off? If you feel uncomfortable starting by yourself, speak with a solid personal trainer who can set you up with a strength-training plan. And the best part? You can do it at the gym, in the great outdoors, or right at home.
Rely on your Village
It can’t be overstated how important having people in your corner can be during this process. Long term weight loss is a lifestyle, and a positive lifestyle encompasses all parts of our environment, including the p pole we surround ourselves with. It’s important to have people who are vested in your success and hold you accountable to that success, not just a number on a scale.
When friends and family are on board with your journey, studies have found not only a greater success rate with weight loss- but also greater weight loss maintenance years down the road. While that’s all well and good, the reality is that some people don’t have a social circle interested in health. If that’s you it’s ok! Modern times offer lots of opportunities to reach out with others who are facing the same challenges on social media or in-person. Whether joining active forums, meeting new people at the gym or fitness gatherings, or reaching out to a healthcare provider regularly, there are ways to incorporate people into your life for success.
Don’t Let a Setback Become a Relapse
Everyone (and I do mean everyone) face setbacks on the journey, and preparing for them mentally and physically can make the difference between a minor setback or complete failure. The first step is identifying obstacles and triggers that can throw off your diet or fitness lifestyle. This could be your schedule, financial constraints, parental responsibilities, guilty pleasures, you name it.
Once you understand what could potentially stop you, begin creating solutions to help circumvent them completely. When things don’t go exactly as planned, view those setbacks as a learning opportunity rather than a lapse in character. For example, if you said, “Ah man, I know I shouldn’t have had that much ice cream. I knew I didn’t have what it takes for this!” shift your perspective to, “I wonder why I ate that much ice cream? Maybe it was boredom, loneliness, or stress? Maybe I didn’t eat enough earlier in the day?” This way, nothing is seen as a failure, and each setback becomes an opportunity to gain insights into yourself and your needs.
Find Motivation in Your “Why”Weight loss is never truly about weight—it’s about removing some of the physical or emotional discomfort around it. The problem with long term weight loss is once you lose your desired weight and feel better, it’s easy to slide back into old habits. When the journey gets hard and you have trouble finding motivation, keep your “why” in the forefront of your mind. Whether it’s being able to have fun with your kids, reduce your risk for heart disease, or feel more comfortable and confident in a swimsuit, that why doesn’t maintain itself once you reach your goal. Your why is ongoing which means your weight loss journey is too. Continue to grow and let your motivations evolve and you’ll find the process of health and fitness far more rewarding and enjoyable than you ever imagined.
