Key points
- Maintaining a healthy weight can benefit your health now and in the future.
- The following tips come from studies of people who have successfully lost weight and maintained it over time.
Watch your diet
Follow a healthy and realistic eating pattern
After weight loss, it can be challenging to maintain positive habits. Among people who lost weight and maintained weight loss for a year, most continued to eat a diet with fewer calories than their pre-weight loss diet.
Keep your eating patterns consistent
Follow a healthy eating pattern regardless of changes in your routine. Plan ahead for weekends, vacations, and special occasions. By making a plan, it is more likely you will have healthy foods on hand for when your routine changes.
Avoid getting over-hungry and overeating.
For some, this may mean eating breakfast. Others may use intermittent fasting to avoid late-night snacking. The goal is to find effective and sustainable behaviors to avoid getting over-hungry and overeating.
Be physically active
People who maintain their weight loss typically engage in 60 to 90 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity most days. This isn't necessarily all at once. It might mean 20 to 30 minutes of physical activity three times a day. For example, you can take a brisk walk in the morning, at lunch time, and in the evening.
Daily physical activity is in addition to being mindful of calories. Some people may need to talk to their health care provider before participating in this level of physical activity.
Monitor your diet, activity, and weight
Monitoring can help you maintain health and weight loss. Monitoring can include daily recording your steps, physical activity, and how many fruits and vegetables you eat, and recording your weight once a week. Using this food and beverage diary and physical activity journal can help you track your progress and spot trends.
For example, you might notice that your weight creeps up when you work overtime. Or maybe you often overeat when you must travel for work. These patterns can be signals to try different behaviors. Solutions might include using your breaks for quick walks around the building when working overtime, or packing healthy food for the plane and using your hotel's exercise facility when traveling.