Many people struggle to maintain weight loss long-term. While fad-diets and four-week bikini-body boot camps might help you drop pounds, keeping weight off is challenging. Research shows that 95% of dieters regain lost weight within one to five years, with up to two-thirds of dieters gaining more weight than they lost dieting (Mann, et al., 2007).

Fortunately, researchers have uncovered some of the traits and strategies that can help increase your chances of successfully maintaining a healthy weight. The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) has tracked more than 10,000 people over the last 23 years who’ve been successful in maintaining long-term weight loss. These “successful losers” share some common characteristics that have helped them keep weight off over time. These and other long-term strategies discussed below can help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.

Ditch Diets for Lifestyle Change

Diets don’t work and can even be harmful in long-term weight loss maintenance (Mann, et al., 2007). For sustainable weight loss, focus on healthier alternatives and lifestyle changes. Diets often represent a black-and-white, all-or-nothing approach. Lifestyle changes are more broad, generalizable and adaptable to your situations and needs. Some examples of long-term lifestyle changes you might adopt include eating vegetables with every meal and snack, or pairing carbohydrates with protein or fat to manage blood sugar levels. You can also integrate mindful eating as a sustainable strategy to keep weight regain at bay. While these may not seem extreme enough to promote dramatic weight loss, the power lies in their sustainability over time.

Move it or Gain it

The NWCR reports that 90% of successful losers exercise an average of one hour a day. Similarly, the American College of Sports Medicine suggests a minimum of 250 minutes of moderate-intensity activity (50 minutes, five days a week) to maintain weight loss. These guidelines may seem daunting, but activity doesn’t need to be strenuous or extreme to yield weight-related benefits. The most commonly reported form of exercise in the NWCR is walking. Walking and other moderate-intensity activities can help you maintain a healthy weight and produce many other health-improving outcomes.

Build Up Your Strength

Strength training helps build and preserve muscle mass, which is typically lost with age and calorically restricted diets. Muscle is expensive tissue—it costs the body a lot of calories to maintain. Thus, the more muscle you have, the more calories you’ll burn through the day, even while at rest.

Focus on working all major muscle groups two or more days a week. If you’re unsure where to begin, seek out a qualified personal trainer to help you build a strength-training regimen that can be performed in the gym, outdoors or at home.

Self-monitor

You can’t change a behavior unless you know what, when and why it’s happening. Monitoring your eating and exercise behaviors helps raise your awareness around the antecedents (what causes a behavior) and consequences (thoughts, feelings, rewards or drawbacks) of engaging in a particular behavior. Food or activity logs can be useful tools for self-monitoring. A sample food log might include the following:

• What you ate
• How much you ate
• Where you were
• What you were thinking or feeling before you ate
• How much time it took you to eat
• What you were doing while you ate (e.g., watching television, answering emails)
• What you were thinking or feeling after you ate (physically and emotionally)
• Level of fullness or satiation after eating

Self-monitoring can be used regularly to keep track of eating and exercise, or it can be a strategy employed when maintaining your healthy behaviors becomes challenging.

Seek Support

Social support is critical for long-term behavior change. With supportive friends and family, healthy eating and exercise become fun group activities that foster adherence and enjoyment. If your inner circle finds carrots distasteful and exercise a bore, maintaining your healthy habits will be more challenging. Find a group of health-minded individuals (in person or online) with whom you can identify problems, brainstorm solutions, and offer and receive support. Long-term guidance from a health and fitness professional also improves weight-related outcomes. Maintaining contact with a qualified health coach can help you plan and prepare for success and overcome obstacles that may arise.

Don’t let Lapses become Relapses

Setbacks are normal. Planning for them can help you overcome setbacks when they occur. Consider possible barriers that may hinder your ability to be active or eat well  (e.g., busy schedule, stress, financial issues) and brainstorm solutions to these barriers in advance. Rather than berating yourself for “falling off the wagon,” view setbacks as opportunities for learning and growth. “Ugh, I ate so much ice cream last night. I knew I couldn’t do this!” instead becomes, “I wonder why I ate so much ice cream last night? Was I bored? Lonely? Stressed? Did I get enough to eat during the day?” With this, nothing is a failure and every “setback” is an opportunity to learn more about yourself and your needs.

Remember your Why

Weight loss is never truly about weight—it’s about reducing some physical or emotional discomfort you feel. Once you’ve lost weight and feel better, it’s easy to fall back into old habits. Whether it’s being able to play with your grandkids, reduce your risk for heart disease, or feel more comfortable and confident in a swimsuit, figure out the “why” behind your weight loss and write it down. Place this note in plain view where you’ll see it frequently. This constant reminder can help you stick with healthy behaviors when the going gets tough.

A Recipe for Success

There’s no magic pill when it comes to weight-loss maintenance; rather, multiple lifestyle factors work together to preserve your weight and health. Focusing on sustainable eating changes, regular activity, social support and self-compassion in the face of setbacks is your best bet for achieving a healthy weight that lasts a lifetime.

Reference

Mann, T. et al. (2007). Medicare’s search for effective obesity treatments: Diets are not the answer. The American Psychologist, 62, 3, 220–233.

Maintaining weight loss can be just as challenging, if not more difficult, than losing weight initially. A study on participants from The Biggest Loser revealed that many regain weight due to significant drops in their resting metabolic rate. However, lasting weight maintenance is achievable by following these key strategies:

1. Stay Consistent: Maintain the activity levels and eating plan that helped you lose weight, adjusting them as needed to suit your current weight and metabolism.
2. Build Muscle: Strength training increases muscle mass, which boosts your resting metabolic rate, helping you burn more calories even at rest.
3. Set Goals: Regularly set both long-term and short-term goals, whether related to exercise, nutrition, or personal achievements like vacations, to stay motivated.
4. Mindful and Intuitive Eating: Focus on eating without distractions, paying attention to taste and texture, and listening to your body’s hunger and fullness cues.
5. Have a Plan: Plan meals and workouts ahead of time to stay on track and avoid impulsive decisions that could lead to weight gain.
6. Use Non-Food Coping Strategies: Emotional eating can lead to unhealthy food choices. Have alternative activities, like walking or laughing, to manage stress or emotions.
7. Find Support: Engage with others on a similar journey to share experiences and ideas, which can motivate you to stay consistent.
8. Eat Real, Whole Foods: Stick to a nutrient-dense diet that helped you reach your goal weight, avoiding processed and refined foods.
9. Monitor Weight: Weigh yourself weekly to stay within a 3-pound range of your maintenance weight, adjusting your habits if necessary.
10. Handle Setbacks: Plan for challenges, but don’t let occasional slip-ups derail your progress. Learn from them and get back on track.
11. Stay Hydrated: Often, thirst can be mistaken for hunger. Drink water regularly, aiming for half your body weight in ounces each day.
12. Manage Stress: High stress increases fat storage. Incorporate stress-management techniques like deep breathing or laughter therapy to keep cortisol levels in check.
13. Prioritize Sleep: Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep each night, as poor sleep can disrupt hunger hormones, leading to increased hunger and cravings.

By combining these strategies, you can successfully maintain your weight loss and achieve long-term health.

Sticking to an exercise routine can be challenging, but it’s essential for reducing the risk of various health issues. Despite the numerous benefits of regular exercise, many people drop out of their programs within the first six months due to factors like lack of time, motivation, and social support. To combat this, focusing on self-efficacy is key to maintaining a long-term exercise habit. The following 25 evidence-based strategies can help improve adherence and motivate individuals to stay on track:

1. Set Realistic Health and Fitness Goals: Break long-term goals into smaller, achievable targets.
2. Create a Weekly Schedule and Include Your Exercise Time: Plan your workouts and make them part of your routine.
3. Start Slow: Gradually ease into your exercise routine to prevent injury.
4. Discover Workouts You Enjoy: Find a variety of enjoyable activities to increase your commitment.
5. Mix It Up: Keep your workouts diverse to avoid boredom and target different areas of fitness.
6. Get the Right Gear: Invest in comfortable attire and footwear to enhance your experience.
7. Track Your Progress: Keep a record of your achievements to stay motivated.
8. Create or Join a Network of Fitness Friends: Engage in group activities for social support and fun.
9. Reward Yourself: Celebrate milestones with non-food rewards to reinforce positive behavior.
10. Incorporate Music or Podcasts: Make your workouts more engaging with a playlist or podcasts.
11. Prioritize Consistency Over Intensity: Focus on regular exercise rather than sporadic intense sessions.
12. Seek out the Support of Significant Others: Let friends and family know your goals for encouragement.
13. Find a Workout Buddy: Exercise with a partner for accountability and enjoyment.
14. Set Reminders: Use mobile alerts to remind yourself of scheduled workouts.
15. Explore Some Outdoor Activities: Add variety with outdoor activities like hiking and biking.
16. Monitor Your Body Signals: Listen to your body and adjust your routine to prevent overexertion.
17. Fine Tune Your Dietary Pattern: Pair your workouts with a healthy diet to optimize recovery and performance.
18. Create a Vision Board: Use inspiring images and quotes to stay motivated.
19. Mini Workouts Count: Short workouts can still contribute to your fitness goals.
20. Set a Consistent Bedtime Routine: Ensure adequate sleep to support energy and recovery.
21. Invest in Professional Exercise Guidance: Consider hiring a trainer for personalized guidance.
22. Use Technology: Track your progress with fitness apps, wearables, or online platforms.
23. Establish Pre- and Post-workout Routines: Create routines that prepare your body for exercise and help you recover afterward.
24. Make It a Habit: Stick with it until exercise becomes a regular part of your life.
25. Stay Positive: Maintain a positive mindset and focus on the benefits of exercise.

By following these strategies, you can overcome challenges and build a sustainable, long-term exercise habit. As a final thought: Your body will achieve what your mind will believe—believe in your ability to reach your fitness goals, and you’re already halfway there!

Choosing the right snacks can be a game-changer for maintaining energy and overall health, but looks can be deceiving when it comes to nutrition. Many snacks marketed as “healthy,” like bran muffins and cereal bars, are actually loaded with hidden sugars and unhealthy fats. Even “fat-free” options can sneak in excess salt and sugar to make up for the flavor loss, which may ultimately do more harm than good. Knowing what to look for can help you enjoy satisfying, nourishing snacks that support your goals rather than derail them.

Here are 7 tips for smarter snacking.

1. Go for the grain. Whole-grain snacks can give you energy with staying power. Try some whole-grain low-salt pretzels or tortilla chips, or a serving of high-fiber cereals.
2. Bring back breakfast. Many breakfast foods can be repurposed as a nutritious snack later in the day. How about a slice of whole-grain toast topped with low-sugar jam? Low-sugar granola also makes a quick snack.
3. Try a “high-low” combination. Combine a small amount of a food with healthy fat, like peanut butter, with a larger amount of a very light food, like apple slices or celery sticks.
4. Go nuts. Unsalted nuts and seeds make great snacks. Almonds, walnuts, peanuts, roasted pumpkin seeds, cashews, hazelnuts, filberts, and other nuts and seeds contain many beneficial nutrients and are more likely to leave you feeling full (unlike chips or pretzels). Nuts have lots of calories, though, so keep portion sizes small.
5. The combo snack. Try to have more than just one macronutrient (protein, fat, carbohydrate) at each snacking session. For example, have a few nuts (protein and fat) and some grapes (carbohydrates). Or try some whole-grain crackers (carbohydrate) with some low-fat cheese (protein and fat). These balanced snacks tend to keep you feeling satisfied.
6. Snack mindfully. Don’t eat your snack while doing something else — like surfing the Internet, watching TV, or working at your desk. Instead, stop what you’re doing for a few minutes and eat your snack like you would a small meal.

Take it with you. Think ahead and carry a small bag of healthful snacks in your pocket or purse so you won’t turn in desperation to the cookies at the coffee counter or the candy bars in the office vending machine.

After more than 20 years as a health professional, my philosophy has remained constant, but I have definitely revised my guidance regarding things like eating low-fat foods, calorie counting and intermittent fasting. In fact, some of the advice I offer my clients (and even the messaging I write in articles) vastly differs from my advice and messaging five to 10 years ago. These revisions do not stem from indecisiveness, but rather from a progressive understanding of human physiology and metabolism.

Whatever mechanisms cause weight gain have always done so, but our understanding of how the body digests and stores nutrients is constantly evolving. For example, carbohydrate, protein and fat still have 4, 4 and 9 calories per gram, respectively, but insight into the functions of the gut microbiome and hormones has changed the narrative on the roles of fats and sugars.

Over the years, my understanding of low-fat foods, calorie counting and fasting has evolved. With very few exceptions, I no longer advise my clients to eat low-fat foods, count calories and eat within an hour of waking. Read on to learn why…

“Eat low-fat foods.” 
Without a doubt, my view of the role of dietary fat has evolved the most. In fact, I believe that as a nation, our early Dietary Guidelines for Americans were incorrect in their recommendations to consume a low-fat diet and, especially, to replace high-fat foods with low-fat and fat-free options. Unfortunately, as a result of those recommendations, Americans replaced fat with sugar and highly processed foods. During the past 40+ years (which coincides with when the low-fat guidelines were introduced) the U.S. population has become more overweight and obese.
Instead: Eat whole, unprocessed foods and include healthy fats (omega-3 and monounsaturated) at every meal. A caveat: Fruits and vegetables are “low-fat foods” that are underconsumed by most people, so don’t skimp on these particular low-fat and fat-free foods.

“Count calories and calculate macros.” 
Calories in vs. calories out, right? If you want to lose weight, you simply need to burn more calories than you consume. I learned this in school and touted this statement for years. However, most people are unable to estimate their portion sizes, meaning that their calorie counts are often unreliable. And, most importantly, quality matters exponentially more than quantity.
Instead: Evidence suggests that ultra-processed foods (regardless of caloric content) may negatively affect our gut health and, therefore, alter the hormones that regulate hunger and satiety (ghrelin and leptin, for example). Thus, it’s time to shift the messaging from counting calories to eating as many whole, unprocessed foods as possible.

“Eat within an hour of waking.” 
I once believed that breakfast was the most important meal of the day and that eating in the morning could jumpstart your metabolism. I am much less certain of that now. Intermittent fasting (IF), also referred to as time-restricted feeding, is currently popular and associated with many health benefits. I am not 100% convinced IF is an appropriate approach for everyone, but we do know that going 12 to 16 hours without a meal will not “slow down metabolism.”
Instead: When you get hungry, eat. That is, practice intuitive eating (also known as mindful eating). Experiment with eating and fasting windows, as some people may experience the purported benefits of IF with just a 12-hour fast (7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., for example). The length of an eating window, however, is still secondary to what someone eats and drinks during that window (see above points regarding the quality of calories consumed).

Final Thought 

As it turns out, I was not really wrong when I gave that advice in the past, and neither were my professors, mentors or colleagues when they taught me that information. We simply promoted nutrition standards based on the information we had at the time. It is important to realize that our understanding of how the body digests and stores carbohydrates, fats, proteins and micronutrients is constantly evolving—and will likely continue to evolve well into the future, so it’s vital that you review emerging research and update the advice you share with your clients accordingly.

If you want to feel your best, you need to make time for self-improvement. Time for yourself isn’t something you find, it’s something you need to schedule, prioritize and make the most of.

As women, we already have a lot on our agenda. Oftentimes, we’re may find ourselves accepting additional tasks and responsibilities that help others and taking on more of the “mental load” of running a household. This unfortunately leaves us very little time to care for ourselves. As a busy wife and mother of two, I know the guilt that can accompany carving our time for self-care.

According to a USA Today poll, 1 in 3 people in the U.S. feel guilty when they take time for themselves, yet, 67% say they need more of it.

We need to change the way we look at self-care. Making time to better yourself equips you to better care for those around you and it allows you to lift those up who depend on you.

In my own experience, and what I hear from those that I coach, we feel and operate our best when we regularly exercise our mind, body and spirit. This can look different for each person but here are some examples:

The MIND: Freeing and strengthening your mind might mean reading a book, doing a crossword puzzle or learning something new. Challenging ourselves mentally can help us to feel more capable, confident and empowered.

The SPIRIT: A joyful, peaceful spirit can be built through prayer, meditation, gratitude journaling or soaking in a sunset. Harvard studies show that people who write down a few “gratitude sentences” each day are more positive and optimistic about life. When we dwell on the positive thoughts and events in our lives, there’s little room for the negativity.

The BODY: Exercising the body can bring all three components together. Exercise can oftentimes be intentionally uncomfortable, which is a mental challenge. There’s also a spiritual connection when we push, and connect to, our bodies, especially when practicing mindful movement. With discipline, you’ll begin to discover the incredible rewards of going for a run, taking a yoga class, or a strenuous lifting session.

Research shows that exercise reduces stress and anxiety, improves self esteem, energizes your spirit and increases focus. Not to mention all of the physical benefits.

Making time for all three of these might seem impossible, but I have some tips for how to squeeze them in, even on your busiest days. Remember, it’s all about prioritizing, scheduling and making the most of your time.

1. PRIORITIZE: You must schedule priorities rather than prioritizing your schedule. What I mean is, self-care must be more important than your to-do list. Write down your priorities and set time aside to make them happen. Set an appointment with yourself and don’t back out!
2. SAY “NO.” It’s impossible say “yes” to everything and still have time for yourself. Sometimes “no” is necessary.
3. GET CREATIVE:Find small moments during your day to reset the body, mind and spirit. Roll down your windows on your drive home. Listen to an encouraging podcast. Go for a short walk and take note of all that you have to be grateful for.

Making time is a challenge, but it’s worth it. A better, happier you is an appointment (with yourself) away.

My morning mind, body and spirit routine usually takes about 40 minutes, but here’s a quick 15-minute morning practice that can be done even on the busiest days.

– 5 minute of reading: Read something that motivates or challenges you. I like following daily devotional reading plans. Each day is mapped out for me and only takes a few minutes.

– 5 minutes of gratitude: Write down 2-3 things you’re grateful for. Next, jot down 2-3 positive affirmations about yourself and say them out loud.

– 5 minutes of movement: Get outside for a quick walk, jog down the street, work through a yoga flow, pump out as many push-ups, squats and sit ups as you can… anything to get the body moving!

You can also break these up throughout the day, but I challenge you to take at least 15 minutes a day for 15 days and unlock the power of prioritizing YOU!