What Should You Do to Stabilize Your Weight ?

We’ve all been there: after a successful diet comes the relapse and – inevitably – the recovery of the lost weight. This yo-yo effect is the source of feelings of failure, which can completely destroy all the determination and rigour that you held on to so tightly at the start. Some people are continually stuck in this circle, which repeats itself over the years, affecting the body and mind. But what do you have to do to stabilize your weight once you’ve reached it? Let’s shed some light on what still seems to be a mystery for many people.

Target the risk factors

The post-diet weight gain may well be something that’s very common among all sorts of people around the world, but the reasons for these relapses are quite personal and unique to each person. The first step to successfully stabilizing your weight is to know why you’re regaining it. It’s a more difficult question than it seems, since it requires an excellent knowledge of the self and the patterns you’ve always followed. This work is usually done with a specialist, since they can reveal the insecurities, uneasiness, or deeper tendencies that can lead to bad habits. In particular, we’re thinking of the “stress eaters” who throw themselves at a package of sweets or chips as soon as they experience any stress, people who tend to relapse as soon as the holidays arrive, or those who have trouble seeing anything through to the end.

Being aware of your weaknesses lets you target the relapse factors, anticipate them, and know how to act in such circumstances.

Keep your habits for life

During the weight loss phase, you adopt ways of eating and being active and in better health that you didn’t have before. Although you only adopt them for a short or medium period, these habits are often associated with a feeling of restriction. Once the goal has been achieved, it’s therefore natural to want to reward yourself by no longer restricting yourself.

However, you should be aware that the habits you’ve adopted are good, except in the case of very strict and unrealistic diets. You should therefore continue eating a good breakfast in the morning, exercising moderately, consuming enough protein, and including carbohydrates and good fats in good proportions. You should also keep eating healthy snacks and avoiding refined dishes.

Stay motivated

When we take stock of what changes between the weight loss period and the one that follows, we notice a decline in motivation. When we start a diet, we’re prepared: we go to a grocery store full of good things, we organize cooking sessions to prepare our dishes in advance, and we put workouts on our calendars. Sometime after achieving our goal, however, we lose this motivation. Yet it’s precisely there that the success of the habits adopted lies. As with all the other aspects of our lives, motivation is at the heart of what we hope to accomplish, and it’s essential in maintaining it over the long term. In addition, by seeing these objectives as deep lifestyle changes and by combining the mental aspect with our physical efforts, we can only succeed in keeping our motivation.

Deciding to lose weight is the first step towards changing your life, but this can be a serious matter for some people, and it requires regular monitoring by specialists. You therefore shouldn’t hesitate to surround yourself with health, nutrition, or weight loss experts to maximize your chances of success.