Last Updated on September 19, 2018 by Michael Brockbank
Is it possible to lose weight permanently? Sure, as long as you’re willing to make permanent changes in your lifestyle to keep the weight off. You simply cannot lose 50 pounds and expect to go back to eating everything in sight. It’s essentially a transition you make to remain healthy.
Permanently Losing Weight
Some of us are just lucky. I know people who can maintain their metabolism regardless of how old they are. Others like myself need to take more active roles in losing weight.
In reality, there is no absolute way to lose weight permanently without putting in the effort to do so. You will need to maintain a goal weight once your reach it – the body just isn’t going to stay where it is.
What About Weight Loss Surgeries?
I am against any kind of weight loss surgery, so I am a bit biased in this point. However, it’s true that you can drop a lot of weight relatively quick.
On the other hand, the surgery forces you to make permanent adjustments in your diet.
The regimens that go along with weight loss surgeries are quite aggressive. In fact, you can easily lose weight without the surgery just by following the post-op diet.
After all is said and done, you will still need to maintain a certain lifestyle. You can still eat unhealthy and feel physically terrible if you don’t closely follow the post-op diet requirements.
Essentially, weight loss surgeries force you to make changes in your eating habits or suffer severe consequences. Well, aside from liposuction. That’s just a fat eraser for lazy people.
In reality, weight loss surgeries involve nothing you can’t do yourself. I know some people who need it to save their life, but too many just don’t have the will power to do it themselves.
Maintaining Your Goal Weight
Once you reach your goal weight, life is much easier and you can relax a bit. However, this doesn’t mean you can fall back into a sedentary lifestyle. Otherwise, you run the risk of gaining back everything you lost.
It takes dedication and motivation to maintain your goal weight. For many, it simply means not binge eating Christmas goodies or tearing through a bag of Halloween candy.
Identify how you gained the weight in the first place and make sure you don’t fall into the same trap. For me, it is sitting stationary at my desk for 16 hours a day while pounding down sugary goodness.
Never again.
One of my favorite tools for monitoring my progress is MyFitnessPal. It’s a free app that lets you track food and exercise. Through it, you can easily devise a plan to permanently keep off the weight you lose.
Best Ways to Permanently Lose Weight
When you want to drop the pounds and keep them off, you need to make some adjustments in your life. I know…change is hard. But it’s necessary if you want to maintain a certain weight.
Devise a Good Diet for Yourself
A proper diet is one of the easiest ways to lose weight, as long as you’re eating right. The first 20 pounds I lost consisted of keeping my calories in the green in MyFitnessPal while eating Progresso soup for lunch and dinner.
The important thing to remember is not every diet will work the same for everyone. People will have varying degrees of success with even the best diet plans.
Everyone’s physiology is different, and what works for one person may not work for you. Develop a good food strategy that fits your needs, lifestyle and weight-loss goals.
In my net 600 diet, I can eat what I want but it needs to be in reason. I can’t simply eat 600 calories of chocolate and expect to lose weight and be healthy. I still eat many of the foods I love. However, I do so in moderation.
Keep to proper portion sizes and it’s easy to lose weight.
Add Physical Hobbies to Your Daily Routine
It’s important to remember to keep active. The more activity your body experiences, the more weight you’ll lose. If you create a habit out of activity, it’ll be much easier to permanently keep the weight off.
Personally, I wouldn’t mind joining a city league for some kind of sporting activity. I love bowling and golf, I just normally can’t afford those things. So, I tend to walk quite a bit around my yard while trying to focus on setting personal records for certain exercises.
The point is you need to keep yourself moving as much as possible.
Avoid the Pitfalls that Started Your Weight Gain
The hardest thing to put into perspective is your past habits that caused the weight gain to begin with. But if you want to lose weight permanently, you need to toss the things that caused the most damage.
Take me, for instance. I spent a great deal of time watching Netflix from my computer while eating Walmart cupcakes and donuts. Over the course of a few years, it got to the point where my heart stopped.
Avoiding these pitfalls includes any stressful elements. It’s easy to produce the hormone cortisol, which adds fat to your midsection.
Not only that, but stress can lead to all kinds of health issues you don’t want.
Many of us have to make life-altering changes because we’re so stuck in our ways. For example, I could easily burn more calories if I was more outgoing and social. Just taking a nice stroll through the park or attending nearby events can help burn calories.
There is No Such Thing as Permanent
Perhaps one of the best pieces of advice I can give is to not assume you can permanently lose weight. If you are one of those people who can easily maintain their metabolism, that’s awesome.
Just bear in mind the human body tends to slow down. It will take more work to maintain yourself as time goes on.[template id=”3591″]