Sustainable Weight Loss Journey - Part 7
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
This is the seventh post in my Sensible & Sustainable Weight Loss Series. I’m doing this series to help you lose weight in a healthy way, build a lifestyle that keeps weight off, and enjoy your life throughout the whole process and beyond.
Watch Me Discuss It
If you missed the first six blog posts, I recommend going back and reading them before moving forward with this one. Also, no matter how slow and gentle we make the weight-loss journey, it won't be for everyone. Please take a moment to read the disclaimer below.
Disclaimer
If you have a history of disordered eating, tread carefully. Work with a therapist trained in disordered eating before even considering a weight-loss journey.
Discuss potential lifestyle changes with your doctor. Changes to eating patterns and exercise routines are healthy for most people, but you must keep in mind any risk factors or underlying health issues when making lifestyle changes, even healthy ones.
The changes I suggest are considered healthy and beneficial by most standards. The suggestions I make have worked well for me and for people I know. These are common concepts used among successful nutrition and wellness coaches. But you know you best. Don't do anything that doesn't feel right to you.
While I recommend exercise for most people, if you have an injury or other physical issue, some exercises might not work for you. Listen to your body.
Check In
How are you doing? Are you taking care of yourself? Are you staying hydrated, getting enough sleep, and prioritizing protein and fiber so you can eat in a deficit and lose the weight you’ve been trying to lose for years? Maybe you are nearing your target weight already, maybe you have a long way to go. Either way, let’s talk for a bit about what happens when you reach your target weight.
Once you get to your goal, when the scale is reading what you wanted it to read, or your clothes are finally fitting you comfortably again, then what? How do we stop “dieting” and go back to normal life?
First, let me tell you, we are not “going back” to the lifestyle that made us unhappy, unhealthy and too heavy. We can move out of our calorie deficit, but we aren’t done. We want to be sure we don’t go back to our old habits.
Long-Term Maintenance Eating
Essentially, we are now transitioning into a long-term diet break. We discussed diet breaks in the previous post. We aren’t dropping everything we have been doing; we are transitioning to eating at our maintenance calories.
If you have been taking deficit breaks occasionally throughout the process, you have experience going from a deficit back to maintenance. We are doing that again, for the final time. To do this, start by recalculating your TDEE for your new weight and then update your tracker to that calorie budget.
Yes, we are still going to track our calories and our weight while eating at our maintenance calories. How long you continue tracking calories is up to you. Maybe just track a few months, maybe a year. You need to track long enough that you feel like you know what healthy eating feels like. Through this whole process, you have learned how to balance healthy foods with special treats. You learned what realistic serving sizes are. Now we just need to cement that learning into our long-term lifestyle.
Reality Check
In addition to tracking our calories, we will continue tracking our weight to confirm that we are maintaining. We want to be sure our weight holds steady, but keep these things in mind:
1) When you officially move out of your calorie deficit, you will likely see the scale move back up a pound or 2 as your body adjusts. Don’t panic, but also keep an eye on meeting your maintenance calories to stay on track. Your body will adjust.
2) Your weight will continue to fluctuate up and down as it always has, but the average should stay pretty steady around your goal weight. You can't gain 2 lbs of fat overnight, nor can you lose 2 lbs of fat overnight. Our weight includes water weight, inflammation, digesting food, and pending bowel movements. Don't let your natural fluctuation scare you.
3) Slowly, once you feel confident that your weight is stable, consider dropping calorie tracking and then your daily weight tracking. However, I do know people who, for years after losing weight, still weigh themselves every day, because that is what gives them the confidence to eat intuitively.
Phase Out Tracking
When you first transition out of your calorie deficit, you keep tracking your weight and your food every day. But eventually, we want to stop tracking and simply eat intuitively. When you are ready to stop tracking, don’t just drop it all. Keep tracking your weight while you phase out tracking your food. Here are two options for phasing out food tracking. Use the one that makes the most sense to you.
1) Eliminate days. We’ve been tracking 7 days a week. Maybe drop a couple of days. Choose the days that feel dialed in for you…your most typical days. These will likely be weekdays. Then phase out a couple more weekdays. Then the fifth. Eventually, stop tracking weekends.
2) Eliminate meals. After all the tracking you have done, you likely have a good idea of how many calories you typically eat at each meal. If you eat the same basic breakfast every day, you can stop tracking that. Then, maybe cut out tracking lunch. Lastly, dinners. This assumes that dinner has the widest variety and therefore the greatest opportunity for calorie-judgment errors.
Use your continued weight tracking as confirmation that you are able to eat intuitively. If you notice your weight creeping up over several weeks, simply start logging again to see what you are mentally miscalculating. Learn and repeat the tracking phase-out.
The End
Once you are at this point, keep making healthy decisions for yourself. Prioritize healthy foods, exercise, hydration, and sleep while still incorporating fun and joy into your lifestyle. Maintaining the healthy habits you've learned is how you will continue to live a healthy, happy, and balanced life. We don't ever want to have to do this whole weight-loss thing again, right?
Remember, it’s not really about the number on the scale; it’s about feeling good in your own body.
Above all, take care of yourself!
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