How can I maintain my weight?

The two most important step in maintaining your weight is continuing practicing portion sizes of everything you eat, and spreading out 5-6 small meals a day.
 
According to the American Obesity Association, people who maintain a healthy weight eat five times a day, on average, and consume about 1,400 calories. In other words, they eat small meals often. Not only does this prevent you from becoming too hungry, this keeps your metabolism revving all day long. 

Practice moderation in everything. Diets don't work because diets just say NO to everything. Guess what? It's ok to say YES, sometimes, not always. Choose your indulgences, and enjoy them. Don't  throw your progress to the wind because you had a slice of cake. Reward yourself, and stay motivated!

The answer to this question depends on your level of calorie intake. In order to truly maintain your weight, your body needs to be in homeostasis (a balanced energy state). This means that your caloric expenditure (calories burned each day from physical activity, etc) should equal your calorie intake (total calories taken in thought food and drink).

If you really want to get dialed in, I would recommend doing two things:
1. Track your food each day. The more diligent and honest you are in this process the better because every little morsel counts. Nothing in the body gets a 'free ride'.
2. Purchase an exerspy. Which you can do here: http://www.myhfpn.com/store/item.action?subcatId=0&categoryId=0&productId=1353&fullScreen=true&id=1835.

An exerspy is a fantastic device that will track how many calories you burn each day. They are extremely accurate and easy to use. It fits on the upper arm and is designed to be worn all day (you just can't get it wet). When your body burns calories it gives off heat as a byproduct. The exerspy has sensors that will measure this heat exchange and convert it into how many calories you have burned. If you would like more information regarding the exerspy please contact me.

I know what you are thinking, "but the cardio machine I use tells me how many calories I burn". Well I have some bad news. Typically, cardio machines grossly overestimate how many calories you burn. Without an accurate reflection of how many calories your burning in a day you cannot accurately determine how many calories you should be eating.

By tracking your food and using an exerspy, you can fine tune your physical activity levels to match your food intake. These tools are also great if you have a goal of losing or gaining weight as well!

Your heart will be healthier if you reach and maintain a healthy weight, and don’t go up and down the scale like a yo-yo. If you’ve been able to lose weight, good for you! You’ve taken the extra strain off your heart and lowered your risk for heart problems. Be proud of your success!

Keeping extra weight off can be as challenging as losing it. Many things will tempt you to go back to your old habits. It takes commitment to stick to your new, healthy lifestyle. Yet when you do, you may notice that you have greater self control with food, feel stronger, have better eating habits and fewer mood swings, and are in better overall shape!

As you plan your weight loss program, think ahead about how to maintain your new weight. Many people are successful in losing weight but have a hard time keeping it off. What are the strategies used by people who get it off and keep it off?

Weight Loss and Physical Activity Together

• Remember that weight loss and physical activity go hand in hand. Studies show that exercise is an important part of both taking the pounds off and keeping them off. People who keep lost weight off say that daily exercise is an essential part of their lifestyle. They also report eating more fruits and vegetables than before, a healthy habit they hung on to even after they went off their “diet.” 

Well when wanting to maintain your weight is really simple because nothing really has to change.  To maintain your weight all you have to do is make sure you are eating and burning the same amount of calories.  Now as well get older things will change and we might have to make slight adjustments over time but the key is to track your progress.  Just make sure you are eating 5-6 small meals a day, maintaining your weight training and cardiovascular training.  Also get evaluations every month so you know if you need to make changes or not.

By continuing to "practice" the new healthy habits we replaced our poor unhealthy habits with. 

As we work towards physical weight loss, I encourage everyone to choose a method that encourages self-awareness and learning. 

I'm not a fan of quick fix diets that don't allow us to learn about our existing health patterns and how we can improve them. Maintaining weight becomes much more difficult in these cases and most often result in our reaching a weight goal only to be left without the tools to maintain our new weight. We quickly fall back into old unhealthy patterns because we simply don't know what to do. Our confidence starts dropping as our weight starts increasing. I know this cycle well, personally. It's one that many can relate to. To break the cycle, we focus on making gradual, consistent, healthy changes in our lifestyle…learning what works, and what doesn't so we can do it for life.

Maintaining weight is a challenge. Eat breakfast to help you consume fewer calories throughout the rest of the day. Exercise and physical activity is extremely important to prevent weight gain. Schedule it if you don't think you have time; you'll find it's a matter of priority. Never get overhungry. When you get too hungry you will eat fast and eat too much. Continue with the lifestyle change that helped you lose the weight and avoid returning to your previous habits that caused the weight gain in the first place.

The best way to maintain your weight is to reach your appropriate target weight.

Then to weigh yourself once weekly and see where your weight falls as you eat the same caloric intake you have been. If you continue to lose then add 250 calories a day and weigh in weekly. If you maintain then that is the best daily caloric intake for you.

If you continue to lose, then add another approximately 250 calories/day. Repeat this process until you do maintain and hold steady there.

Also remember to exercise and to keep a food journal.