10 Feb 4 More Tips to Keep the Weight Off

When we start to shift our focus from losing weight to becoming healthy, understand our food and eating triggers and get the professional support we need, we’re on the road to maintaining a healthy weight.

I want to leave you with four more tips to help you keep the weight off.

Health isn’t about the numbers: It isn’t reduced to your BMI or number on a scale. I had a client who came to me one day after years of struggling with gaining and losing 50-100 pounds. This client shared with me that they had finally realized that all those years losing and gaining occurred because they had only focused on the number on the scale. If it didn’t go down, they were disappointed. If it did go down, it was never enough or they didn’t believe it was real. The scale and focusing on weight loss, rather than on changing their behaviors, had stood in the way of maintaining a healthy weight. They also shared that there needed to be a paradigm shift in how they viewed the importance of weight, food, exercise and health in relation to work, relationships, self-care and time management to set realistic goals and expectations.

Change your chip: Activity shouldn’t be synonymous with punishment. “No pain, no gain,” was probably the worst, most ridiculous, least effective motivation for people to become more active and increase muscle mass. Find fun, creative ways to challenge yourself. Set attainable goals: do a color run with your office, walk a 5K with the family, learn how to swim. The key to maintaining our activity habits is understanding where our motivation comes from and what barriers get in the way of our success. Do you hate getting up early? Don’t schedule exercise time at 5:00 in the morning. Do gyms make you uncomfortable? Don’t join one! Find a hiking group or walk in the park. When we make movement a mindset, we’ll have more chances to find ways to burn calories.

“A single pound of muscle can burn 30 – 50 calories a day.”

This is a common stat we hear, and over time “muscle lore” has become truth. As with many things that are “common knowledge,” it’s actually wrong.

According to an article written by Dr. Bryant in ACE FitnessMatters newsletter, he says  “[M]uscle tissue has been observed to burn roughly seven to 10 calories per pound per day, compared to two to three calories per pound per day for fat. Therefore, if you replace a pound of fat with a pound of muscle, you can expect to burn only approximately four to six more calories a day. Given the fact that the average person who strength trains typically gains approximately 3 to 5 pounds of muscle mass over a period of three to four months, the net caloric effect of such a training regimen is very modest—only 15 to 30 calories per day (the equivalent of a few potato chips).”

Hmm…that doesn’t sound too motivating. But then again, every little bit helps, right? If you were to decide to either burn 15-30 more calories per day or NOT, wouldn’t you still choose to burn it? I would. Over time, it adds up. That’s 450-900 more calories burned per month, or 5,400-10,800 more calories burned in a year—that’s about a 3-pound weight loss, simply by building and preserving your muscle mass. That sounds pretty great to me.

Turn off the TV: Our bodies, physically, enter a near-coma, non-calorie burning state when we sit in front of the TV. Moreover, we’re not mindful of what we’re eating when we eat in front of the TV. More often than not, our calorie ingestion soars when we eat and watch.

Focus on the positive: Weight loss and maintenance will, inevitably, have its ups and downs. But when we focus on the positive aspects of losing weight and keeping it off, it motivates us to continue on the weight-loss-maintenance path.

Making meaningful changes in our lifestyle will take us down the road of health and weight maintenance. As with anything, it will take time. But by avoiding the pitfalls of quick fixes, you’ll establish life transforming habits.

Are you ready to start?