Welcome back #fitfam! I’ll start with sincere apologies for my tardiness due a family matter but we are back in action. As I considered a topic for this week, a consistent question I’ve been asked during recent travels is how I maintain my weight once I reach and goal. As a follow-up, I’m usually asked how I got to my goal as well. Fortunately, there’s no special formula or secret to success and nearly anyone can achieve their weight management goals with a few tips. Today I’m going to share my personal formula for weight loss and weight management, specific to dietary changes.
#1 – Track Your Intake
The first time I made a serious effort to reach my optimal weight and body mass index number, I made what I thought were major changes to my diet. Unfortunately, I didn’t set a baseline of food intake, so I had no proof that I was improving my health through my meal intake. The next time I ventured into the journey, I installed the MyFitnessPal app and I tracked my intake for 10 days before I made any changes to my eating. During the 10 days, I only increased my water intake and added a probiotic but I ate the same foods and portions. For anyone who has increased water intake or added a probiotic, you likely are aware that both can impact total weight and both did for me, dropping 3 lbs with little effort in 10 days. With nearly two weeks of intake data, I was able to identify my meal patterns, carbohydrate, protein, and fat intake, in addition to my total calories. This important information allowed me to add and subtract different foods within my diet and make education adjustments which also allowed me to modify my caloric intake and meal frequency. Knowledge is king, so the more you know, the more informed your approach will be.
#2 – Purchase a Cookbook and Plan Your Meals
Though I recommend purchasing a cookbook, it is not required to be successful in managing your weight. The role of a high-quality, healthy cookbook is simply to provide various ideas for meals to avoid food burn-out. What I have discovered is that repetitive meals tend to lead to a lack of discipline in intake and diet fails. If you prefer not to acquire a cookbook, I recommend that you find 10-14 lunch and dinner meal ideas. Using the recipes you have available, create a combination that allows you to make your grocery list simple by putting together meals that use similar ingredients. Armed with information, you can then plan your meals accordingly and take into account various factors such as protein, carbs, and calories. A meal plan is most effective because it is easier remain consistent when the guesswork of ‘what to eat’ is eliminated. The meal plan is also a continuation of the tracking that was done prior to beginning the intake modification. After an equally time on the meal plan has passed, 10-14 days, you can compare your statistics in MyFitnessPal as well as your weight day by day over the course of the meal modification. With tangible results and important information, you can either shift to maintenance mode or calibrate your meal plan to get closer to your goal.
#3 – Routinely Adjust Your Intake
Depending on the results of your first two weeks of meal adjustment, you may either be at or near your goal and may need to calibrate your intake. No matter the state, at some point in your journey, you will HAVE to adjust your plan to be and remain successful. This tip falls in line with tracking because we are working to understand how our results are being impacted by the meal choices we are making. if you have reached a goal, the focus will shift to ways that allow you to maintain your current weight with very little +/- scale movement from week to week. This will require adjustments to meals and activities. If you have gained weight or haven’t lost any weight, using the information that has been collected will allow you to see where you may have misstepped. If you are on track with your weight loss, clearly the program is working and an adjustment is likely unnecessary at that moment but will be needed in the future when you plateau or reach your goal.
I hope that these few tips will help you all going forward!
Lastly, I have training programs as low as $75/month that will supplement and guide you to your goals.
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Great tips! thank you or sharing. tracking your intake is such a useful tool to get started!
Thank you for reading Hailee!
Tracking your food intake is the most important that one should ever do. I love the tips you shared here. Thanks.
Hello Pam, thank you for reading and sharing your feedback!
I totally agree with your thoughts about meal prep! It is super helpful when a handful of healthy recipes you know you like have common ingredients you’d have already, or share ingredients so shopping is simple. In my experience, meal prepping changes the game for making healthy choices because the work is already done!
Welcome back Skye! I love your comments, you really provide awesome feedback. Meal prep is really the secret sauce for success.
All three of these diet tips are awesome! I struggle immensely with tracking my intake (it scares me a bit 😂😂), however, I know it is such a great way to start you on the road to a successful diet! Thanks!
Be brave Michelle, lol! We can track our intake and adjust accordingly.
Wow these are such great tips, I will surely think about this!
Hi Sabrina, thanks for reading!
Great post! I’m currently on a weight loss journey but hadn’t thought about the benefits of a cook book! That makes so much sense though as I’nm guilty of making the same meals over and over!
Hi Katherine, a cookbook is a great way to keep it fresh and try new things. In addition, you won’t burn out and lose discipline.