STRATEGIES FOR WEIGHT MAINTENANCE
Weight loss tends to get the spotlight. It has a clear goal and often visible progress. Maintaining the effects of your weight loss efforts, however, can feel vague, and this is often why many people struggle.
I would bet that you, personally, or someone you know has been in the cycle of losing and gaining “the same 5/10/20 pounds.” It can be incredibly frustrating, and is a major culprit of why people find themselves in a perpetual yo-yoing of dieting.
Losing weight and maintaining weight loss are not the same skill. Many people are taught (either with a coach, by following a program, or through individual efforts) how to lose weight, but very few are taught how to live at a stable weight. If you’ve ever reached a goal and then felt unsure about what comes next, it’s not a failure; it’s a gap in education. (A quick interjection here! 1. A “goal weight” and a stable weight to live at are usually not the same weight, and 2. If you are looking for a coach that can support you through weight loss and support you through maintaining your progress, that is exactly what I do with clients.)
Maintaining your progress is not a passive phase where you stop thinking about your habits. It’s an active practice that asks for flexibility, awareness, and a different definition of progress. It is not the rigidity that may be required to achieve weight loss; it’s also not a free-for-all (which is a common misconception, and another blog post in and of itself!).
MISCONCEPTIONS ABOUT MAINTAINING WEIGHT LOSS
The most common misconception of maintenance (as a nutritional phase and as the act of preserving progress) is that we can return to most of our old routines once you reach your goal. That the extra walks, the parking further from the store, the additional hydration and sleep…that those were only important as part of the efforts of weight loss.
Maintenance doesn’t mean forever living like you are in a calorie deficit or chasing aesthetic goals. The goal isn’t rigidity, but it does necessitate some intentionality. We still need structure, but can ease up on the pressure; we still need awareness, but less urgency. Your habits (the boring, unsexy everyday ones) still exist.
KEEP YOUR CORE BEHAVIORS
Maintenance doesn’t require doing everything you were doing during fat loss, but it does require keeping the foundational behaviors that made fat loss possible. For many of us, that looks like:
Eating enough protein regularly
Including fiber-rich foods in your diet
Keeping some consistency with meals
Continuing to move your body in ways you can sustain
What often backfires is removing all structure at once, and why it is so important to decide what routines you are intentionally adding during fat loss. (This is why we see a lot of the cyclical effects of weight loss after diets/programs that have strict rules, like 75 Hard, Whole30, or a 6-week challenge. We have intense rules and structure for a certain amount of time, and then when that period ends and that structure is no longer necessary, a lot of progress is often loss – we’re not meant to maintain such intensity forever!)
MAINTENANCE IS A RANGE
Maintaining weight loss progress is a range of many things: it’s a range of numbers, it’s a range of behaviors, and it’s a range of our mindset. Your body’s fitness performance and aesthetics are a result of your daily efforts and habits, and so when our day-to-day shifts after fat loss phase, we need to understand that some other things will change, too. This is not a failure. We are not meant to be the leanest, fittest versions of ourselves forever and ever. And because of this, we need to expect (and respect!) fluctuations, especially in a maintenance weight range. Finding success and comfort maintaining your weight loss isn’t about preventing these fluctuations, but about finding responses that feel grounding to you.
External (or extrinsic) motivation can feel helpful, but long-term maintenance relies much more heavily on intrinsic motivation. This is the shift from “I’ve got to maintain my weight” to “this is how I take care of myself.” Your thoughts matter. Paying attention to how you think (and the “why” that is driving your actions) is just as important as paying attention to what you eat or how you move.
LIFE HAPPENS
Maintenance is where we will live (where we should live) the majority of the time. It also doesn’t happen in a controlled environment. It happens during busy seasons, vacations, holidays, and all the days and weeks and years in between.
The people who maintain weight loss aren’t the ones who avoid disruptions, but ones who have have solid habits and a dedicated set of bare minimums to stick to, so that even when life does feel a little chaotic, there are basics to lean on each season.
There will be setbacks. Instead of approaching these with judgement, I challenge you to approach them with curiosity and think about what has changed? What do you need next? What behaviors might need a little more attention or fine-tuning?
SO…
Maintaining your progress isn’t passive, but it also doesn’t come with constant excitement or even visible or tangible milestones. And that’s okay.
If you’ve been around here for some time, you’ll know that I think the boring habits are the best, and it is true here, too: embracing boring, repeatable habits are one of the most effective ways to maintain your progress.
YOUR NEXT STEP
Does this blog post resonate with you? At Front Porch Nutrition, I coach real people through real-life nutrition — thinking through what your wants, needs, and goals are, and working together to make changes that last not just in the moment, but for the long haul. Get started with 1:1 nutrition coaching today!
