The truth is maintaining fat loss is actually harder than losing it in the first place.

Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. You lost a bunch of weight and over time it has slowly crept back on. It is the frustration of many people. You are not alone though, only 20% of people who lose weight keep it off long-term.

Do this 20% of people have some kind of secret that others don’t? What is the difference between those who maintain their weight loss to those who don’t?

What seems to be the secret?

You know the answer to this.

You surely do.

There is no secret.

Maintaining fat loss long-term is attributed to being consistent and making better choices. Forming habits that are sustainable. For instance, past studies report weight loss maintainers continue to:

• Eat a lower calorie diet
• Be very active
• Set daily food intake goals
• Limit the time they spend sitting
• Keep low-calorie foods accessible
• Have well-developed problem-solving skills

These are all daily habits that when performed consistently help results to be maintained.

 In addition to these habits, a new study highlights other dependent factors that lead to maintaining fat loss.

The study (of over 6000 people) highlighted the following.

Those who maintained their fat loss had initial motivations that were strong, personal, and meaningful. They were motivated to lose weight due to:

• Health issues
• How they looked and how their clothes fit
• Physical limitations like pain and limited mobility
• Social prompts, such as wanting to set an example for others, being ashamed of how they’re perceived, or being encouraged by friends
• Needing a change because they felt tired and frustrated

 

They were motivated to maintain their weight loss by:

• Comparing how they look/feel now to how they did in the past (it can be super powerful to look back on how far you’ve come)
• Enjoying their current health and appearance

Their success was important to them and the positive changes in their lives.

 

The top advice that the 20% of people who maintain give others was to:

• Persevere in the face of setbacks—because they’re inevitable
• Keep tracking food intake (so that you never veer too far off course for too long)

 

Finally, the continuing motivators, benefits, and reasons that are found in those who maintain fat loss were that they had:

• Better confidence
• Less pain
• Feeling fitter and having a better body image
• Improved health (improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, and diabetes)
• Being more at ease both in mind and body

How can I keep my results long-term?

There are a few things that you can take away from the above. And there are no secrets involved.

Firstly, your motivation to lose fat needs to be personal and instills self-compassion. You need to want to do it for yourself, for the love of yourself.

Secondly, find a way to keep tracking your food. To lose fat initially would have required this in some form. To maintain requires the continuation of tracking your food intake. This can be done in a number of ways and isn’t as difficult as it would seem. There are various tracking options, but the easiest is the hands-on approach. Use your hands to guide your portions for maintenance. (Check out our upcoming Hands-on Nutrition article to learn more about this type of tracking).

Thirdly, Mindset matters when it comes to long-term success. Losing weight and keeping it off is about progress, not perfection. If you persevere you will get there. There will be bad days, even bad weeks, this isn’t failure though. Do not quit and you will succeed. If you truly want to accomplish and maintain fat loss, you can and will do it. This is a mindset thing.

Reference:
Precision Nutrition, Research Insider – Revealed: Weight loss maintenance secrets (2022)