How to Lose Weight

Okay, hopefully you are down to your target weight. You are happy with your new slimmer figure. It is time to start thinking about finishing your diet. You cannot just stop and switch straight back to your old life style. It is very easy to put the weight you have lost right back on. I made the same mistake the first time I dieted. It is called the yo-yo effect and it is not good for long-term weight loss. You do not want to become a serial dieter. You diet and lose weight, you stop and you put it back on again, you diet again, you put it back on again. It can become a vicious circle.

Metabolism

When you finish your diet, your metabolic rate is probably lower than when you started. You are not carrying so much weight so it does not take so many calories to walk and go about your life. If you go straight back to your old diet, you will probably put on weight faster than you were before.

Stop Slowly

You should slowly increase your calorie intake back to normal over the course of a few days. This will send your body the signal that the hard times are over.

Make Permanent Changes

Some of the changes you have made to your lifestyle to lose weight need to become permanent. The reason you put on weight in the first place is that you had a calorie surplus. It is no good going back to the same lifestyle because you will just have a calorie surplus again. What you want now is a calorie balance.

You should exercise regularly. You should reduce fat and sugar in your diet. You should eat plenty of fruit and vegetables.

These are all normal parts of a healthy lifestyle. It is all about balance. You can still have fun, eat good food, go out, get drunk sometimes and have a good life. You just have to get the balance right and you will be healthy and happy.

Increase Exercise

This is a good time to increase your exercise activity. You should have more energy because you are eating more food. You may want to think about doing a bit more anaerobic exercise to start building more muscle mass. This will increase your metabolic rate and make it easier to keep the fat off.

Monitor Your Weight

Just because you have finished your diet, it does not mean you no longer need to monitor your weight. You should monitor your weight regularly to ensure it does not go back up.

Remember those couple of pounds you lost so easily in the first week of your diet. They are going to come back. There is nothing you can do about that. It is normal that as your body holds a bit more food and water it will weight a little more. Just remember this was never real weight loss in the first place.

A few days after finishing your diet, you will know your new body weight. Keep monitoring it for the rest of your life. If it starts to creep up, even by a pound or two, then take action immediately. You will probably only need to diet for a day or two to get back down to your regular weight. If you ignore it then you will put on another pound and then another. It is so much easier to lose a pound than ten pounds.

If you have started an anaerobic exercise routine to build muscle then you may be gaining weight that is muscle rather than fat. This of course is good but difficult to monitor. It is up to you to judge if your weight gain is good.

Generally, it is healthy to have a stable weight.