Most overweight people often make the mistake of thinking that the biggest hurdle that they will face in their quest to lose weight is how to shed off their excess body fat when the real and greatest challenge that they will face is how to keep and maintain their weight at a normal level without regaining all the fat that they had managed to shed off initially.
While losing weight may be difficult, keeping off the excess body weight is even much more tedious. The truth of the matter is that we are all born with a specific number of fat cells which remains consistent from our early 20s till the time that we die. Scientific research has also revealed that we do not really "burn" away our fat cells when we shed body weight; all that happens when we lose body weight is that we shrink our fat cells and these shrunken fat cells can easily get bloated up again if they are exposed to the "right" environment.
This is most likely the reason why so many scientific research done on losing weight and maintaining the lost body weight have revealed that you would probably have to work harder to maintain your slim stature than you worked to shed your excess body fat in the first place.
So, if you do not want to fall into the trap of regaining excess body weight after you have worked so hard to shed off body fat, you should be ready to work hard, and you can make use of the following tips to stay fit and trim:
Tip 1- Bury your old unhealthy and fattening habits
While it is true that old habits die hard, there is no way you are not going to become fat again if you do not bury your bad old habits permanently. According to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine you are likely to regain small amounts of weight gradually over some time if you start indulging in these three main lifestyle habits:
a- Eating more of potato chips and sugary beverages which have a high starch content.
b- Reduction of your level of activity; spending most of your time in front of your television or computer.
c- Getting little or too much sleep
You would start experiencing significant weight gain within months if you slip back into these harmful habits. So, if you do not want slip back into your former fat and unhealthy shape stop those habits right away.
Tip 2- Maintain guard over what you are putting into your mouth
Just because you are now slimmer doesn't mean that you can now throw all caution overboard when you want to eat and just east as much as you like. You have to continue to consume more of low fat proteins and complex high fiber carbohydrate foods which make you feel fuller for longer periods and which discourage the secretion of the insulin hormone.
Tip 3- Chew your food more
Recent scientific studies published by the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition have revealed that fat and obese people tend to chew food less than slim people. This finding is most likely due to two facts; (a) when people chew slowly they tend to consume fewer calories, and ( b) proper chewing of food leads to lower secretion of the hunger hormone called ghrelin by the gut which leads to decreased appetite and subsequently lesser eating.
So chewing of your foods will help to stop eating once you are no longer hungry as opposed to stop eating of food when you are full.
Tip 4- Be weary of emotional eating
Any time that you want to eat you should always pause to ask yourself this question, "Do I want to eat because I am hungry or do I want to eat because I feel emotionally moved to eat." Never be in a hurry to eat; relax and evaluate your reason for wanting to eat before you start stuffing the food into your mouth.
Tip 5- Continue to exercise
You should make working out part of your normal daily routine, and you can engage regularly in weight lifting and other types of simple resistant training to help you to continue to burn calories even when you are resting.
Tip 6- Continue to monitor your self
If you do not want to slip back into your former fat and unhealthy figure, you have to continue to monitor yourself closely; continue to monitor your calorie intake; continue to monitor your fat intake, and continue to monitor your level of physical activity. The minute you stop to monitor yourself, you will begin to slip back into your former sloppy shape.
Tip 7- Keep on reminding yourself of the benefits of staying slim
Always keep reminding yourself of the numerous health benefits of staying in shape; when you are slim and fit, you are less prone to diabetes, hypertension, cancer, heart diseases, and a host of other serious medical conditions. As long as you do not lose sight of these important benefits, you will not lose your motivation to keep on doing all that is necessary to make sure that you do not become overweight.
Charles D Moody is a health worker with special interest in fitness, women issues, and weight loss. He contributes regularly to health sites that help people to become slimmer, fitter and healthier. You can visit his blog to discover how you can plan your simple and effective fat loss diets.
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