Losing weight. It is a goal that millions of people make every year, and one that only 20% of people keep for more than a few months. However, there are those who succeed. Despite the advertisements and products being sold, especially around the New Year, there isn't one magic solution to losing weight and keeping it off. However, there are four things that almost all successful people do. They are: making permanent change a goal, using a food journal, setting realistic goals, and changing their diet and/or fitness routines gradually.
Make Permanent Change the Goal
Losing weight and keeping it off isn't a temporary measure. Reaching a healthy weight and maintaining it should be the goal of everyone. For long-term success, most people have to radically adjust their thinking. "Going on a diet" is a temporary measure. An overly restrictive diet cannot be maintained over the long-term, at least by most people. The first step to success is an adjustment of the mental attitude and the making of a decision. The people who succeed are those who have decided that they're going to make real, gradual lifestyle changes, not just go on a diet. Permanent change, not just a number on the scale or a clothes size, should be the goal.
Food Journals are Proven to Work
One of the number one habits of people who lose a significant amount of weight? Keeping a food journal. It doesn't need to be complex, with every milligram of sugar accounted for. A simple notebook in which food consumed during the day is written down works. Doubtful? ABC News reported that a study by the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research found that people who kept a food journal lost almost twice as much weight as those who didn't. Simply the act of having to write down the extra and unhealthy food consumed during the day causes people to unconsciously eat less and healthier. After deciding to make a permanent change this year, find a notebook and start writing down everything eaten during the day.
Set Realistic Goals
Almost everyone has heard the phrase "nothing succeeds like success." But the converse is also true. If a person sets an overly optimistic (or outright foolish) goal, and doesn't reach it, they are more likely to give up than to re-evaluate and keep working at it. Once the decision has been made to make a permanent change, the next step is to set realistic goals. Obviously, the final goal is to reach a healthy weight. And that varies from person to person. Use a variety of different measurements, not just BMI, to determine the "ideal weight."
Once the final goal is decided, break it into smaller parts. A person needing to lose 20 pounds, for example, could break it into five pound sections, trying to lose five pounds each six weeks. Someone, though, with 100 pounds to lose, needs to realize before they even begin that it is going to take longer than a few months to lose the weight. The best "first" goal for them would probably be to lose 10% of their current body weight, aiming at losing a pound a week. One to two pounds a week is the accepted healthy rate of weight loss.
Realistic goals also encompass the fact that there will be weeks of extra weight loss and weeks that the scale will stay the same. This is part of everyone's body cycle. Even people maintaining a healthy weight will have weeks when the scale unaccountably jumps up a pound or two. So, setting realistic goals includes accounting for minor setbacks and even small failures.
Work Change in Gradually
The final habit of successful people can either be one of the hardest or most interesting of all the steps. To make weight loss permanent, there have to be permanent changes in one's diet and/or exercise routine. The best way to accomplish this is to stave off boredom before it begins. To work in fruits and vegetables, make "eating the rainbow" one challenge. To work in lean meats, find new recipes and try them out. With the advent of the internet, there are thousands of quick, easy, and healthy recipes at the touch of a search button. To work in walking, buy a pedometer and make a step challenge. Or take up a different exercise each month -- yoga one month, weights the next, and biking the third, for example.
There are thousands of ways to challenge oneself and keep change constant. This avoids boredom and allows for gradual change. If social support is needed, find a local group or an online community. There are free sites all over the internet, including Sparkpeople, which provide social support, food journals, and exercise trackers. The local gym provides different classes and new exercises and weight machines to try out.
By trying out new things, both in terms of food and exercise, gradual changes will occur automatically. New recipes that are healthy may become family favorites and increasing a pedometer step count may become a permanent goal for some. Others may find that they develop a passion for weight lifting or biking. The people who succeed in the long-term aren't those who force themselves to go to the gym even though they hate it. The ones who succeed are those who work healthy habits into a happy lifestyle.
Keep the Four Rules Above and Succeed
Success isn't impossible. Even though millions of people fail each year, the important thing is that they don't have to, they choose to. Twenty percent of people do succeed. And they don't spend their time and money on miracle products to achieve success. They follow simple, basic, practical rules like the four outlined above. Make permanent change the goal. Use a food journal every day, no matter what is eaten. Set realistic goals. And work change in gradually. Research by the Mayo Clinic has proven these strategies succeed.
Join the Conversation