As the new year begins, you’ll start seeing people making New Year’s resolutions. One of the most popular resolutions, year after year, is to lose weight. But statistics have shown that the majority of people who make those resolutions fail — or at least peter out in the following months. 

People don’t fail in their weight loss New Year’s resolutions because they’re lazy — it’s because they don’t focus on weight management.

 

What is Weight Management?

When you decide you want to lose weight, you’ll come up with a weight loss plan. The best weight loss plans involve weight management — a process that involves making long-term lifestyle changes.

Some of these healthier lifestyle changes include:

 

Increasing Physical Activity

Exercising more frequently can go a long ways into your weight loss plan, and it doesn’t have to be intense. Going on walks, riding your bike, and lifting weights (even if it’s a heavy household object instead of exercise weights) are a small handful of what you can do to exercise more often. 

 

Eating Better

A diet is more than something you “go on” when you decide to lose weight. You have always been on a diet, as a diet is simply what you eat. Some diets are healthier than others.

Dieting alone is rarely effective, especially because many weight loss diets are not sustainable for the long-term. Several studies have shown that the majority of people will regain the weight they lost when dieting and may even end up putting on more pounds than they had in the first place.

When looking at dieting options, ask yourself, “Is this something I can eat for the next year?” If the answer is no, then don’t go with that diet.

Better than looking at the latest popular diets people have been using for weight loss, try some of the following:

• Eating a high-protein breakfast
• Reducing sugars, starches, processed foods, and refined carbohydrates, and replacing refined carbs with complex carbohydrates (such as whole grains)
• Drinking more water before meals and fewer sugar drinks and juices
• Including a source of protein, fat, and leafy green vegetables (and a small portion of complex carbs if you’d like) in every meal
• Recording your eating habits and meals
• Paying attention to portion sizes
• Eating slowly and paying attention to whether or not you’re full
• Keeping healthier snack options around the house and office 
• Getting a good night’s sleep

 

Counting Calories

Weight loss is not rocket science. At the most basic level, weight loss comes down to having a calorie deficit — that is, lowering your calorie intake by eating healthier foods with fewer calories while exercising to burn more calories.

You can calculate your calorie deficit by subtracting the number of calories you’ve taken in by the calories you’ve burned.

Let’s say you’ve eaten 100 calories today and burned 200 from exercising. 100 – 200 = -100. You have a calorie deficit of 100.

Of course, the numbers aren’t usually that small, and more addition is involved for calorie intake. Thankfully, counting calories is easier than ever due to smartphone apps that allow you to track your calories.

However, it’s important not to cut too many calories at once. Working with a weight loss expert like those at Lifelong Metabolic Center can ensure you’re losing weight at a healthy pace and can help you learn the weight management skills you need.

 

Why is Weight Management Important?

 

Weight management is not just important. If you want to make sure your weight loss is a success, weight management is a requirement.

Keeping the weight you’ve lost off has many health benefits. It can improve your cardiovascular health (such as your blood pressure), mental health, and even reduce risk for the following conditions:

• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cancers of the colon, breast, uterus and ovaries, kidneys, esophagus, gallbladder, and pancreas
• Arthritis
• Mobility issues
• Breathing problems like asthma and sleep apnea
• Gout
• Gallbladder diseases and gallstones
• Chronic pain

Without a weight maintenance strategy to keep you on track with your goals, it’s much more difficult to maintain a healthy lifestyle, which should always be the end goal when it comes to weight loss. The best weight loss programs include weight maintenance plans and strategies because they want to see you succeed and not come back to them again for more help.

That’s just one thing that sets the Lifelong Metabolic Center’s weight loss programs apart from the rest.

 

Let Lifelong Metabolic Center Help You Manage Your Weight

The Lifelong Metabolic Center, a weight loss center located in Naperville, Illinois, can help you create a weight loss plan that includes successful weight maintenance strategies.

We recognize that not all weight loss is caused by poor decisions. For some, it may be due to genetics or conditions like hypothyroidism. That’s why our individualized weight loss plans include genetic testing, which allows us to determine why you can’t shed those pesky pounds and come up with a personalized weight loss package to tackle those issues head-on.

For more information about our weight loss programs and weight maintenance tips, contact the Lifelong Metabolic Center today.