Everybody’s Doing It

The habits that the most successful weight managers already have, and the simple tricks you can try to really lose that weight.

What does it take to actually lose weight and keep it off? With two-thirds of American adults either overweight or obese, this is a question that a lot of people are actively seeking an answers to. However, for many people who struggle with their weight, the answers aren’t exactly foreign. Most people have heard what it takes to lose weight. You know the drill. Eat less, move more, and the weight will simply melt off–right?

While this is the basic formula for successful weight loss, for many people this basic breakdown isn’t enough to make a big or lasting impact on their waistline. Working with a medical weight loss doctor can help you overcome those original obstacles, but even then, it requires ongoing healthy habit formation to be able to maintain that weight loss long-term.

So what is the differentiating factor? How do some manage to find ways to lose weight and stay healthy, while others find themselves fluctuating along the scale? Researchers from the National Weight Control Registry have been asking themselves that exact question for some time now, and have put together a list of the sort of healthy habits that those who are successfully able to manage their weight keep up with daily.

There are six key strategies that healthy weight-managers are successful in doing regularly:

1. Engagement in physical activity regularly, at least one hour per day on most days of the week.
2. Maintained consistent eating patterns throughout the week, even on weekends.
3. Followed a consistently low-calorie and low-fat dietary plan.
4. Ate breakfast every single day.
5. Would address slip-ups early on, before they turned into larger set-backs.
6. Monitored their weight regularly, often on a weekly basis.

Weight loss is a personal process. What works for one person doesn’t always work for the next. However, combining healthy strategies like those listed above with the guidance and support you receive from your medical weight loss doctor is sure to help you get on track towards weight loss success.