How to Stop Yo-Yo Dieting and Stick to Healthy Diet Plan

• It is possible to maintain your new weight and improved figure without starving yourself or spending twelve hours a day exercising.
• Exercising, eating right and building up muscle tissue is essential to staying at your healthy weight.

Now that you have successfully lost the weight, the next most important step is to maintain the weight loss for good. Many people fail at this step for a wide variety of reasons. Approximately ninety five percent of dieters who lose weight will gain it back, and when this happens repeatedly it can cause health problems. It is important to maintain the weight loss that you have accomplished so that your weight does not “yo-yo” up and down as this can cause health issues. This “yo-yo dieting” does not have to be the case anymore. It is possible to maintain your new weight and improved figure without starving yourself or spending twelve hours a day exercising.

Exercise is a critical component of maintaining your weight loss. You do not have to spend lengthy hours at the gym everyday. Exercise can be done throughout the day, anywhere and can be started with small steps. If you can not go to the gym or run a mile, walk to the store instead of driving. If walking to a store is too difficult, walk to the end of your driveway or around your neighborhood if you can. Another way to get exercise is to use the stairs instead of the elevator if you have the opportunity. Small changes in your everyday routine can make small differences. When you go to the store, to work or to the library for instance, park a little farther away so that you have to walk a little more. Even a five minute workout at your workplace increases your heart rate and this will help to burn calories and boost your metabolism. If you have five or ten minutes, take a brisk walk at lunchtime or do some jumping jacks, anything that will get your heart rate up and this can be done several times a day. Increasing your exercise and metabolism is one of the keys to maintaining your weight loss.

Another key factor to help maintain your new weight is to eat a healthier diet. This does not mean you should deprive yourself, but make good choices in your food selection. When you feel deprived, you are more likely to go overboard and give in to the temptation or talk yourself into a bad food choice. If you have a sweet tooth, set aside a small portion of a less sweet treat, around one hundred calories, a few times a week. By doing this you are actually working in your treat rather than feeling unfulfilled or deprived. This will actually strengthen your resolve to eat healthier at other meals and choose more nutritious snacks. Maintaining your weight loss does not have to be difficult, or deny you of the foods you love if you carefully consider the available daily amount of calories and manage to use discipline in smaller food portions.

A healthy diet should consist of five small meals and small snacks a day, instead of the usual three big meals. By eating smaller amounts more frequently, the body is more efficient. This also requires your metabolism to work at a higher pace, which means weight maintenance or even weight loss for you. The higher your metabolism rate is, the more calories your body will burn. Eating smaller meals more frequently during the day will also improve your digestion and keep your blood sugar level at a stable rate instead of rising and then dropping which can lead to dizziness, nausea, fatigue and headaches.

Additionally, an important factor in maintaining the ideal weight is to build up muscle tissue. This does not mean you have to look like a bodybuilder or pro wrestler. Building more long, lean muscle, or if you choose bulky muscle mass, can increase your metabolism. Muscle requires more calories than fat does to maintain, and this can help you keep off the weight that you successfully lost.

Using all of these methods will help you maintain your weight loss. The added effort of improving your food choices and increasing your exercise daily, will give you the added benefits of staying healthier. Small steps can lead to big results. These intentional choices that require more effort, in turn burning more calories, is what will make it probable that the weight lost will not come back. Even if it is just dancing around the kitchen to the radio or vacuuming the floor, kick it up in a way that is more physically active. Be disciplined, but leave room for a few treats, and don’t beat yourself up if you occasionally fall backwards or fail at an attempt to choose wisely. Tomorrow is another day to fullfil your goals and burn those calories!

The information supplied in this article is not to be considered as medical advice and is for educational purposes only.