Congratulations on reaching another milestone in your weight loss goal! Yes, you’ve shed some of those extra pounds, but what’s even more impressive is the strength and confidence that now shine through.
We share your joy and celebrate your success. Remember the doubts you had when you first embarked on this journey? Achieving your weight loss goal seemed daunting, but you persevered. You increased your physical activity, revamped your eating habits, and embraced a healthier lifestyle, focusing on long-term success despite the challenges along the way.
Your determination, paired with the skills and motivation you gained, has led to this remarkable achievement. Beyond fitting into those skinny jeans, your commitment to losing weight has significantly lowered your risks for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and some cancers. If you had diabetes or high blood pressure, you’ve likely seen improvements in those numbers, too. Let’s do a happy dance!
But here’s the truth. Losing weight is only half the battle. Maintaining a healthy weight after such a significant loss is a tough challenge. Research shows that only about 20% of people who lose a significant amount of weight manage to keep it off long-term.
Take a moment to let that sink in.
Now for the good news. Rather than feeling discouraged, it’s time to learn to refocus your weight loss goal to maintain your success and keep the weight off. Not regaining the weight you worked so hard to lose is a worthy and achievable goal. After celebrating your achievement, it’s time to shift your attention and efforts to sustaining your weight loss. In this guide, you’ll discover practical tips to help you refocus and stay on track, ensuring your long-term weight loss goal becomes a lasting reality.
Reflect and track your progress with a 30-Day Journal to Stop Emotional Eating, Stress Eating, and Binge Eating.
Why People Don’t Meet Their Weight Loss Goals
Many individuals struggle to achieve their weight loss goals despite their best intentions and efforts. Understanding the common pitfalls can provide valuable insights into why maintaining a healthy body weight often proves challenging. After years as a registered dietitian and a researcher, I believe that most people have a hard time maintaining their weight loss goal for several reasons.
Unhealthy, Restrictive Diets
Most people achieve their weight loss by starving themselves. Restrictive diets often promise rapid weight loss by severely limiting certain food groups or calorie intake. However, it is well documented that very low-calorie diets decrease the satiety hormone (leptin) and increase the hunger hormone (ghrelin). While they may offer initial results, they are typically unsustainable and can lead to nutritional deficiencies. Such diets can slow metabolism, making it harder to maintain weight loss. Additionally, the body’s response to extreme calorie reduction can include muscle loss, which negatively impacts overall health and makes regaining weight more likely.
These diets also make you feel very hungry and deprived. Have you ever skipped breakfast and lunch and then eaten everything in sight at night? Yes, we’ve been there a time or two. So, if you lose weight primarily by eating very little food, you will regain the weight once you start eating normally again. The bottom line is that these diets will not help you achieve your weight loss goal in the long run.
Feeling Deprived
After dieting for a while, you may feel deprived. When people feel they are missing out on their favorite foods, it can lead to frustration, binge eating, and ultimately abandoning the weight loss plan. Incorporating a variety of foods and allowing occasional indulgences can help mitigate these feelings, making weight management more sustainable.
Another reason for feeling deprived is that you are following someone else’s rules for losing weight, especially what you can or can’t eat. This happens a lot with very restrictive diets. Remember how you devoured bread and potatoes after giving them up for a week?
Quick and Easy Mindset
Now, you don’t want to miss this point. Many individuals approach weight loss with a quick and easy mindset, expecting rapid results with minimal effort. However, there is no quick and easy way to keep the weight off once you’ve lost it. Yes, you might have lost a lot of weight on that quick, weight-loss diet, but the bigger challenge will be trying to stick to that diet in the long term. Furthermore, many diets are based on willpower rather than creating healthy habits to incorporate into your daily life. So, the bottom line is that you want to focus on healthy and realistic lifestyle changes that will improve your health and overall quality of life in the long term.
Not Getting Enough Exercise
Effective weight management requires more than just dietary changes. Physical activity plays a crucial role. Many people underestimate the importance of incorporating regular exercise into their routine, which can hinder their progress. Physical activity helps burn calories, maintains muscle mass, boosts metabolism, and improves overall well-being.
Inconsistent Goals and Planning
Setting inconsistent or vague weight loss goals can lead to confusion and lack of direction. Individuals may struggle to stay focused and motivated without clear, actionable steps. Establishing specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals helps create a structured plan and track progress more effectively.
Go deeper with Nourish Your Soul: Prayers, Meditation, and Affirmations for Emotional Eating Recovery.
How to Identify Your Body Weight Target for Weight Loss Success
When you started the program, you were clear about your starting weight and how much you aimed to lose. While you might not have fully reached your weight loss goal, your progress is significant and commendable.
It’s time to refocus your weight loss target, whether losing a few more pounds or maintaining the weight you’ve already shed. Consider a few key questions:
- What is your ideal weight?
- What is your ideal dress size?
- If you never achieved your desired weight, what weight would be acceptable?
- What size would be acceptable if you never achieved your desired dress size?
Your “ideal” weight is how much you really, really want to weigh. It may not be realistic, but this is your dream weight.
Now, here is the reality check. If you never achieve that “ideal” weight, what is your “acceptable” weight? This is the weight at which you could be satisfied if you never reach or maintain your ideal weight. At what weight can you be at peace with yourself? Before you answer too quickly, think about where you are in your life. Are you still struggling to lose the baby weight even though your baby is five? Have you struggled with your weight most of your teen and adult life? Are you in menopause? Have you been diagnosed with diabetes or hypertension?
Write these numbers down for better weight management
You should also be honest with your doctor or health coach about your ideal and acceptable weight to ensure you’re on the same page. This is important because you are working together to help you be the healthiest you possible.
| Ideal weight | |
| Acceptable weight | |
| Ideal dress size | |
| Acceptable dress size |
Realistically, your “ideal” and “acceptable” numbers will differ.
Create a Structured Plan to Meet Your Weight Loss Goals
A structured is a vital step in achieving your weight loss goals. It involves developing a clear action plan, incorporating flexibility, and establishing a consistent routine.
Develop an Action Plan
An action plan is your roadmap to reaching your weight loss goal. Start by outlining specific steps that will guide you toward success. Break down your larger goal into manageable daily or weekly targets to keep track of your progress and stay motivated. For instance, plan your meals in advance, schedule regular exercise sessions, and set small, achievable milestones. Each step should be clear and actionable, helping you build momentum and maintain focus.
Incorporate Flexibility
While a structured plan provides direction, allowing room for adjustments is important. Life can be unpredictable, and rigid plans may lead to frustration if things don’t go as expected. Incorporate flexibility by setting realistic goals and being open to modifying your approach when necessary. This might mean adjusting your exercise routine if you’re injured or altering your diet plan if you must attend a wedding, business, dinner, or family reunion. Flexibility helps you stay on track without feeling overwhelmed by setbacks.
Develop a Routine
Consistency is key to long-term weight loss success. Establish a routine integrating exercise, a balanced diet, and self-care practices into your daily life. Aim for regular meal times, plan your workouts around your schedule, and include time for relaxation and sleep. One of my biggest habits is snacking at night, even though I’m not hungry. I developed the routine of brushing my teeth and gargling with mouthwash immediately after dinner.
Building consistent habits will create a supportive environment for achieving your weight loss goals and maintaining your progress. A well-established routine helps make healthy choices a natural part of your lifestyle, reducing the effort needed to stick to your plan.
How Susan Refocused Her Weight Loss Goals
A year ago, Susan weighed 185 pounds at the start of her weight loss program. Based on her height of 5 feet 5 inches, this weight put her in the “obese” category for her height on the body mass index (BMI) chart. She wore a size 18 dress.
Susan needed to refocus her weight loss goal. Her ideal weight was 125 pounds, and her desired dress size was a size 8. This ideal weight put her in the “healthy” category for her height on the BMI chart. However, Susan’s acceptable weight was 135 pounds, and her acceptable dress size was 12. This acceptable weight also put her in the “healthy” category for her height on the BMI chart.
After almost a year, Susan still had not reached her weight loss goal of 125 pounds. She and her registered dietitian decided that her weight loss goal of 125 pounds was probably an unrealistic weight for her. She could not realistically continue to decrease her calories or increase her daily activity. Additionally, Susan was lifting weights at the gym three days a week, which increased her muscle mass. And that was a good thing.
Susan currently weighs 135 pounds and has stayed at that weight for the last 6 weeks. This was a natural weight loss plateau for her. She decided to focus her energy on maintaining her weight at 135 pounds, give or take two or three pounds.
How Gloria Refocused Her Weight Loss Goals
Four months ago, Gloria weighed 160 pounds when she began her weight loss journey. At 5 feet 6 inches tall, this placed her in the “overweight” category according to the body mass index (BMI) chart. She set her weight loss goal at 140 pounds to reach a healthy BMI and fit into a size 10 dress.
Over the past year, Gloria made significant progress and reached 150 pounds, just 10 pounds away from her goal. However, she has recently hit a weight loss plateau despite maintaining her diet and exercise routine. Determined to achieve her goal, Gloria adjusted her approach to physical activity.
First, Gloria reviewed her current exercise regimen, which primarily consisted of brisk walking and occasional cycling. She incorporated more high-intensity interval training (HIIT) into her routine to break through the plateau. HIIT workouts, known for their efficiency in burning calories and boosting metabolism, added a new challenge and variety to her exercise plan.
Gloria also increased the frequency and intensity of her strength training sessions. Instead of lifting weights twice a week, she upped it to three times a week, focusing on compound movements like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses. These exercises helped build muscle, increasing her resting metabolic rate and aiding in further fat loss.
In addition to high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and strength training, Gloria introduced yoga and Pilates into her routine. These practices improved her flexibility and core strength and provided a mental break from the high-intensity workouts, reducing stress and promoting overall well-being.
With these adjustments, Gloria started to see progress again. Her enhanced physical activity routine helped her break through the plateau, and within a few months, she successfully reached her goal weight of 140 pounds. Gloria now feels stronger, more energetic, and confident in maintaining her healthy weight and lifestyle. By varying her exercise regimen and embracing new challenges, Gloria achieved her weight loss goal and enjoyed the journey.
Now, It’s Your Turn
Well, I hope you feel more confident and educated about refocusing your weight loss goal. If your efforts to maintain your weight loss goal aren’t working, consider working with a personal trainer or consulting with a registered dietitian nutritionist. And always appreciate the weight you’ve lost.
Whatever you do, don’t give up and return to your old eating habits and sitting on the couch. So, take a look at what you are doing or not doing to keep your weight on track. I think that you will enjoy these posts:
Intermittent Fasting Guide for Women over 40
Setting SMART Goals to Manage Stress Eating
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