Habits of Successful weight losers

The National Weight Control Registry tracks americans who lost over 30 pounds of weight and kept that weight off for over a year.
The American Journal of Lifestyle  Medicine outlined the habits of these successful weight losers, and this is what they reported:

Strategies that work: 

1. Eating a low calorie low fat diet 
2. Eating a routine diet 
3. Self monitoring of food consumption and weight 
4. Engaging in physical activity and exercise

Eating a low calorie diet 

• They reported eating a low-fat diet 
• Consuming about 1400 calories per day 
• Less than 24% of calories were from fat 

Eating a consistent diet of similar foods and maintained throughout the year 

• Most participants ate breakfast every day, and the breakfast usually was cereal and fruit. 
• Consume a high fiber cereal with low-fat yogurt and fruit such as berries or banana 
• This habit is an important one because eating breakfast can prevent overeating later in the day 
• They ate food outside the home only about 2-3 times per week 
• They reported not splurging too much on holidays and occasions 
• They ate at fast food restaurants less than one time per week 

Self Monitoring of food intake and weight status 

• An example of self monitoring is calorie counting 
• You can use applications on your phone to aid you in this, look at my previous post on these apps here. 
• They engaged in frequent self weighing - of one time a day or one time a week. 
• Never weight your self more than one time a day, and weigh your self at the same time every day. 
• I recommend weighing your self no more than 3 times per week 
• Frequent self weighing helps you identify weight gain early on and fix the problem rather then continuing to gain more weight 

Physical Activity and Exercise 

• Participants watched less than 10 hours per week of television, or about 1.5 hours per day maximum. 
• They engaged in either 60-75 minutes of moderate exercise, for example brisk walking OR 35-45 minutes or vigorous exercise such as jogging and running. 

Perfection is not the goal 

Just start somewhere, and try to go up from there. I recommend using my food contract which helps you achieve this. Download the food contract and learn how to use it here. 

xoxo, 

Danielle 

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