You did it! You reached your fat loss goal and you feel great about it. But you’ve been here before. After a while, the weight slowly returns like an uninvited guest. It’s so frustrating to see all your hard work disappear.

But today I want to give you five steps to maintain your fat loss. This way, once you achieve your success you’ll be able to hold on to it!

How to maintain fat loss

1. Identify your “why”

I often say you need to identify the reason you’re wanting to accomplish something before you can begin working to accomplish it. Your goal may be to lose 10 pounds for an upcoming event or vacation. But after the event or you return from vacation the motivation is gone.

Then what?

Well, you’ll eventually return to your old ways if there’s nothing else to encourage you. So, I encourage you to go deeper. Identify the deeper desire that led to your goal. We never just want to lose weight for the sake of losing weight.

No, we want to lose weight so we feel more confident about ourselves. We want to lose weight so we have more energy to keep up with our kids. You want to lose weight for some personal reason. And only you truly know what it is.

So, take a moment.

Right now, sit and consider what that reason is.

Then, I want you to write it down. Write it on a post-it note and stick it on your mirror. Or set it as a reminder on your phone so you continually see it.

Make sure your “why” remains the foundation of your progress.

2. Change your mindset

Your mind can either be your greatest advocate or your worst enemy in maintaining your fat loss achievement.

Because of it, you need to realize your thoughts don’t control you and they certainly don’t define you. They’re simply thoughts and you don’t have to act upon them.

When a negative thought comes to mind, observe it, be okay with it, and move on without taking hold of it or allowing it to take hold of you.

Turn your thoughts outward. Rather than being consumed by the inner turmoil, go back to your “why” and remember the reason you started this journey.

There’s a powerful ten-minute technique SMART Recovery teaches. Rather than acting on urge, you’re encouraged to weight ten-minutes. After the ten minutes are up you can act on the urge if you still have it.

Research and personal experience show the desire is often gone after ten minutes. If your fat loss is going to be sustainable you need to incorporate these tools into your life. And that leads me to my next fat loss maintenance step: habits!

3.Develop habits

If something is going to stick, you need to form a habit around it.

Forming a habit isn’t fun and it doesn’t usually come easy. But they’re a necessary part of achievement.

Some things are impossible to turn into a habit. A habit is an action that’s repeated regularly subconsciously. By definition, working out cannot be a habit because it requires a great deal of physical and mental effort. But there are habits you can form around tasks.

Taking eating for example. You can make a habit out of taking a different route home from work so you’re not tempted to go through the drive-through. You can also make a habit of eating more fruit by leaving a bowl of fresh fruit on the kitchen counter instead of a jar of candy.

Identify what habits need to be established to support your goals.

4. Accountability

You might think you’re strong enough to outdo the temptations around you. But the truth is your environment plays a big roll in your ongoing success. You will eventually rise or fall to the standard of those around you.

A healthy lifestyle is so much easier when you have accountability. That’s why community is such an important part of the Living Well Membership.

Accountability is what encourages you to keep going when you’re discouraged. It’s what helps you get back up when you think you’ve failed. It’s also what motivates you to keep working toward your goal when you feel like throwing in the towel.

I completely agree with the statement that we are the average of our five closest friends. When we surround ourselves with people who are inactive and eat junk food all day, then we won’t feel bad about doing the same.

On the other hand, when we surround ourselves with go-getters who desire to live a full life and treat their bodies well, then we want to do the same!

5. Don’t diet

I’m going to share a little secret with you…

Diets don’t work. Sure, you may lose a few pounds at first...but your chances of keeping that weight off for more than 5 years is 5%. In fact, 97% of dieters will gain the weight back.

There are many reasons why diets don’t work, but here are a few to consider:

Diets actually make you fat: As Mary Vance, a San Francisco based nutrition consultant, points out, diets can have damaging effects on your metabolism. “The longer you restrict calories, the more stressed your body becomes. It thinks you’re in a famine state, so cortisol rises and you are in fat storage mode. Stay here for too long and thyroid function can also be affected. A hypothyroid state makes it much more difficult to lose weight and burn fat until it’s corrected."

Diets aren’t sustainable: Diets are like running a race...the entire time you're looking to the end. And what do you do when you reach the end? You quit.

Every time someone tells me they're on a diet the next thing they tell me is how they can't wait until the next 30 days are over (or however long the diet is going for). And that's not sustainable. Because the minute that diet is over they go back to their old ways. And if they don't go back immediately, they gradually slip back into the old habits that got them there to begin with. And eventually, all the progress they made with their diet is erased.

Diets don't change your behavior: The typical diet tells you “eat this – don’t eat that.” But what happens when you face a craving outside of the diet and your will power just isn’t quite strong enough to resist.

Diets don't focus on the real issue(s) such as behaviors, habits, and even your beliefs. Chances are that your behaviors and habits have been with you for quite some time. These will not be easily changed. Your philosophy about food was handed down to you. One simple diet isn’t going to change that.

The Futures of Palm Beach, a Florida-based addiction and treatment center, has stated that 46 percent of American girls as young as age of 9 are on diets. And 42 percent of lower elementary girls in the United States who said they want to be thinner.

Diets promote an unhealthy relationship with food: Diets cause you to view food as a necessary evil. Dinner, something you previously enjoyed, becomes that time of day you must stuff some green roughage down your throat. You don’t have to be a food connoisseur, but the relationship you have with food should be a healthy one. Extremes are unhealthy. Food should not be too large of a focus in life, but neither should it be an enemy.

Diets focus on weight rather than health: The basic idea behind a diet is to become healthy, right? However, the main objective of most diet plans is to lower the number on the scale. But the scale is only one part of the solution. Aiming only for a smaller number on the scale can yield unhealthy results. Weight loss can be the result of losing water weight, bone mass, and the break down of muscle tissue. Aiming at weight loss only can result in unhealthy body composition.

Our society has placed too much value on the number on a scale. Rather than using the scale as your only measure of success, consider the way you feel, the way you look in the mirror, and the way your clothes fit. Often these indicators will show a more positive result than the scale.

Conclusion

Now that you’ve reached your goal there’s no turning back. You love the way you look and feel. I want to keep your results and, if anything, continue working towards greater results. After you’ve identified your “why” follow these additional steps to ensure you maintain your fat loss.

I’d love to hear where you’re at in your journey. Have you made progress? Are you trying to figure out how to maintain it? Which of these steps do you need to focus on first?

If you’re stuck or tired of seeing your results disappear, then I want to invite you to join the Living Well Membership where you’ll learn how to achieve lasting results.

5 Steps to Maintain Fat Loss