How to Keep Post-Diet Shape - Approaches That Work

For many dieters, maintaining their weight loss in a long run is a hard task. It seems like all physiological mechanisms that regulate hormones, fat stores, brain signals and metabolism are working against keeping off those lost pounds!

Diets do work, but often they work for a short term only. Whenever you apply caloric restriction, a low-fat diet, a low-carb approach, or a vigorous exercise regime, unwanted pounds shed off quickly and easily. However, in some time your body seems to adjust to whatever dietary or exercise program you are trying to follow and regain the dropped pound back. Sooner or later, but usually within a year after the beginning of a slimming program, the body successfully returns to its initial weight, even if you continue eating healthfully and working out several times a week.

How to effectively keep off excess weight for life? Since a weight-loss success is a fleeting notion for most of us, let us examine what scientists have to say about it!

Those researchers who are trying to find a long-term weight loss solution for overweight and obese people often come to an upsetting conclusion that the human body tends to disrupt weight loss attempts at any price. If once it has been fat, the body wants to keep that excess weight no matter what. If we continue eating less in order to maintain weight loss, the body slows down thyroid function and inhibits effective metabolism, thus turning every morsel of food into fat deposits instead of energy we need. It gets into a “starvation mode” and tries to preserve its “precious” reserves of fat at every turn. Not only do we continue re-gaining once lost weight, but we can also feel tired, dizzy and depressed due to a decrease in the metabolic speed and hormonal production. In addition, we can have intense food cravings that seem to hit especially severe after the end of our dieting period.

Another observation is that the more frequently we diet the harder it is to shed off unwanted pounds even at the short term. Weight-gain physiology, which was originally designed to keep us alive during periods of famine, has definitely turned against us in our age of abundance, when food in cheap and plentiful! In order to maintain weight loss, we need to put our willpower against a host of protective physiological mechanisms involving hormones, fat stores, brain signals and metabolism. Good news is that understanding of obstinate physiological functions will show the way to strike back to outsmart and neutralize them.

Scientific research confirms that the best way to keep off stubborn weight is to increase the activity level, which will boost metabolism and keep fat cells from regaining their reserves. Adequate exercise, which involves about an hour of aerobic-like training at least four times a week, should be supplemented with a right dietary regime that has to be adhered to for life. Especially for those with a high degree of metabolic resistance, underactive thyroid gland, and estrogen imbalances, including menopausal women and individuals predisposed to diabetes, a low-carb dietary regime is the most effective option. Keeping your carbohydrate intake under 40 grams a day is essential to maintaining weight loss.

Another addition to keep the post-diet shape is to consume specific foods and avoid eating those which can stimulate weight regain. Green tea, or home-brewed coffee, are some of those miraculous supplements that will support your weight-loss goals. Extra-virgin, cold-pressed coconut oil, as well as other natural coconut products, is the best help for the heath of the thyroid glands and hormones. It is a documented fact that coconut oil does not contribute to weight gain, but works quite in an opposite way - boosts metabolism and facilitates the conversion of body fat into quick energy. On the contrary, unstable vegetable oils, such as those derived from canola or sunflower, as well as hydrogenated fats found in most margarines and fast-foods, can speed the process of fat accumulation. A meal of meat or fish cooked in coconut oil, accompanied by a nice green salad and supplemented by a piece of low-glycemic fruit and a cup of freshly-brewed coffee for dessert will for sure give your metabolic rate a powerful kick necessary for keeping those pounds from coming back! Mineral-rich foods, such as cheese and kelp, as well as fresh and lacto-fermented vegetables, are also proven effective as a part of a weight-maintenance menu.

A post-diet increase in appetite, which is often observed in those who have lost a considerable amount of weight, is regulated by the production of two major hormones: leptin and ghrelin. People who naturally have lower levels of leptin and elevated levels of ghrelin tend to eat more and gain weight more easily. They are also more prone to abusing substances and developing depression, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other mental and emotional diseases. Other hormones that are involved in weight gain are estrogen and progesterone, an imbalance of which is often responsible for a rapid accumulation of pounds during menopause. Therefore, keeping your hormonal balance healthy, which might require a medical intervention, is another important task to accomplish in order to shed off excess pounds and maintain stable weight.

Tim Ford