What are the key health habits of people who have lost weight and managed to keep it off? Maria Lucey is a Registered Dietician based in Ireland and Bermuda who “has helped hundreds of people successfully lose weight.” However, according to the pro, “the real power comes in keeping that weight off.” In a recent viral video, she shares “seven effective habits that I use personally and share with my clients to help them stay slim after losing weight.”
Weight Control Varies for Everyone
Maria starts off by explaining that “weight control is not always an easy task” and that it is easier for some to maintain their weight more than others. “There are huge genetic components to weight: your hormones impact your weight, what medications you're on, even how your mother ate when you were in the womb can impact how you manage your weight later in life,” she says. “So please don't be disheartened if you're struggling. You may need a deeper dive with the help of a dietician to do this.”
Habit #1: Self Monitoring
According to Maria, a “huge centerpiece of any behavioral weight loss intervention is encouraging people to self-monitor.” Checking your weight, aka weighing yourself, is key, she says. “As a dietician, I often have people who like to come to me to check their weight, and they like to keep coming back, which helps them stay accountable.” However, you can also weigh yourself at home.
How Often Should You Weigh Yourself?
“The optimal frequency for how often you weigh yourself is going to depend on when people are actively trying to lose weight. I often recommend checking your weight every two weeks. This is usually enough for most people. It's more likely to show truer results when focusing on the big picture, and it will be less impacted by daily fluctuations,” she says.
When Should You Weigh Yourself
If you are going to weigh yourself, the best time to weigh yourself is first thing in the morning “after you've gone to the restroom before you eat or drink anything,” says Maria. “The reason for this is that your body has had enough time to digest all of the food and drinks that you've had the day before. And when you weigh yourself in the morning, you want to wear as little clothing as possible or at least wear the same thing every time you step up on the scale.” Also, if you choose to weigh yourself once a week or every two weeks, “make sure you weigh yourself on the same day of the week,” she recommends.
Habit #2: Get Organized and Meal Prep
Another habit is getting organized, “and there is no secret cheat code here,” she says. “I always say to my clients, nobody accidentally falls into a salad for lunch or a lovely home-cooked, nice balanced dinner. You need to have some sort of a system and some element of organization in place.” This doesn’t mean “everything needs to be crazy planned out and that you're eating out of Tupperware all of the time, but taking some time to plan ahead each week is important,” she says. She meal preps on a Sunday for the next few days. Then, on Wednesday, she does a mini meal prep for the rest of the week and is less structured on the weekend. “It's finding what works for you,” she says.
Habit #3: Get Your Nutrition in Order
The next habit is focusing on nutrition. “Now, I am presuming that everybody watching this video is thinking that I am just about to tell you not to eat processed foods, but you might be in for a shock here. To get very real, eating healthy can be challenging. You have to be quite organized, as just mentioned,” she says. “I always say that if you make nutrition too complicated, it will just become something that you don't want to do.” While she doesn’t expect her clients to “be completely eating whole foods all of the time,” she does encourage them to avoid processed foods for the most part. “Tinned beans, microwaveable packets of rice and quinoa, jars of pasta sauce, these are all examples of processed foods that can come in handy,” she says. “I do, of course, advocate for staying away from foods that are highly processed most of the time. And these are foods that have really long ingredient lists. And in the ingredient list, there's lots of things that you don't even recognize.”
Habit #4: Don’t Clear Your Plate
“People who tend to maintain their weight loss, they tend to eat their meals out twice,” she says, stressing the importance of not clearing your plate. “If you go out to a nice restaurant and you're served a monstrous portion of food and you can't eat at all, there is no need to feel obligated to eat it,” she says. “Even in the really fancy places, they almost give you the box when they see that you're struggling. And I think this is great. It eliminates food waste. And if you have this really amazing meal and you don't want to leave it behind this way, you don't have to feel bad if you can't eat it all. So it's a really good habit to take your time to enjoy the meal when you are eating out. It takes time for your brain to send signals to your stomach to tell you that you're full. So eat it slowly and see how you're feeling. If you're still hungry, that's fine. Finish the meal, but if not, ask somebody for a box so you can bring the rest of it home. You can enjoy it that evening or the next day.”
Habit #5: Get Into a Food Groove
Variety is important for a balanced diet, but “too much variety can backfire,” says Maria. “People who are successfully managing to control their weight and their eating habits have what I like to call a food groove. The majority of their meals consist of well-planned staples. There are a few surprises thrown in, but for the most part, their diets are fairly predictable. And what I mean by this is that they are fairly consistent with their major meals.”
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Habit #6: Don’t Overcomplicate Exercise
“When it comes to what type of exercise is best, I always say start at level one, which is just finding something that you enjoy and stick to it consistently. You don't have to overcomplicate it more than that,” says Maria. “Now, if you can go a step further up to level two, you want to try and have a balance of cardio exercises like running, fast walking, or cycling, as well as some strength resistance exercises. This is the type of exercise that will utilize your muscles. A balance of both is the most important thing for your health.” She also stresses the importance of daily movement over your two workouts a week, like “walking that little bit further, taking the stairs, carrying your groceries,” she says. “All of this movement contributes to what we call non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT for short. So this is the amount of energy that you're using throughout the day that isn't coming from that planned-out exercise. And this is actually a bigger calorie burn than the structured exercise that you were trying to do in the first place. So making your lifestyle just a little bit more active in your daily routines is really valuable.”
Habit #7: Snack Smart
Lastly, she stresses the importance of having balanced snacks. “By having regular meals and snacks, you have more control than when you do eventually sit down to have your meal. This prevents overindulging, and it helps with managing your portion sizes. You can eat in a way that feels much better for your body,” she says. “Eating regularly is often an overlooked but easy-to-incorporate tool that can help you massively when it comes to your weight and your eating habits.” And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.
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