#1 Hack to Make Maintaining Your Weight Loss Easy, According to a Nutritionist

Cassie Black, MS RD (@fatlossdietician), is a nutrition expert and Instagram influencer who helps “women ditch yo-yo dieting and lose fat for good without sacrificing the foods they love.” In one of her viral posts, she reveals an easy hack for losing weight. “This is another one for my ladies who want to lose weight but are also balling on a time budget,” she writes in the caption.

She Stopped Spending Hours in the Kitchen

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“Life got a lot easier for me when I stopped trying to make weight loss unnecessarily hard and time-consuming,” she starts. “Instead, I started focusing on the little things I could to see results without spending hours in the kitchen, meal-prepping, or seeking ‘special’ food options.”

Related: I Started to Walk 1 Mile Every Day, and Here’s How I Made It Happen

She Started Being More Intentional About the Order in Which She Eats Food

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She claims that the secret isn’t just what you eat but the order in which you eat it. “One of the little things I’ve stumbled upon in my journey is being more intentional about the order in which I eat my food,” she continues. “Now, I’m not saying this is a hard and fast rule or anything, but I am saying that it can be one of those little things that add up in a big way.”

The Order: Veggies, Protein, Starchy Carbs

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Here is the order: “I focus on eating veggies first, protein second, and starchy carbs last,” she reveals.

Veggies Fill You Up and Give You Fiber

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“Veggies help to fill you up and also can give you some fiber to support a better blood sugar response right off the bat (something that is KEY for more efficient weight loss),” she says.

Protein Helps You Feel Fuller Sooner So You Don’t Overindulge in Starchy Carbs

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“Protein helps you feel more full sooner so that when you get to starchy carbs, you aren’t ravenous and can eat an amount that feels satisfying and supports your goals,” she continues.

The Method Isn’t Restrictive

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“It’s a win-win situation because you aren’t taking anything away, spending any more time on the meal AND you’re helping your body burn fat more efficiently,” she points out.

It Also Works Well While Traveling

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The method comes in handy even when she isn’t at home. “This works really well for me, especially when I’m eating out or on vacation,” she says.

Related: 4 Things I Did to Lose Stomach Fat

Our Expert Agrees

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The Diet Diva, Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD/N, ACSM-CPT, a Board Certified Sports Dietitian, is totally on board with her recommendation. “You are getting the healthy veggies first, and the fiber can assist in filling you up and delaying how quickly blood sugar goes up. Protein has a similar response in providing satiety or a more lasting fullness and helping to regulate blood sugar. Starchy carbs aren’t bad to eat, but they don’t fill you up as quickly and it is easy to overeat them,” she says.

💪🔥Body Booster: Try eating your food in this order: Veggies, protein, starchy carbs. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.

Hailey Gorski (@thetipsykale_dietician) is an LA-based dietician and social media influencer whose goal is to help women take a “holistic” approach to diet and weight loss. In one of her many viral videos, she reveals a few easy ways to get back into shape for summer, using one of her client’s quick transformations as an example. According to Hailey, she made a “real change” to her lifestyle, “which is habits and a better relationship with food,” she said. “So here's how she really made this transformation in just one month.”

Try Lower Calorie Cocktails

According to Hailey, her client didn’t have to “cut out alcohol and miss out on her best friend's bachelor party.” Instead, “she enjoyed one to two finer cocktails and switched to a lower calorie, lower sugar option,” she said. While still tracking her nutrition progress, she felt confident. She didn't feel like she deprived herself, and she didn't feel guilty.”

Educate Yourself on Nutrition

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“Did she obsessively track calories on MyFitnessPal? Nope. She tracked when she could so she could establish awareness around what she's eating to learn more about calorie density and different foods but also understand her snacking was intentional and unintentional,” Hailey continues.

Related: I Added These Simple Things to My Walking and Pilates Routine And Now I See a Difference

Take Progress Photos

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You don’t need to weigh yourself daily. Instead of “using the number on the scale as her only metric of success,” Hailey’s client “also used progress photos,” she says.

Eat in a “Moderate Calorie Deficit”

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Finally, her clients didn’t starve themselves. “She focused on a moderate calorie deficit, not subtracting from her diet, but adding in foods like protein and high fiber, carbs and fruit,” she says.

Choose Weight Loss Programs “Tailored to You”

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“The weight loss industry has created a stigma around weight loss,” Hailey concludes. “As a dietician, there is nothing wrong with wanting to lose weight, as long as you have a healthy intention, are seeking programs that are tailored to you, and that will improve your relationship with your food and your body.”

Related: #1 Hack to Make Maintaining Your Weight Loss Easy, According to Nutritionist

These Are “Sustainable Choices,” an Expert Agrees

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The Diet Diva, Tara Collingwood, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD/N, ACSM-CPT, a Board Certified Sports Dietitian, is totally on board with her suggestions. “These are all excellent changes and are all sustainable choices,” she tells Body Network. “It proves that you don’t need to do drastic diets or intense workouts to still make a difference and get results.”

💪🔥Body Booster: The most important thing to focus on when losing weight is staying in a caloric deficit. Use an online calculator to determine how much you can eat with your activity level and still lose weight. And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.

Trying to lose weight can feel overwhelming with countless diets and conflicting advice. As a 77-year-old businesswoman and former model, Candace Cima has spent years researching and testing what truly works for sustainable weight loss. Through her platform, Living My Life in My 70s, and social media presence @Lifeinmy70s, she's helped thousands achieve their health goals using evidence-based methods. Here are her ten proven strategies, backed by scientific research, that can help you achieve lasting weight loss success.

Set Small Goals for Big Health Wins

"I want to encourage each of you that even a loss of 5% of your body weight has proven health benefits," Candace explains. "If you're 250 pounds, losing 12 and a half pounds can make a difference." She says that this modest weight loss can help prevent or even reverse conditions like type 2 diabetes, making it a realistic and worthwhile goal for beginners.

Keep Track of Everything You Eat

"By simply becoming more aware of what you're eating, you will change some bad habits," Candace notes. She points to research that consistently shows self-monitoring leads to successful weight loss. "A study in 2011 reviewed 22 studies and found a consistent relationship between self-monitoring and successful weight loss," she adds, recommending apps like MyFitnessPal for easy tracking.

Learn Your Daily Calorie Needs

Understanding your personal energy requirements is crucial for success. "Weight loss comes down to calories in versus calories used," Candace states. "An average deficit of 500 calories a day will result in an initial weight loss of about one pound a week." She advises that as your weight decreases, you'll need to adjust these numbers accordingly.

Cut Out Hidden Calories First

"Eliminate easy sources of excess calories like sugared beverages, switch to simply drinking water," Candace advises. She illustrates this with a practical example: "A beer has about 150 calories, so if you're drinking three beers a night, you're consuming 450 extra and unnecessary calories a day. If you keep this up every day, you'll gain about a pound a week or four pounds a month."

Choose a Diet You Can Stick To

"The fundamental point is to adopt a diet that creates a negative energy balance on adequate food quality," Candace emphasizes. While she acknowledges that different approaches work for different people, she particularly recommends the Mediterranean diet. "This diet is high in fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, and olive oil. It allows moderate amounts of fish, poultry, and dairy, but has little red meat," she explains.

Consider Structured Support Programs

For those feeling overwhelmed, Candace recommends commercial weight loss programs. "I like these programs because they're convenient, provide the food and provide a lot of support with them," she says. Research shows Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig participants maintain significant weight loss after 12 months, though she cautions against very low-calorie or liquid diets.

RELATED: I Dropped 50 Pounds and Lost My “Pooch” by Doing This One, Simple Exercise

Use Smart Technology

Modern weight loss apps can be powerful tools when used correctly. "Choose any app that has interactive features with personalized messages and goal setting," Candace recommends. "The more specific and tailored it is to you, the better it will be." Studies show these apps help users reduce caloric intake and increase healthy food consumption.

Make Eating a Mindful Activity

"I want to encourage everyone to make eating an activity that connects you with other people," Candace shares. "Turn off the TV, gather around a table, eat with someone else, carve time out in your day and make it an intentional activity." This approach helps develop a healthier relationship with food while strengthening social connections.

Focus on Diet Before Exercise

While exercise matters, Candace emphasizes proper order: "I would ask you to shift your focus to your diet when weight loss is the desired goal. You need to lower your calories." She recommends gradually increasing physical activity over time to maintain weight loss rather than relying on it for initial results.

RELATED: 5 Things I Eat to Amp Up My Protein Intake Without Extra Calories

Build Habits That Keep Weight Off

"The biggest predictor of keeping the weight off? Well, exercise," Candace reveals. She recommends 30 minutes of physical activity five to seven days a week, spread throughout the day if needed. Daily weigh-ins also help: "If you know early that you're gaining weight, you can make small adjustments." Regular participation in accountability groups provides additional support for maintaining success.

💪🔥Body Booster

Key Takeaways:

• Begin with a realistic 5% weight loss goal
• Track everything you consume
• Know your personal calorie needs
• Eliminate liquid calories first
• Choose a sustainable eating plan
• Consider structured support
• Use technology wisely
• Practice mindful eating
• Prioritize diet changes
• Build maintenance habits.

And if you enjoyed this article, take advantage of these 15 Quick Ways to Lose Body Fat Percentage in a Week.

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.”

RELATED:I Lost 110 Pounds: Here Are the 19 Most Unhealthy Junk Foods I'll Never Touch Again

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.