There are a lot of ways to achieve weight-loss, but the below tips are 3 things that I have found to be an effective way to help maintain that weight loss. These are things are super simple. But they are also the culmination of what I have learnt through an excessive amount of time interpreting research papers, combined with seeing countless clients in practice on a day-to-day basis.
1) Eat more vegetables
The vast majority of people don’t eat nearly enough vegetables for general health purposes anyway. But the key reason I recommend this is for appetite purposes. If you eat more vegetables, you will be filling yourself up with a lot of low-calorie foods.
2) Eat more lean protein sources – potentially including lean meat
This is counter-intuitive but I believe it is a massive key to long-term results for a lot of people. Other people have different opinions on this and that is okay – there are many ways to get results. The logic behind this is that protein is the most filling macronutrient.
Mathematically, it is clear that it is extremely difficult to overeat lean meat in terms of total calories.
From a long-term perspective, it will also help you maintain more muscle, which can help maintain your BMR at a slightly higher level and make it easier to maintain the weight-loss.
Yo-yo dieting is a massive issue and one of the contributors is partly related to the fact that people underconsume protein in comparison to what would be optimal for body composition. This can be higher than most people think. Plus people typically do not do much resistance training. This leads people lose a significant amount of muscle on the way down and gain a less favourable ratio of fat/muscle on the way back up.
3) Drink more water
Not because it “speeds up the metabolism” but because it fills you up. If you drink a large glass of water before each meal, you are likely to consume fewer calories.
For some reason, according to studies on this, people don’t “catch-up” on these calories at other times of the day. From studies I have seen, it can lead to ~200kcal less per day, which is going to lead to wayyyy better results than any fat burner supplement or magic pill that you are looking for.
Summary
At the end of the day, if you are not losing weight then by definition you are not in a calorie deficit. That isn’t to say that everybody should have a goal of being in a calorie deficit. If that is the goal though, these three things will make it way easier to stick to the calorie deficit.
When I write plans for my clients with weight loss goals I often hear them say “that is more food than I normally eat.” That is 100% intentional. By not having a limit on how much lean meat, vegetables or water you can have, it takes “physical” hunger out of the equation. This makes dieting a lot easier from a mental perspective. To be honest, there will almost always be some form of hunger if you are in a calorie deficit for an extended period of time. But it will be a different sort of hunger. Dieting is generally not easy, but taking these 3 steps can certainly make it slightly easier.
