Losing weight is already hard enough, but keeping the weight off once you lose it is a whole-nother beast of a challenge.
Research has shown only about 20% of people who’ve lost weight are able to maintain their progress for at least a year (1). Within the first year, a majority of people gain all their weight back and in many cases, gain more.
Another study showed only about 10% of Americans were able to maintain a 10% weight loss following a year (4).
Some studies are even more discouraging. This meta-analysis looking at only United States studies showed, of the few people who were able to keep weight off only kept off about 3% (2).
I hate to be the bearer of more bad news, but these statistics are probably worse in reality because studies have shown people tend to lie or exaggerate about their true weight in studies where participants have to self-report (3).
Long story short, studies show us we’re worse at keeping off the weight than actually losing the weight in the first place. It’s mad depressing, but fortunately science can also show us the solution as well.
Here are some key science-based tips to keep the weight off forever and prevent those annoying pounds of fat from returning.
There is one key thing to keeping weight off (I’ll reveal it later), but it’s important to learn how to approach weight loss first.
The way you lose weight in the first place will greatly impact whether you’re able to maintain the results or not.
To learn how to set yourself up for successful weight maintenance, let’s look at a study which explored the commonalities of the few successful weight loss maintainers.
This study examined and interviewed 10 women who lost an average of 46 pounds, kept it off, and remained weight stable all without the use of any surgery (5).
There were many common factors among these successful dieters, many of which are the same ones I use with many clients to ensure long term success.
Before you even lift a weight or prepare a healthy meal, the battle starts inside your head. This sounds like cheesy motivational speaker type of advice, but it’s true.
The researchers showed health was a big trigger for lasting change. Many people had to go through harsh health diagnosis before truly taking weight loss action. This is unfortunate as you never want things to get this bad. It does reveal you actually need to care about your health enough to change even if it means going through some sort of health crisis.
But an even bigger commonality in the motivation was what researchers call an autonomous motive. This is just a fancy word meaning your main motivation for losing weight is for your own improvement with others being less of a priority.
Put simply, your motives have to be selfish in nature to be effective.
In fact, research has shown people who are more autonomous end up losing more weight and are more likely to keep it off (6).
This is why losing weight for the sake of other people is a weak cause.
Some common examples of non-autonomous motives for weight loss are:
Some of what I listed above aren’t necessarily bad reasons to lose weight, but they can’t be your main reason.
If you want successful weight loss and weight maintenance, you have to truly want it for yourself first.
The participants in the study were patient and had a long-term mindset. They didn’t see it as a short-term diet, but rather a lifestyle change.
You can’t suddenly become careless and eat your old diet once a goal weight is reached. Doing so will quickly undo all the sacrifices you made. Successful weight loss maintainers are ready for a long term lifestyle change not a temporary quick fix.
Successful dieters who maintain their weight share relatively the same strategies. Note that not all of these strategies are necessary, but if you’re struggling with keeping off lost weight, it’s best to adopt as many of these as possible.
Another commonality was support. Having a system or community of people supporting them was crucial whether it was through professional help, family encouragement, or friends joining them in their weight loss journey.
The study participants also talked about how certain people made their journey more difficult by downplaying or discouraging their efforts. They reported that they don’t think these comments were of malicious intent, but they do have an effect.
This is why it’s important to always think twice before making sabotaging comments about someone’s dieting efforts. It’s kind of funny to tease a dieting friend about ordering a wimpy salad until you become that dieting friend.
The last commonality between successful dieters is the ability to find new goals. As you’re losing weight, you get a lot of compliments. You’re also buying new clothes monthly because fat is melting off your body.
All of this is invigorating and motivates you like a rabbit with a carrot dangled in front of it.
Unfortunately, once all the weight is lost, compliments are no longer coming your way and motivation runs dry.
All participants admitted to struggling to maintain a healthy lifestyle because of this. Fortunately, they found new goals in order to keep motivation high and as a result maintain their healthy behaviors. For example, after losing weight, one participant became a trainer and another focused on building muscle.
This is why having other goals after just weight loss is important. Without any sort of objective to aim for, maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be deeply demotivating.
Some good post weight loss goals are to build muscle, build strength, or to compete in something.
Believe it or not, everything I just talked about aren’t even the most important tips. While they are important and increase your chances of preventing weight regain, they are not the strongest commonality across all research.
What research shows is the absolute key for preventing weight regain is physical activity. This was seen in this study as well as many others (7,8,14). Simply being active is the secret sauce to preventing weight regain.
You see, when you lose weight, the total amount of calories you burn at rest and during exercise goes down. This drop in energy expenditure is completely normal and most of this reduction comes from physical activity.
Your body does this by spontaneously moving less throughout the day as well as simply burning fewer calories when you do move. Sounds cruel, I know. Allow me to further elaborate.
As a smaller person, the same movements simply won’t burn as many calories. For example, doing a push up or lifting your arm to brush your teeth will burn fewer calories once you’re lighter because your body doesn’t need to burn through as much fuel to power a lighter person.
To maintain your new lighter weight, you must permanently eat less than you once did (aka diet forever) or permanently maintain an active lifestyle to match/buffer the drop in energy expenditure.
You can’t eat significantly less forever. It’s not practical, healthy, and likely to leave you deficient in micronutrients, not to mention after significant weight loss, studies show your appetite is biologically heightened like a starving wolf entering a buffet (9).
So the answer is simple, if you want to prevent weight regain, you must maintain an active lifestyle to keep energy expenditure somewhat high.
These studies here also confirm this, showing physical activity is quite literally the secret sauce to preventing weight regain after weight has been lost (10,11).
To drive this point home, this last study was extremely eye-opening (12). It looked at the same energy balance achieved in 2 different ways, one where participants ate less with no exercise and another where they ate more with exercise included.
Even with the same net caloric balance, eating more paired with exercise resulted in higher metabolism, more hunger suppression, and less weight regain.
People often overstate that nutrition is more important than training for losing weight. While that might be true, it’s pretty clear that exercise is more important than nutrition for preventing weight regain.
You must stay active for your results to last. You can’t just turn back into a couch potato once you’ve reached your weight loss goals. The fitness lifestyle must continue.
Now, this doesn’t mean you have to become a freak athlete that lives in the gym. The data clearly shows any average joe can maintain weight loss with a very reasonable lifestyle.
This simply includes performing intense exercise for a few hours a week along with staying relatively active outside the gym, whether it’s shopping, hiking, or walking.
Long story short, there’s a lot of neat tricks that can increase your chances of keeping the weight off, but physical activity is non-negotiable. You must move consistently for a lifetime to keep your new lean body.
Gibbs BB;Tudorascu D;Bryce CL;Comer D;Fischer GS;Hess R;Huber KA;McTigue KM;Simkin-Silverman LR;Conroy MB; “Lifestyle Habits Associated with Weight Regain After Intentional Loss in Primary Care Patients Participating in a Randomized Trial.” Journal of General Internal Medicine, U.S. National Library of Medicine, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32808209/.
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