Congratulations! You hit your goal weight! After a brief celebration, and maybe even taking a picture of the numbers on the scale to remember this achievement you might feel invincible. Until a week or two later, you notice the number has crept back up. Before you know it, you’re ten pounds above your goal weight and wondering what went wrong.
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First, the good news. You’re not alone! It’s incredibly difficult to maintain weightloss. Researchers even agree that maintaining your goal weight can be even more difficult than actually reaching it for the first time.
Before you throw in the towel and give up, keep reading to see whether you made one of the three most common mistakes people make after hitting their goal weight and get back on track.
You forgot to plan for what comes next. If you lost the weight that was keeping you from your goal weight, you were probably using a specific training plan that incorporated a balance of cardio and strength workouts, healthy eating patterns, and plenty of sleep. Just having a concrete plan is motivating to make sure that you’re hitting your milestones and staying consistent. Most people, though, think of their goal weight as the final victory and fail to adequately plan for what they will do next to maintain that healthy weight. If you’ve made this mistake, consider working with a personal trainer at FitClub that can teach you new exercises, techniques and goals to keep you focused on a lifelong health and fitness trajectory that isn’t focused on just seeing one particular number.
You slip back into your former bad habits. If you were really focused on losing weight, you were also probably very conscientious about what you ate and how you worked out. After seeing that goal number on the scale for the first time, you might have celebrated with food or a hiatus from your workout. All of the bad habits that you left behind to lose the weight, though, are still bad habits that have no place in your healthy future. Rewarding yourself with food or skimping on your FitClub workouts wasn’t your normal lifestyle during your weight loss journey and shouldn’t be part of your normal lifestyle now. Remaining committed to healthy patterns and a healthy lifestyle should be a goal in itself. It’s not too late to start again.
You quit weighing, measuring and tracking. Maybe after months or years of weighing yourself regularly, having your body fat measured, and tracking your calories in and calories out you decided you didn’t need to do that every day after you hit your goal weight. Consistently tracking your health and paying attention to those numbers, though, is what keeps you accountable to yourself, the scale, and your health. If you were able to consistently track your progress when it was new and exciting, you can still do it when you hit your goal weight. When you notice the scale creeping up or your body fat measurement going the wrong direction, you will know right away that it’s time for a correction and stop any major weight or fat gains from setting you too far back. Take a breath, and start again.
Have you ever found it difficult to maintain your goal weight after hitting it for the first time? You’re not alone! Share your tips and tricks with your fellow FitClub members and let’s help each other through the difficult transition to lifelong maintenance.
