Tell me if this sounds familiar? You start a "new diet", where you are pretty successful in the first 90 days and lose a good amount of fat. After 3-4 months your weight loss slows down and you begin to regain your lost weight. Fast forward a year or two, and almost all, if not more, of the weight is regained. Why is it so difficult for some to keep the weight off and make long term progress?
Fat loss is a taxing activity and requires a lot of hard work. Sometimes people have a lot of motivation in the beginning, but it soon wears out. They resume "normal eating" after a diet and begin consuming all those high-calorie meals they were abstaining from while dieting.
Article Summary: In this article, you will learn 5 reasons for falling back to old habits when dieting for fat loss. Only once the root cause of the problem is known can one try to solve it. Some of the causes for the inability to maintain weight-loss in the longer run are as follows:
Cutting Calories Drastically
Diet "On/Off" Mindset (No Maintenance Phases)
Short-Lived Motivation, No Accountability
Looking For Shortcuts
Difficulty With Prioritization
Cutting Calories Drastically
Just like the tortoise and the hare, a fat loss phase should start slow and steady to win the race. Too many people start by making drastic changes in their caloric intake leading to rapid weight (losing muscle and fat) loss in the beginning only to hit a wall in just a few months. Our bodies are highly adaptive machines that want to get back to homeostasis as quickly as possible. The more drastic the diet, the more difficult it is to maintain long term and the larger the rebound will be.
Diet "On/Off" Mindset (No Maintenance Phases)
People think of a "diet" as a thing you are either are on or off. That's the wrong way of looking at it. A diet is simply the combination of foods you put in your body. Taking a phasic approach that includes periods of maintenance will increase the likelihood off success in long term fat loss. After you lose a good amount of fat from of a fat loss phase, you can’t just go right back to eating like you did before. You have to let your body “settle” into your new weight. This teaches your body that THIS is your new baseline.
For example. If you started a fat loss phase weighing 200lbs and dropped to 180lbs, your body needs to adapt to 180lbs being your new set point versus 200lbs. Once this new setpoint has been established, then you can re-enter into another fat lose phase if you want to continue to lose more weight. Continually cutting calories is unsustainable and your body will fight against you. That’s why maintenance phases are key to long term fat loss.
Short-Lived Motivation, No Accountability
A person is usually most motivated when they start losing weight at the beginning of their diet. They have invested time and money in the gym, they are making dietary changes and are starting to see actual results. However, after a while, all the fire and motivation starts to fade. People want to fall back into old habits and consistency goes out of the window. Understanding that motivation is just a spark is important. Creating habits that keep you consistent when you have no motivation is the only way to make real change long term.
Holding yourself accountable is also extremely difficult after the “honeymoon” phase of a diet. A study in The National Library of Medicine shows that people who have frequent check-ins with some type of accountability coach are much more successful keeping the weight off. This is why working with a coach is so important, you have someone in your corner to keep you on track even when you want to veer off.
Looking for Shortcuts
Losing weight is a lifestyle change and not a one-time activity. People often try to lose weight by taking weight-loss supplements and crash dieting. Initially, they will even do enormous amounts of strenuous exercises without even taking a day off. As soon as they stop these unsustainable activities, they will likely gain back the weight they had lost. Realizing that there are no shortcuts is extremely important. No one has “the magic bullet” no matter what you're told on the internet. Patience, consistency, and dedication are the only way to stay successful long term.
A person must be willing to invest time and energy to make lifelong changes to their lifestyle if they want to lose weight and maintain it.
Difficulty with Prioritization
Everyone is busy in their daily routines. Most people prioritize external factors more than we do ourselves. Work, social lives, and even family all come before yourself. Being successful means that you have to prioritize yourself and your habits. Anything that tales away from that process will either slow you down or set you back. This may seem harsh, but unless the people around you are on the same journey, they will inevitably get in your way. Prioritizing your habits to take care of yourself is the only way to remain successful. That doesn’t mean completely disregard you loved ones. It just means that you have a systematic approach and habits built into your daily life that are important to you and bring you closer to your goal. Anyone who cares about you should understand and want to support your efforts.
Bottom Line
There are many factors that will make long term fat loss more difficult. Hell, if it were easy, we wouldn’t have a nationwide obesity problem. Everyone would walk around jacked, tan and feeling great about themselves. However, that’s not reality. What is reality, is that there are things you can do to increase your long term fat loss success. It’s a long difficult road, but you are equipped to handle it! Our bodies were designed to move and be functional. Our mindset and how we approach things is usually what holds us back.
Coaching Opportunity
If you need help, I am here for you! My coaching program is designed specifically to create long term and sustainable results! Reach out to me HERE if you’re ready to make long term progress!
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