Losing weight is not just about eating less or exercising more, it is a journey of making a complete change in your lifestyle. Being overweight and obese not only affects your appearance but also increases your risk of heart disease, diabetes and many other health problems. However, sustainable weight loss does not come from extreme methods or short-term diets, but from small, consistent steps that fit into your life.
What can you do to lose weight sustainably?
Here are 4 steps that can help:
1. Understand the causes of obesity
A good first step is to think about why you have gained weight. Is it a recent change or part of a long-term trend. Were you eating out more, moving less or eating different foods when you first started gaining weight?
For example, being busy with work or family can make it harder to make healthy food choices and may lead to eating more processed or takeaway foods.
These tend to be higher in saturated fat than home-cooked meals and tend to be larger in portion sizes.
Another lifestyle change may be that, like many people, you now work from home more and have fewer opportunities to exercise on your commute.
Being overweight or obese can also make it harder to exercise. Health organisations recommend 150 minutes of moderate-intensity activity, such as cycling or brisk walking, each week. But research shows that people who are obese are less likely to exercise for this amount of time each week than people who are not obese.
2. Check your healthy weight
Set a weight-loss goal by calculating your body mass index (BMI), which compares your weight to your height to see if you are healthy, overweight, or obese.
If your weight is higher than the healthy range for your height, you don’t need to take extreme measures to lose weight quickly. Instead, break your weight loss into smaller goals and focus on one step at a time. If you are very overweight, start by aiming to lose 10% of your body weight.
This may seem easier to achieve, but it will still have big health benefits even if your BMI is still classified as overweight. And don’t be discouraged if it takes you a long time to reach your ideal weight. It probably took you a long time to gain weight.
3. Make the right changes to your lifestyle
To see a lasting impact on your weight, you need to make positive changes. So it’s important to stick to your weight loss plan.
Small lifestyle changes may feel insignificant, but they will add up over time. You may find it helpful to think of it not as a “diet” but as a lifestyle that you can maintain over the long term.
Some people find that eating less fat or carbohydrates helps, some people count calories, while others reduce their calorie intake on certain days.
The combination of changing your diet and moving more has been shown to be more effective than changing your diet alone, so consider adding exercise to your routine too.
This could be walking or cycling instead of driving, exercising at home, or meeting friends for a walk or run. If the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity a week seems like too much at first, try breaking it up into shorter periods (around 10 minutes).
4. Eat a balanced diet
To lose weight, you need to eat less energy (calories) than you use. Some diets or weight loss plans suggest cutting out entire food groups to achieve this goal, but this means you’ll miss out on essential nutrients.
To stay healthy, your diet still needs to be balanced. So instead of cutting out foods, focus on eating plenty of foods like fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, and fatty fish.
These are all part of the Mediterranean diet, which has been shown to help with weight loss and improve heart health.
Some high-calorie foods are also good for you. For example, foods like fatty fish, unsalted nuts, and avocados, while high in fat, contain healthy unsaturated fats that help maintain healthy cholesterol levels.
If you’re trying to lose weight, eat these foods less often or limit your portion sizes. Low-calorie, low-calorie, or reduced-calorie versions of your favorite foods can also help. But be sure to check food labels, as low-calorie foods don’t necessarily mean low in salt and sugar.
