When it comes to losing weight, there are dozens of diets you can follow to get results.
But, losing weight isn’t the problem for most people, it’s maintaining those weight loss results over the long term that’s the real challenge for individuals who are able to lose weight.
Just about any diet (provided that it places you in a calorie deficit) will work for weight loss, and most people can “grin and bear it” for several weeks to drop the weight. However, sustaining those more extreme/fringe diets is the challenge, and also the reason most “diets” fail -- they’re not something that can be sustained for months and years.
True weight loss success (like the kind achieved by our transformation challenge winners) entails not only losing weight but keeping it off for good.
To do that, you need to institute lifestyle habits that can be followed day in and day out, no matter what.
Today, we give you 5 surefire weight loss habits to keep for life so that once you drop the fat, you can keep it off!
Top 5 Weight Loss Habits
#1 Make a Schedule
Being organized and having a schedule is one of the best things you can do for not only weight loss, but life in general.
By creating a schedule (and sticking to it), you’ll be more productive, have less wasted energy, and enjoy a greater sense of accomplishment.
This is especially true in the realm of fitness and nutrition.
Many individuals take a laissez-faire attitude to their workouts, which often leads to missed training sessions or workouts in which you’re not really pushing as hard as you could/should.
Scheduling your meals is also important as it helps take the guesswork out of what you need to eat and when you need to eat (which frees up brain power for more important things, like work). Having a regular meal schedule also helps keep energy and hormone levels stable, making it less likely you’ll have cravings.
Plus, we all have those days when it seems you can’t catch a break (traffic, flat tire, last minute meetings, etc.). Having a schedule gives you something that you can take comfort in and use as a means to re-center and calm yourself amidst the maelstrom that is daily life from time to time.
#2 Get Enough Sleep
Another daily habit that you can institute that not only benefits your transformation challenge results, but also your health, wellness, and longevity, is getting enough sleep.
Sleep has a direct impact on every facet of your life, be it mood, motivation, cognitive function, athletic performance, recovery, hunger/cravings, etc.
Specifically regarding weight loss, insufficient sleep is known to[1,2,3]:
- Increase hunger & cravings
- Decrease satiety
- Reduce insulin sensitivity
- Increase fat storage (particularly around the midsection)
- Reduce desire to exercise
- Decrease energy expenditure
- Impair energy metabolism
- Increase cortisol
- Reduce muscle protein synthesis
- Increase muscle protein breakdown
Basically, everything you wouldn’t want to happen does happen when you don’t get enough sleep.
As such, it’s imperative that you get enough quality sleep each and every night.
Building off the previous point, you should schedule your sleep just like you do every other important facet of your daily life.
Having a set time to go to bed every night will program your body that it’s time to wind down and get ready for sleep.
In addition to setting a specific bedtime, try these other helpful sleep tips:
- Keep your room cool and dark
- Wear loose fitting clothes
- Read/journal
- Meditate/pray
- Stretch/light yoga
- Have a cup of herbal (chamomile tea)
- Avoid caffeine after 3PM
- Limit alcohol and nicotine before bed
One other option is to try a nighttime relaxation and recovery aid, such as Beauty Dream PM or Recharge PM. Our nighttime sleep aids contain natural ingredients that help reduce feelings of stress and promote feelings of calm helping individuals achieve the deep, restorative sleep they need to recharge and feel refreshed and energized so they can crush whatever obstacles may come their way!
#3 Being a Whiz in the Kitchen
Now, possibly more than ever, individuals are relying on others to prepare (and in some cases, deliver) their food.
Fast food, takeout, and dine-in restaurants have been around for decades, as have TV dinners, but in recent times meal prep companies have also experienced rampant growth.
And, while these meal prep companies may list the calorie counts of the meals they’re delivering, a great many of them suffer from the same downfall as restaurants -- the calorie and macro counts are notoriously off.
Sure, the menu or website might list a particular calorie and macro breakdown, but more often than not, these numbers are incorrect, by a fairly wide margin.
If you’re really serious about your weight loss and want to know exactly what you’re putting in your body, the only way to know with reasonable certainty is to prepare your own food. When you cook your own food, there’s no “hidden” calories (e.g. a prep cook being a little too generous when eyeballing oil, rice, etc.).
Moreover, outsourcing your meal prep also costs significantly more than preparing the food yourself.
In the end, not only does cooking your own food help you have a closer eye on your macros and calorie intake (which benefits weight loss), but it also helps you save money!
To top it off, being able to cook (even basic dishes) is a skill that you can carry with you for the rest of your life, and you can even use it to impress a significant other on a date night!
#4 Move More During the Day
The human body is an incredible machine. One that is meant to move regularly. We weren’t made to sit in a chair or lounge on a sofa all day binging Netflix.
Every bit of movement you do during the day (even something as simple as cleaning the house or walking from the back of the parking lot) goes towards your daily energy expenditure and can help you lose weight.
Many people are under the misconception that you have to breathing hard, sucking wind, and bordering on losing your lunch in order to burn calories and lose weight. While hard training and cardio is a part of fitness and losing weight, it’s not the only thing that matters for weight loss.
Your metabolism is made up of several components, including:
- Resting metabolic rate -- the calories your body burns when you’re resting
- Thermic Effect of Food -- the calories your body burns digesting and utilizing the food you eat
- Exercise Activity Thermogenesis -- the calories your body burns during structured physical activity (i.e. exercise)
- Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis -- the calories your body burns during non-structured physical activity (walking the dog, cleaning the house, getting the mail, etc.)
This final component is perhaps the biggest “ace in the hole” an individual has that they can use to lose weight and keep it off. By maintaining high levels of physical activity each day, you’ll increase your overall energy output without feeling like you’re spending all day at the gym.
#5 Be Prepared for Plateaus
Many weight loss journeys start off with immediate results, especially if you previously haven’t been eating well or exercising regularly. However, at some point or another, all weight loss ventures hit a sticking point.
This is completely natural and expected.
The issue is that many individuals don’t understand that plateaus are part of the weight loss process. This leads to frustration and feelings of despair, which can quite often lead people to abandon the great lifestyle habits they’ve worked to institute over the past few weeks.
But, when you understand that plateaus are part of the process, you can take measures to prepare mentally and physically, so that if/when a plateau occurs you are ready.
You can be extra diligent with tracking your workouts and your nutrition using the 1UP Fitness App.
Our new Fitness App is an all-in-one nutrition, training and transformation challenge app to help you reach and maintain your fitness goals.
And it’s 100% FREE!
You’ll receive a personalized meal plan, customized workouts for gym & home weight training based on experience level and sex, and a personal dashboard to track progress.
Diet and training are the cornerstones of weight loss, and without them, results simply aren’t possible. But, if you’ve got the basics covered and looking to take your weight loss results to the next level, be sure to check out our expert-formulated weight loss support aids for men and women, Pro Ripped Max and Make Her Lean Max, respectively.
References
- Lin, J, Jiang, Y, Wang, G, et al. Associations of short sleep duration with appetite‐regulating hormones and adipokines: A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Obesity Reviews. 2020; 21:e13051. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13051
- Donga E, van Dijk M, van Dijk JG, Biermasz NR, Lammers GJ, van Kralingen KW, Corssmit EP, Romijn JA. A single night of partial sleep deprivation induces insulin resistance in multiple metabolic pathways in healthy subjects. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Jun;95(6):2963-8. doi: 10.1210/jc.2009-2430. Epub 2010 Apr 6. PMID: 20371664.
- Dattilo M, Antunes HK, Medeiros A, Mônico Neto M, Souza HS, Tufik S, de Mello MT. Sleep and muscle recovery: endocrinological and molecular basis for a new and promising hypothesis. Med Hypotheses. 2011 Aug;77(2):220-2. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2011.04.017. Epub 2011 May 7. PMID: 21550729.
