Sleep deprivation can also affect your motivation, so aim for eight hours of quality sleep a night. Whether or not you're specifically aiming to cut carbs, most of us consume unhealthy amounts of sugar and refined carbohydrates such as white bread, pizza dough, pasta, pastries, white flour, white rice, and sweetened breakfast cereals.

Replacing refined carbs with their whole-grain counterparts and eliminating candy and desserts is only part of the solution, though. Sugar is hidden in foods as diverse as canned soups and vegetables, pasta sauce, margarine, and many reduced fat foods.

Since your body gets all it needs from sugar naturally occurring in food, all this added sugar amounts to nothing but a lot of empty calories and unhealthy spikes in your blood glucose.

Calories obtained from fructose found in sugary beverages such as soda and processed foods like doughnuts, muffins, and candy are more likely to add to fat around your belly. Cutting back on sugary foods can mean a slimmer waistline as well as a lower risk of diabetes.

Even if you're cutting calories, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to eat less food. High-fiber foods such as fruit, vegetables, beans, and whole grains are higher in volume and take longer to digest, making them filling—and great for weight-loss.

It's generally okay to eat as much fresh fruit and non-starchy vegetables as you want—you'll feel full before you've overdone it on the calories. Eat vegetables raw or steamed , not fried or breaded, and dress them with herbs and spices or a little olive oil for flavor.

Add fruit to low sugar cereal —blueberries, strawberries, sliced bananas. You'll still enjoy lots of sweetness, but with fewer calories, less sugar, and more fiber.

Bulk out sandwiches by adding healthy veggie choices like lettuce, tomatoes, sprouts, cucumbers, and avocado. Add more veggies to your favorite main courses to make your dish more substantial.

Even pasta and stir-fries can be diet-friendly if you use less noodles and more vegetables. Start your meal with salad or vegetable soup to help fill you up so you eat less of your entrée. Set yourself up for weight-loss success by taking charge of your food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you make easily available.

Cook your own meals at home. This allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sugar, unhealthy fat, and calories than food cooked at home —plus the portion sizes tend to be larger.

Serve yourself smaller portions. Use small plates, bowls, and cups to make your portions appear larger. Don't eat out of large bowls or directly from food containers, which makes it difficult to assess how much you've eaten. Eat early. Studies suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds.

Eating a larger, healthy breakfast can jump-start your metabolism, stop you feeling hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the calories.

Fast for 14 hours a day. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the next morning. Eating only when you're most active and giving your digestion a long break may aid weight loss.

Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. You can create your own small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a schedule will help you avoid eating when you aren't truly hungry. Drink more water.

Thirst can often be confused with hunger, so by drinking water you can avoid extra calories. Limit the amount of tempting foods you have at home.

If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight. The degree to which exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories. Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it's something you can benefit from right now.

Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you'll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight-loss program.

Lack time for a long workout? Three minute spurts of exercise per day can be just as good as one minute workout. Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day.

Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you'll find it easier to become more physically active. Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids.

Far from it. Since it was established in , The National Weight Control Registry NWCR in the United States, has tracked over 10, individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

Whatever diet you use to lose weight in the first place, adopting these habits may help you to keep it off:. How choosing healthier carbs can improve your health and waistline. This diet can help fight heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more.

How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet. Tips for building a fitness plan, and finding the best exercises for you. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy. Take the assessment and get matched with a professional, licensed therapist.

Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide. org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges. Please donate today to help us save, support, and change lives.

When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Your Guide to Mental Health and Wellness. Return Mental Health. Autism Childhood Issues Learning Disabilities Family Caregiving Parenting Teen Issues.

Return Relationships. Return Aging Well. Return Handbook. Healthy Living Aging in Place Sleep Online Therapy. About Us Meet Our Team Our Story Jeanne Segal, Ph. Harvard Health Partnership Audio Meditations Newsletter.

What's the best diet for healthy weight loss? Weight Loss How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off There's a better way to lose weight. Copy Link Link copied! Download PDF. By Melinda Smith, M. and Lawrence Robinson. Four popular weight loss strategies Control emotional eating Stay motivated Cut down on sugar and refined carbs Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber Take charge of your food environment Get moving Keeping the weight off.

Four popular weight loss strategies 1. Cut calories Some experts believe that successfully managing your weight comes down to a simple equation: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Weight loss isn't a linear event over time. When you cut calories, you may drop weight for the first few weeks, for example, and then something changes. You eat the same number of calories but you lose less weight or no weight at all.

That's because when you lose weight you're losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows, and your body changes in other ways. So, in order to continue dropping weight each week, you need to continue cutting calories.

A calorie isn't always a calorie. Eating calories of high fructose corn syrup, for example, can have a different effect on your body than eating calories of broccoli. The trick for sustained weight loss is to ditch the foods that are packed with calories but don't make you feel full like candy and replace them with foods that fill you up without being loaded with calories like vegetables.

Many of us don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress—which can quickly derail any weight loss plan. Cut carbs A different way of viewing weight loss identifies the problem as not one of consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body accumulates fat after consuming carbohydrates—in particular the role of the hormone insulin.

Cut fat It's a mainstay of many diets: if you don't want to get fat, don't eat fat. Not all fat is bad. Unsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soy milk, tofu, and fatty fish can help fill you up, while adding a little tasty olive oil to a plate of vegetables, for example, can make it easier to eat healthy food and improve the overall quality of your diet.

We often make the wrong trade-offs. Many of us make the mistake of swapping fat for the empty calories of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Instead of eating whole-fat yoghurt, for example, we eat low- or no-fat versions that are packed with sugar to make up for the loss of taste.

Or we swap our fatty breakfast bacon for a muffin or donut that causes rapid spikes in blood sugar. Follow the Mediterranean diet The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating good fats and good carbs along with large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, and olive oil—and only modest amounts of meat and cheese.

Control emotional eating We don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. If you eat when you're: Stressed — find healthier ways to calm yourself. Speak to a Licensed Therapist BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more.

Take Assessment HelpGuide is user supported. Learn more. More Information Helpful links. How to Stay Motivated - Srini Pillay, MD, psychiatrist and brain imaging specialist, discusses the missing rewards that motivate healthy lifestyle change.

Harvard Health Publishing Lose Weight and Keep It Off - Smart approaches to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths - Debunking myths about food, dieting, and exercise.

Not everyone is going to have the same weight loss journey. Here are a few:. Men tend to have more muscle mass and less body fat, so they burn more calories than women and can expect to lose weight more quickly. Men will also lose more lean mass and less fat mass, especially initially. Age is also an essential factor to consider.

Muscle mass decreases as we age, meaning that calorie-burning overall slows down, and weight loss may take longer. People already starting in a healthy BMI range Knowing how much weight to target initially can also depend on your starting size.

Five to 10 percent of your body weight may be a good place to start—this will vary based on starting size. How much you weigh can also impact the type of weight that you lose. Those starting at a healthy weight are more likely to lose a more significant percentage of weight as fat-free mass muscle and be more at risk of regaining fat if they rebound.

Overweight or obese people are more likely to lose body fat mass by comparison. The consensus is that 3, calories make up a pound of fat. So to lose one pound of fat per week, you would need to cut out a total of 3, calories that week or calories per day, either through eating fewer calories or increasing exercise.

Think through your current dietary habits, meal frequency, snacks, how often you eat out, and how these habits impact your goals. Find what works best for you—a continuous glucose monitor CGM can help you with this!

Were you ever successful in losing weight in the past? Why or why not? If you were successful at weight loss previously, were you able to maintain that weight loss, or did you gain it back?

If there were things that helped you to lose weight in the past, are those same strategies realistic to where you are in your life right now? If not, how could you modify those things to fit into your new plan?

It's good to base your strategies on past success, but remember to modify them for your current lifestyle. It can be common to want to change everything all at once, especially at the beginning of a weight-loss journey.

But it can be hard to maintain and often leads to feelings of failure, resulting in worse success down the road. Instead, consider reviewing common weight loss tips for men and women , think of the factors we mentioned above, and make a list to see where all of it fits into your lifestyle now.

Finally, find support! Having someone on your side during a weight loss journey can help hold you accountable and provide motivation.

It can be family, friends, or a support group. Having a basic understanding of metabolism can help to set a realistic timeline for weight loss. There are two phases to consider:. Phase 1: The early weight loss phase is attributed to significant fluid loss and glycogen the storage form of glucose.

You can lose fat quickly but in a smaller proportion. People who follow a low carb, keto, or carnivore diet may experience quick weight loss during this stage as they begin with less glycogen. Phase 2: You can experience a weight loss plateau here. It's when you may end up getting discouraged and lose motivation.

You can lose a high proportion of fat and, as a result, it occurs at a much slower rate. There are a few different theories about why weight plateaus occur. The first is that as we lose weight, metabolism slows due to metabolic adaptations and the loss of energetically active tissue fat and some muscle.

At the same time, your metabolism is adapting to having fewer calories come in by triggering your hunger hormone and decreasing fullness hormones.

The second reason is getting burned out and no longer sticking to a diet. Wondering what a realistic timeline looks like with these phases in mind? Here's a format to follow:. As you begin cutting calories, you may experience quick weight loss of around one to two pounds per week as your body depletes its glycogen stores, protein, and water weight.

On the flip side, if you are beginning a new exercise routine or starting to exercise for the first time, your initial weight loss may seem slower as you build muscle and strength. To stay motivated, focus on non-scale measures like waist circumference, how your clothes are fitting, or your energy levels.

Avoid weighing yourself too frequently and always weigh yourself at the same time of day and under similar conditions. Prepare for that weight loss plateau.

You can temper your expectations and avoid feeling the burnout of a plateau. Have a plan to work through any plateau or weight gain by making minor, manageable tweaks to your current routine.

To encourage future weight management, finding foods, meal patterns, and exercise habits that work well for you and can fit into your everyday life is key at this stage. For more information on pushing past a weight plateau, check out this article.

Finding what works for your specific needs is the key to weight loss success. Here are some dietitian-approved tips:. Any exercise will help you burn extra energy, build muscle, and promote overall physical and mental health. Strength training can be beneficial as it builds muscle and can help burn more calories over time.

Strength training will also help you limit how much muscle mass you lose during weight loss and allow you to increase how much fat you lose. What you're eating matters too. Protein is an often underrated nutrient that helps maintain lean mass and aids weight loss by promoting satiety and stable energy levels.

Focus on getting good protein at each meal and add grass-fed red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, wild game, unsweetened Greek yogurt, tofu, or tempeh to your diet.

Staying hydrated can help support a healthy weight loss journey by preventing overeating associated with being dehydrated and also helps to increase fat loss. Per the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine , about ounces of water for men and 91 ounces of water for women per day is a good starting point.

If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight. The degree to which exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories. Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it's something you can benefit from right now.

Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you'll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight-loss program. Lack time for a long workout? Three minute spurts of exercise per day can be just as good as one minute workout.

Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day. Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you'll find it easier to become more physically active.

Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids. Far from it. Since it was established in , The National Weight Control Registry NWCR in the United States, has tracked over 10, individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

Whatever diet you use to lose weight in the first place, adopting these habits may help you to keep it off:. How choosing healthier carbs can improve your health and waistline.

This diet can help fight heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more. How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet. Tips for building a fitness plan, and finding the best exercises for you. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy.

Take the assessment and get matched with a professional, licensed therapist. Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide. org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges.

Please donate today to help us save, support, and change lives. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures.

Your Guide to Mental Health and Wellness. Return Mental Health. Autism Childhood Issues Learning Disabilities Family Caregiving Parenting Teen Issues. Return Relationships. Return Aging Well. Return Handbook.

Healthy Living Aging in Place Sleep Online Therapy. About Us Meet Our Team Our Story Jeanne Segal, Ph. Harvard Health Partnership Audio Meditations Newsletter. What's the best diet for healthy weight loss?

Weight Loss How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off There's a better way to lose weight. Copy Link Link copied! Download PDF. By Melinda Smith, M. and Lawrence Robinson. Four popular weight loss strategies Control emotional eating Stay motivated Cut down on sugar and refined carbs Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber Take charge of your food environment Get moving Keeping the weight off.

Four popular weight loss strategies 1. Cut calories Some experts believe that successfully managing your weight comes down to a simple equation: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Weight loss isn't a linear event over time. When you cut calories, you may drop weight for the first few weeks, for example, and then something changes. You eat the same number of calories but you lose less weight or no weight at all. That's because when you lose weight you're losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows, and your body changes in other ways.

So, in order to continue dropping weight each week, you need to continue cutting calories. A calorie isn't always a calorie. Eating calories of high fructose corn syrup, for example, can have a different effect on your body than eating calories of broccoli.

The trick for sustained weight loss is to ditch the foods that are packed with calories but don't make you feel full like candy and replace them with foods that fill you up without being loaded with calories like vegetables.

Many of us don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress—which can quickly derail any weight loss plan.

Cut carbs A different way of viewing weight loss identifies the problem as not one of consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body accumulates fat after consuming carbohydrates—in particular the role of the hormone insulin.

Cut fat It's a mainstay of many diets: if you don't want to get fat, don't eat fat. Not all fat is bad. Unsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soy milk, tofu, and fatty fish can help fill you up, while adding a little tasty olive oil to a plate of vegetables, for example, can make it easier to eat healthy food and improve the overall quality of your diet.

We often make the wrong trade-offs. Many of us make the mistake of swapping fat for the empty calories of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Instead of eating whole-fat yoghurt, for example, we eat low- or no-fat versions that are packed with sugar to make up for the loss of taste.

Or we swap our fatty breakfast bacon for a muffin or donut that causes rapid spikes in blood sugar. Follow the Mediterranean diet The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating good fats and good carbs along with large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, and olive oil—and only modest amounts of meat and cheese.

Control emotional eating We don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. If you eat when you're: Stressed — find healthier ways to calm yourself. Speak to a Licensed Therapist BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more.

Take Assessment HelpGuide is user supported. Learn more. More Information Helpful links. How to Stay Motivated - Srini Pillay, MD, psychiatrist and brain imaging specialist, discusses the missing rewards that motivate healthy lifestyle change.

Harvard Health Publishing Lose Weight and Keep It Off - Smart approaches to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths - Debunking myths about food, dieting, and exercise.

Keep in mind everyone is different—what works for someone else might not be right for you. Try a variety of activities such as walking, swimming, tennis, or group exercise classes.

See what you enjoy most and can fit into your life. These activities will be easier to stick with over the long term. Even modest weight loss [PDF This modest weight loss can decrease your risk for chronic diseases related to obesity.

Find family members or friends who will support your weight loss efforts. Coworkers or neighbors with similar goals might share healthy recipes and plan group physical activities. Joining a weight loss group or visiting a health care professional such as a registered dietitian may also help.

Revisit the goals you set in Step 3 and evaluate your progress regularly. Evaluate which parts of your plan are working well and which ones need tweaking.

Then rewrite your goals and plan accordingly. If you consistently achieve a particular goal, add a new goal to help you continue your pathway to success. Reward yourself for your successes! Use non-food rewards, such as a bouquet of fresh flowers, a sports outing with friends, or a relaxing bath.

Rewards help keep you motivated on the path to better health. Treatment for overweight and obesity Common treatments for overweight and obesity include losing weight through healthy eating, being more physically active, and making other changes to your usual habits.

Choosing a safe and successful weight-loss program Tips on how to choose a program that may help you lose weight safely and keep it off over time. Prescription medications to treat overweight and obesity If lifestyle changes do not help you lose weight or maintain your weight loss, your health care professional may prescribe medications as part of your weight-control program.

Bariatric surgery Weight-loss surgery, also known as bariatric surgery, is an operation that makes changes to the digestive system. Body Image Creating a positive body image through healthy eating habits. Strategies for Success Find resources to help you lose or gain weight safely and effectively.

Weight Management for Youth Address weight issues in children and teens with healthy guidelines, links to interactive and skill-building tools, and more. What you should know about popular diets Learn how to evaluate claims made by weight loss products and diets.

Find information to choose weight loss strategies that are healthy, effective, and safe for you. Skip directly to site content Skip directly to search. Español Other Languages. Tell the server to put half of your entree in a to go bag before the meal is served to you. Ask for salad dressing, gravy or high-fat sauces on the side.

Dip the tip of your fork in the dressing before each bite. If bread is served, ask for only one piece. Try it plain without butter or oil.

At Italian restaurants where oil and vinegar is served with bread, use only a small amount of oil and a lot of vinegar for dipping.

At a Friend's House Offer to bring a dish, appetizer or dessert that is low in calories. Serve yourself small portions or tell the host that you only want a small amount. Stand or sit away from the snack table. Stay away from the kitchen or stay busy if you are near the food.

Limit your alcohol intake. Use a salad plate instead of a dinner plate. After eating, clear away your dishes before having coffee or tea. Entertaining at Home Explore low-fat, low-cholesterol cookbooks. Use single-serving foods like chicken breasts or hamburger patties.

Prepare low-calorie appetizers and desserts. Holidays Keep tempting foods out of sight. Decorate the house without using food. Have low-calorie beverages and foods on hand for guests.

Allow yourself one planned treat a day. Don't skip meals to save up for the holiday feast. Eat regular, planned meals. Exercise Well Make exercise a priority and a planned activity in the day. If possible, walk the entire or part of the distance to work. Get an exercise buddy.

Go for a walk with a colleague during one of your breaks, go to the gym, run or take a walk with a friend, walk in the mall with a shopping companion. Park at the end of the parking lot and walk to the store or office entrance.

Always take the stairs all of the way or at least part of the way to your floor. If you have a desk job, walk around the office frequently. Do leg lifts while sitting at your desk. Do something outside on the weekends like going for a hike or a bike ride. Have a Healthy Attitude Make health your weight management priority.

Be realistic. Have a goal to achieve a healthier you, not necessarily the lowest weight or ideal weight based on calculations or tables. Focus on a healthy eating style, not on dieting. Dieting usually lasts for a short amount of time and rarely produces long-term success.

Think long term. You are developing new healthy behaviors to follow next month, in a year and in a decade. Related clinics. Recommended reading. Body Mass Index Chart Body mass index BMI is a number based on both your height and weight and can help determine the degree to which a person is overweight.

Add more veggies to your favorite main courses to make your dish more substantial. Even pasta and stir-fries can be diet-friendly if you use less noodles and more vegetables. Start your meal with salad or vegetable soup to help fill you up so you eat less of your entrée.

Set yourself up for weight-loss success by taking charge of your food environment: when you eat, how much you eat, and what foods you make easily available.

Cook your own meals at home. This allows you to control both portion size and what goes in to the food. Restaurant and packaged foods generally contain a lot more sugar, unhealthy fat, and calories than food cooked at home —plus the portion sizes tend to be larger.

Serve yourself smaller portions. Use small plates, bowls, and cups to make your portions appear larger. Don't eat out of large bowls or directly from food containers, which makes it difficult to assess how much you've eaten.

Eat early. Studies suggest that consuming more of your daily calories at breakfast and fewer at dinner can help you drop more pounds. Eating a larger, healthy breakfast can jump-start your metabolism, stop you feeling hungry during the day, and give you more time to burn off the calories.

Fast for 14 hours a day. Try to eat dinner earlier in the day and then fast until breakfast the next morning. Eating only when you're most active and giving your digestion a long break may aid weight loss.

Plan your meals and snacks ahead of time. You can create your own small portion snacks in plastic bags or containers. Eating on a schedule will help you avoid eating when you aren't truly hungry.

Drink more water. Thirst can often be confused with hunger, so by drinking water you can avoid extra calories. Limit the amount of tempting foods you have at home. If you share a kitchen with non-dieters, store indulgent foods out of sight.

The degree to which exercise aids weight loss is open to debate, but the benefits go way beyond burning calories. Exercise can increase your metabolism and improve your outlook—and it's something you can benefit from right now. Go for a walk, stretch, move around and you'll have more energy and motivation to tackle the other steps in your weight-loss program.

Lack time for a long workout? Three minute spurts of exercise per day can be just as good as one minute workout. Remember: anything is better than nothing. Start off slowly with small amounts of physical activity each day. Then, as you start to lose weight and have more energy, you'll find it easier to become more physically active.

Find exercise you enjoy. Try walking with a friend, dancing, hiking, cycling, playing Frisbee with a dog, enjoying a pickup game of basketball, or playing activity-based video games with your kids. Far from it. Since it was established in , The National Weight Control Registry NWCR in the United States, has tracked over 10, individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

Whatever diet you use to lose weight in the first place, adopting these habits may help you to keep it off:. How choosing healthier carbs can improve your health and waistline. This diet can help fight heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, and more. How focusing on the experience of eating can improve your diet.

Tips for building a fitness plan, and finding the best exercises for you. BetterHelp makes starting therapy easy. Take the assessment and get matched with a professional, licensed therapist. Millions of readers rely on HelpGuide. org for free, evidence-based resources to understand and navigate mental health challenges.

Please donate today to help us save, support, and change lives. When autocomplete results are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to go to the desired page. Touch device users, explore by touch or with swipe gestures. Your Guide to Mental Health and Wellness.

Return Mental Health. Autism Childhood Issues Learning Disabilities Family Caregiving Parenting Teen Issues. Return Relationships. Return Aging Well. Return Handbook. Healthy Living Aging in Place Sleep Online Therapy.

About Us Meet Our Team Our Story Jeanne Segal, Ph. Harvard Health Partnership Audio Meditations Newsletter. What's the best diet for healthy weight loss? Weight Loss How to Lose Weight and Keep It Off There's a better way to lose weight.

Copy Link Link copied! Download PDF. By Melinda Smith, M. and Lawrence Robinson. Four popular weight loss strategies Control emotional eating Stay motivated Cut down on sugar and refined carbs Fill up with fruit, veggies, and fiber Take charge of your food environment Get moving Keeping the weight off.

Four popular weight loss strategies 1. Cut calories Some experts believe that successfully managing your weight comes down to a simple equation: If you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Weight loss isn't a linear event over time. When you cut calories, you may drop weight for the first few weeks, for example, and then something changes. You eat the same number of calories but you lose less weight or no weight at all.

That's because when you lose weight you're losing water and lean tissue as well as fat, your metabolism slows, and your body changes in other ways. So, in order to continue dropping weight each week, you need to continue cutting calories.

A calorie isn't always a calorie. Eating calories of high fructose corn syrup, for example, can have a different effect on your body than eating calories of broccoli.

The trick for sustained weight loss is to ditch the foods that are packed with calories but don't make you feel full like candy and replace them with foods that fill you up without being loaded with calories like vegetables. Many of us don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger.

We also turn to food for comfort or to relieve stress—which can quickly derail any weight loss plan. Cut carbs A different way of viewing weight loss identifies the problem as not one of consuming too many calories, but rather the way the body accumulates fat after consuming carbohydrates—in particular the role of the hormone insulin.

Cut fat It's a mainstay of many diets: if you don't want to get fat, don't eat fat. Not all fat is bad. Unsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, seeds, soy milk, tofu, and fatty fish can help fill you up, while adding a little tasty olive oil to a plate of vegetables, for example, can make it easier to eat healthy food and improve the overall quality of your diet.

We often make the wrong trade-offs. Many of us make the mistake of swapping fat for the empty calories of sugar and refined carbohydrates. Instead of eating whole-fat yoghurt, for example, we eat low- or no-fat versions that are packed with sugar to make up for the loss of taste.

Or we swap our fatty breakfast bacon for a muffin or donut that causes rapid spikes in blood sugar. Follow the Mediterranean diet The Mediterranean diet emphasizes eating good fats and good carbs along with large quantities of fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, fish, and olive oil—and only modest amounts of meat and cheese.

Control emotional eating We don't always eat simply to satisfy hunger. If you eat when you're: Stressed — find healthier ways to calm yourself. Speak to a Licensed Therapist BetterHelp is an online therapy service that matches you to licensed, accredited therapists who can help with depression, anxiety, relationships, and more.

Take Assessment HelpGuide is user supported. Learn more. More Information Helpful links. How to Stay Motivated - Srini Pillay, MD, psychiatrist and brain imaging specialist, discusses the missing rewards that motivate healthy lifestyle change.

Harvard Health Publishing Lose Weight and Keep It Off - Smart approaches to achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.

Harvard Medical School Special Health Report Weight-loss and Nutrition Myths - Debunking myths about food, dieting, and exercise. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease Losing Weight - Including tips for recognizing roadblocks and keeping the weight off.

American Heart Association Cutting Calories - Strategies for eating more while still losing weight, avoiding portion size pitfalls, and using fruits and vegetables to manage weight.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Low-Carbohydrate Diets - How a low-carbohydrate diet may help some people lose weight more quickly than a low-fat diet. Harvard School of Public Health Just Enough for You: About Portion Sizes - Tips for managing portion sizes at home and when eating out.

National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease. Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar The Nutrition Source Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health. Retrieved May 15, , from.

Fats and Cholesterol The Nutrition Source Harvard T. Ma, Y. Single-Component Versus Multicomponent Dietary Goals for the Metabolic Syndrome: A Randomized Trial.

Annals of Internal Medicine , 4 , — Making one change—Getting more fiber—Can help with weight loss—Harvard Health. Nelson, J. Consider following these six strategies for weight-loss success.

Long-term weight loss takes time and effort — and a long-term commitment. While you don't want to put off weight loss indefinitely, you should make sure you're ready to make permanent changes to eating and activity habits.

Ask yourself the following questions to help you determine your readiness:. Talk to your doctor if you need help addressing stressors or emotions that seem like obstacles to your readiness.

When you're ready, you'll find it easier to set goals, stay committed and change habits. No one else can make you lose weight. You must undertake diet and exercise changes to please yourself. What's going to give you the burning drive to stick to your weight-loss plan?

Make a list of what's important to you to help you stay motivated and focused, whether it's an upcoming vacation or better overall health. Then find a way to make sure that you can call on your motivational factors during moments of temptation. You might want to post an encouraging note to yourself on the pantry door or refrigerator, for instance.

While you have to take responsibility for your own behavior for successful weight loss, it helps to have support — of the right kind. Pick people to support you who will encourage you in positive ways, without shame, embarrassment or sabotage.

Ideally, find people who will listen to your concerns and feelings, spend time exercising with you or creating healthy menus, and share the priority you've placed on developing a healthier lifestyle.

Your support group can also offer accountability, which can be a strong motivation for sticking to your weight-loss goals. If you prefer to keep your weight-loss plans private, be accountable to yourself by having regular weigh-ins, recording your diet and exercise progress in a journal, or tracking your progress using digital tools.

It may seem obvious to set realistic weight-loss goals. But do you really know what's realistic? Over the long term, it's smart to aim for losing 1 to 2 pounds 0.

Generally to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week, you need to burn to 1, calories more than you consume each day, through a lower calorie diet and regular physical activity. If you weigh pounds 82 kilograms , that's 9 pounds 4 kilograms. Even this level of weight loss can help lower your risk of chronic health problems, such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

When you're setting goals, think about both process and outcome goals. It isn't essential that you have an outcome goal, but you should set process goals because changing your habits is a key to weight loss.

Adopting a new eating style that promotes weight loss must include lowering your total calorie intake. But decreasing calories need not mean giving up taste, satisfaction or even ease of meal preparation.

One way you can lower your calorie intake is by eating more plant-based foods — fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Strive for variety to help you achieve your goals without giving up taste or nutrition.

While you can lose weight without exercise, regular physical activity plus calorie restriction can help give you the weight-loss edge.

Exercise can help burn off the excess calories you can't cut through diet alone. Exercise also offers numerous health benefits, including boosting your mood, strengthening your cardiovascular system and reducing your blood pressure.

Exercise can also help in maintaining weight loss. Studies show that people who maintain their weight loss over the long term get regular physical activity. How many calories you burn depends on the frequency, duration and intensity of your activities.

One of the best ways to lose body fat is through steady aerobic exercise — such as brisk walking — for at least 30 minutes most days of the week. Some people may require more physical activity than this to lose weight and maintain that weight loss.

Any extra movement helps burn calories. Think about ways you can increase your physical activity throughout the day if you can't fit in formal exercise on a given day.

For example, make several trips up and down stairs instead of using the elevator, or park at the far end of the lot when shopping. It's not enough to eat healthy foods and exercise for only a few weeks or even months if you want long-term, successful weight management.

These habits must become a way of life. Lifestyle changes start with taking an honest look at your eating patterns and daily routine.

After assessing your personal challenges to weight loss, try working out a strategy to gradually change habits and attitudes that have sabotaged your past efforts. Then move beyond simply recognizing your challenges — plan for how you'll deal with them if you're going to succeed in losing weight once and for all.

You likely will have an occasional setback. But instead of giving up entirely after a setback, simply start fresh the next day. Remember that you're planning to change your life. It won't happen all at once. Stick to your healthy lifestyle and the results will be worth it.

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