This Is How To Lose Weight the Right Way — and Keep It Off

If your best efforts at losing weight aren’t panning out, you’re far from alone. One poll discussed in Psychology Today suggests that, on average, people try 126 fad diets in their lives. And each attempt averaged just six days.

So, how do you lose weight and keep it off? Registered dietitian, exercise physiologist and psychologist David Creel, PhD, talks about how to lose weight the right way.

How to lose weight safely

Carrying excess weight isn’t ideal for your health. Obesity is connected to a host of health conditions that can severely affect your well-being.

So, losing weight and achieving a healthy body mass index (BMI) can be a noble goal for people who are at risk for these conditions and others.

Overall, don’t focus on how to lose weight fast. Ideally, you want to follow a healthy lifestyle to lose weight — one that you can live with and be happy with for the long-term.

Dr. Creel shares his tips for the best way to achieve a healthy weight.

1. Set weight loss goals

First, it’s important that you check in with yourself to see if you’re ready to concentrate on your weight. Do you have the time and motivation to focus on making lifestyle changes and building good habits?

If the answer is yes, Dr. Creel suggests creating goals that keep you focused on actions more than outcomes.

Setting reasonable and manageable lifestyle goals means paying attention to what we have the most control over — our behaviors. You may hear it referred to as a SMART goal:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant to the things that are most important to you
• Time-bound

You might set goals to walk 30 minutes five times per week, include vegetables with dinner and stop eating after 7 p.m. Concentrate on the areas that will impact your health and weight the most.

“It can depend on your starting weight and your lifestyle, but these modest changes often lead to one to two pounds of weight loss per week,” Dr. Creel notes. “Weight loss is likely to taper off over time, but if you pay attention to the non-scale victories — like better sleep, more energy and improved fitness — you’re less likely to get discouraged.”

2. Follow a manageable diet

The backbone of a healthy diet for weight loss is to eat more natural foods and fewer processed foods.

That’s the basic tenet of the Mediterranean diet — largely considered to be the healthiest eating pattern around. It stresses eating:

• Lean protein
• Fiber
• Unsaturated fats
• Complex carbs
• Plenty of plant-based foods

Hitting the right number of calories isn’t enough. The quality of those calories is also important.

Natural and less-processed foods fill your body with what it needs — like protein, fiber and other nutrients — without the stuff it doesn’t.

Although people can lose weight with lower-fat or lower-carb eating (like the keto diet), Dr. Creel says that the types of carbs and fat are most important. Healthy fats tend to come from plants, nuts and seeds rather than animals. And healthier carbohydrates are less processed.

Remember, weight loss is a marathon, not a sprint. Depriving yourself of your favorite foods and labeling them as “off limits” is a recipe for discouragement, backsliding and guilt.

Rather than vowing never to eat another slice of cake or have a soda, work them in sparingly. And remind yourself that an occasional treat is OK. It’s not a reflection of your willpower or your worth as a person.

3. Focus on physical activity

Remember, losing weight comes down to expending more calories than you’re taking in. And exercise is an important factor in burning those extra calories.

The American Heart Association recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity cardio exercise each week. That’s the kind that gets your heart pumping and makes you breathe faster than usual.

Try these aerobic workouts:

• Walking, hiking and slow running
• Swimming
• Cycling
• Cardio machines, like treadmills, ellipticals and steppers

And you also want to focus on maintaining or building muscle. Muscle works to burn more calories, even when you’re not doing much of anything. So, when you build muscle, you’re making your body composition work in your favor.

“Your muscle burns through calories much faster, even if you’re just sitting on the couch,” Dr. Creel explains. “The more muscle mass you have, the quicker you burn calories.”

What’s more, when you work to lose weight, what you really want to lose is fat, not muscle. That’s why you want to eat plenty of lean protein. Healthy sources of protein help to build and repair muscle.

Another way to build muscle? Engage in strength-training exercise. That can be activities like:

• Yoga
• Pilates
• Barbells
• Free weights
• Calisthenics

Aim for at least 20 minutes of strength-training twice per week.

“Strength training doesn’t usually burn as many calories as cardiovascular exercise. But the benefits of maintaining muscle are of utmost importance,” Dr. Creel clarifies. “And if cardio is hard for you, strength training is sometimes an easier gateway into physical activity.”

4. Pay attention to your emotional health

Emotional eating is real. It’s a natural coping mechanism for some people to turn to food when they’re feeling stressed, bored, frustrated or any number of emotions.

Here’s why: Strong emotions, like stress, release the hormone cortisol. And cortisol can heighten our cravings for sugar, fat and salt. It’s a biological response that’s trying to protect you by fueling your body to prepare to fight off tigers or other threats to your life.

So, what can you do when you feel that pang to reach for food — not for hunger, but strictly for comfort? Step away from the fridge and try some quick relaxation strategies.

Food journaling can also help you understand patterns in your emotional state and how they relate to eating.

“I like to encourage people to keep track not just of what they’re eating, but also how they’re feeling at mealtimes or when they reach for that snack,” Dr. Creel recommends. “That can help you to see patterns and gauge whether you’re eating because you’re hungry or if you’re turning to food for comfort.”

5. Get plenty of sleep

While they may not seem related, sleep and weight loss go hand in hand.

“If we aren’t getting good rest, your hunger hormones (ghrelin and leptin) can get out of whack. You actually feel hungrier when you’re not well-rested,” Dr. Creel shares.

Aim to get enough sleep (between seven and nine hours a night for most adults). And keep to a regular sleep schedule.

6. Expect to modify your original plan

Often, you can see results from your weight loss efforts quickly. Then, it stalls. And you wonder if your scale is working. You might even question whether it’s worth it to keep it up.

Weight loss plateaus are all part of the process. A crummy part to be sure. But still normal.

“We call it metabolic adaptation. It’s your body trying to hold on to weight by slowing down your metabolism,” Dr. Creel explains. “We know it’s healthy for us to lose excess weight, but your body doesn’t. It’s trying to protect you.”

It can be hard to push through. But the best response to hitting a plateau is to increase your efforts. Add in some additional movement. Recalculate your calorie needs. (Chances are they’ve changed because of the weight you’ve already lost.) Be patient. Don’t give up.

And talk with a weight loss specialist or registered dietitian. They can help you find interventions that could make a big difference. That may include things like new diet or exercise strategies.

Or they may recommend anti-obesity medications or bariatric surgery in addition to a healthy diet and exercise program. Those strategies can help overcome your body’s natural instincts to defend against weight loss.

Bottom line?

Losing weight isn’t rocket science. But that doesn’t mean it’s simple. Humans are complex creatures. What we eat, how much we move and the inner workings of our minds all contribute to how we gain and lose weight.

Trust the process. And don’t hesitate to ask for help. Your health is worth it.