Part 7: Keep it going: Weight Maintenance

As you have learned throughout this guide, losing weight can result in many positive changes for your body. One change, however, can make it tougher to maintain weight loss. When you lose weight, the body’s natural reaction is to conserve energy by slowing your metabolism.

Your metabolism may be slower than before you lost weight.

•  Your body changes to make it difficult to lose more weight.

•  Your body changes to make it easier to put on weight.

Without changing your habits and lifestyle around food and exercise, being overweight can become a chronically relapsing condition. You may feel caught in a cycle of gaining and losing weight repeatedly. This pattern can be very hard on the body and mind.

You are not doomed to gain weight once you have worked hard to lose it. While a slower metabolism can make it harder, you have built many strengths to make this challenge easier.

•  Easier to exercise (e.g., less joint pain, improved heart and lung function, more energy)

•  More muscle tissue (this increases your metabolism)

•  Enjoy an increased variety of healthy foods

•  Stronger social support

•  Kinder view of self and body image

•  Strengthened values