LOSING weight is difficult, and keeping it off is even harder.
The belly is one of the most desired areas to shave fat from, but seemingly takes the longest to budge.
But take it from “super slimmers” – shifting fat for good is a lifestyle choice, not a crash diet.
A new study, published in the journal Obesity, asked 6,000 people who have lost weight and kept it off exactly how they did it.
The participants were mostly white women, aged 53 years on average. They’d lost roughly 3st 11lb (24.3kg) and kept it off for more than three years.
There are dozens of diets and endless hacks out there for blasting fat.
However, the study participants’ key principles were simple – and didn’t follow any trends.
The same four strategies appeared in their questionnaire answers:
Forget the 30-day crash diet or 6-week transformation if you are serious about losing a lot of weight.
Weight-loss maintainers depicted their successful weight loss as “a long marathon with individual victories and setbacks”, the paper said.
One survey respondent said: “You have to measure your success based on your long-term goal.
“You will have times where you are successful and times where you are not.”
Another said: “Slow and steady. Think of this journey not as a diet but lifestyle change.”
Participants said their journey required “great perseverance”, even in the face of setbacks.
When a weight loss journey is long and gruelling, there will undoubtedly be failures.
But don’t beat yourself up – just get back on the wagon as soon as you can.
Lead researcher Dr Suzanne Phelan, California Polytechnic State University, told Eat This Not That by having a long-term view, it was much easier to restart quickly.
Seeing the bigger picture makes it easier to accept small mistakes.
One slimmer said: “Long-term weight loss is a journey with highs and lows.
“You may gain weight during the journey… There is no shame in failing to meet your goal. We only truly fail, if we stop trying.”
Another said: “Simply put one foot in front of the other and start and never stop. Just keep going. Know that if you persevere, you will get there.
“There will be peaks and valleys, plateaus, gains, holidays, bad times but just get up and do what works 80 to 90 per cent of the time and you will get there. Do not stop.”
Whether you use an app or journal, track your food intake with commitment.
For, almost every participant who said tracking had become a daily habit, even once they’d reached their goal weight.
One slimmer said: “You have to get up every day and make a choice to track and eat right.
“It is going to be difficult and there will be days that you will fall, but you can get back up and keep moving forward.
“This is a lifestyle change, not a diet.”
Keeping track of calories or exercise can help you spot where you are going wrong quickly.
It can also hold you accountable for slip-ups you may otherwise have tried to forget.
It’s a drag to repeatedly log data. But it gets easier over time until you are familiar with portions of foods you eat every day.
One participant said: “Track what you eat, try not to judge yourself, just pay attention.”
When asked what kept participants motivated to stick to their new healthy habits, they said reflection on life before weight loss.
Participants reminded themselves of how difficult it was to lose weight, which was reason enough to keep them on the straight and narrow.
One said: “It was a lot of work to get to my current weight. and if I gain it back, I’ll have to start all over again.
“It’s harder being overweight than it is to work at a healthy lifestyle.”
Others recalled “how it felt all these years at a heavier weight” or “hurting and feeling sick all the time”.
