20+ Realistic Ways to Lose Weight Consistently and Put it Off (Honesty No One Is Talking About)

Shedding off the extra pounds is the end goal, right?

Forget about getting rid of the medical dangers of excess body fat. Sure, it would be nice to get rid of those, too, but for the most part, you're a simpler soul with much kinder dreams.

You want to look prettier before the age takes the good looks you have, fit in clothes you like rather than wearing that cover-up, and live in a body that radiates power and vitality.

You want to live a full life — fiercer and proud.

No more hating your body. No more sucking over the lack of confidence. No more feeling uncomfortable or depressed for lacking surety. And no more lacking a date or a romantic outlet.

But there’s one important fact no one is telling you about maintaining weight loss for a lifetime. Everyone is holding it back from you or telling you half-truths.

And I can guarantee you won't enjoy it either.

But here it is:

95% of people who lose weight regain it all.

The statistics are unsettling.

But one question that brings everything into perspective is:

How exactly do people lose weight consistently?

If you examine any weight loss success story, you'll see that losing weight and keeping it off for life requires a change in:

• Psychological pattern
• Dieting habit
• Physical activity

Here’s a breakdown of the three into 20+ strategies to increase the odds of keeping weight off.

1. Revisit What You Know About Weight Loss

Googling random pages for weight loss tips is many people's only source of weight loss knowledge.

No question. Google is a powerful information source.

But you know what's more important?

Understanding how other people lost weight and kept it off for good.

That means finding people who have lost weight and kept it off for more than a year or two to:

• Give you a closer look at the real experience
• Learn the exact strategies
• Observe the struggles and triumphs of shredding body fat

Online is a mine with real-world experience to feed your mind.

Head over to Reddit, online weight loss forums, and scholarly weight loss research done on real people.

Feed your mind the right information about losing weight to make your approach guilt-free.

You'll discover that weight loss is a form of energy balance. That alone will set you apart from everyone else.

2. Clock Enough Sleep Every Night

Sticking to a good sleep practice daily in a world of multiple distractions is hard.

However, if you find yourself coming up with excuses not to attempt to get enough sleep, here's one disturbing question you should ask yourself:

How badly do you need to get in shape?

Sleeping encourages weight loss. Sleep keeps the appetite hormones (ghrelin and leptin) in check. Insufficient sleep creates an imbalance of the two hormones, leading to increased appetite.

What's more, low-quality sleep increases the cortisol hormone, which tells your body to store more fats to fuel your waking hours. Cortisol hormone undermines your dietary attempts to lose weight.

As an adult, aim for between seven and nine hours of sleep a night.

3. Monitor your Weight loss Progress

Monitoring weight loss progress can help you stay motivated with your journey. Everyone sticks to a diet and weight loss program because they expect tangible results.

One way to paint a clear picture of where you are and where you're aiming is to monitor your process. You can record what you eat, what you do, at what time, your moods, and your feelings.

That way, you can readily identify what's working and not and your approach's strengths and weaknesses.

4. Set Realistic Expectations

You don't need the feeling of being adrift in the world. You don't need to work hard and seem not to get anywhere worthwhile.

Your best solution is to take enough time to think about the weight loss you want and set a formal goal.

Set a realistic weight loss goal — one that's doable and sustainable in the context of career and family. After six months, you can reevaluate your weight goal to speed it up.

5. Weigh Yourself Less Often

"But… but… I want to track my daily progress," you say.

The problem, however, is — the scale doesn't respond instantly to your efforts.

A typical fluid shift could discourage you if you weigh yourself every day. You can quickly become a scale addict and lose track of everything around you.

You can weigh yourself at the start of your journey. Then, set a goal of losing a certain amount of weight weekly or bi-weekly when you weigh yourself again.

6. Surround Yourself with Support

Don't get it alone.

You'll feel like the whole world is conspiring against you along the way. Instead of leaving your success to willpower, put a support system in place.

Set up your household, days, friends, and work environment to support you.

For example, if junk food is a trigger for you, don't have it around.

7. Ditch Old Non-Working Habits

Old habits die hard.

You'll want to eat junk snacks, sleep late, and feel like quitting your diet, but that's not how successful weight loss happens.

Old habits slow you down. If you want to stay consistent with weight loss, you can't keep doing things as you used to.

Instead, identify where you engage in behaviors that undermine consistent weight loss. Turn them around with manageable steps you can easily handle without feeling deprived.

For instance, you can change your snacks from a bag of cookies or chips to a piece of fruit or start exercising while watching TV.

8. Stay Away from Gimmicks

Staying away from fads sounds easy.

However, even smart people succumb to this pitfall because these weight loss fads sabotage the mind.

You'll hear about:

• How to lose 20 pounds in 7 days
• How to lose weight fast
• Wonder pill

The sad fact is — there is a lot nobody is telling you about these approaches to weight loss.

While quick fixes can deliver weight loss, you won't get long-term results. As a result, many regain all the weight they lost after some time.

If you want consistent weight loss, stay away from gimmicks. Instead, stick to weight-loss strategies that deliver permanent weight loss.

9. Check If Hormones Undermine Your Effort

Checking your hormones can help you identify why pounds aren't getting off despite trying all the weight loss tips.

If you're struggling with consistent weight loss even after putting in all the effort, the problem might be with your hormones. Two hormonal problems that undermine weight loss efforts include:

• Hypothyroidism (deficiency of thyroid hormone)
• Over-concentration of cortisol hormone (stress hormone)

Hypothyroidism (Deficiency of Thyroid Hormone)

The thyroid hormone regulates body metabolism. Hypothyroidism lowers your metabolism, undermining diet-induced weight loss.

The condition results in weight gain but won't exceed 15 pounds. If you suspect hypothyroidism is dragging you, arrange a blood test with your physician.

Alternatively, you can eat food like fish, shellfish, sea vegetables, and any other iodine-rich meal to prevent thyroid hormone deficiency.

Over-concentration of the Cortisol Hormone

Cortisol hormone can be a little intimidating because nearly everyone has stress. Stress releases the cortisol hormone in our system.

Cortisol hormone increases the sugar levels in your body for muscles to use. When sugar levels increase but are underutilized, your body converts them to fat, limiting progress in weight loss.

10. Mind Your Carb Intake

Mindfulness is the practice of entirely focusing on the moment and bringing your thoughts and feelings together.

Staying mindful helps you monitor your eating habits, regulate the cortisol hormone, and allows you to pay attention to the physical sensation of hunger — which is the core of weight loss.

(Here is a way to practice mindfulness)

11. Split Your Daily Portion

Split your portion throughout the day to sustain you. You can:

• Eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily without skipping. Otherwise, you'll starve later, and it's easy to overeat when hungry.
• Keep lunch below 400 calories. That's not many calories, so try to pick up something filling (for example, Campbell's Chunky soup).
• Get a 150-calorie snack to take you through the afternoon (for example, Tuna, apple, tiny Cliff bar, turkey).
• Try to keep dinner under 1000 calories.
• Another snack 150 calories snack to take you through the evening

But here's a follow-up question:

What type of food should you focus on?

12. Feed on Weight Loss Friendly Diet

Shy away from processed sugar and bring on fiber.

Refined carbs, like white bread, cookies, and chips, are so calorie-dense — eat them in plenty, and you lower your chances of succeeding.

Instead, replace them with friendlier options like whole-grain, fiber-filled fruit, and veggies to make you fuller on a few calories.

13. Eat from a Small-Sized Plate

True, it's an optical illusion, but a powerful one in this case.

After all, how do you tell whether something is bigger or smaller? You compare it with another, which isn't exceptional when cutting down your calories. Your mind subconsciously tells you the food is a big piece when you eat it from a smaller plate and vice versa.

14. Tell Everyone You're watching your diet

Talking to family, roommates, and even co-workers about tough subjects can be more uncomfortable at first. But your spouse, children, parents, or siblings need to know what is going through your life. Not only for the sake of knowing but also for the help you need to reach your goal.

No one will push junk food your way. No one will put you in a conversation that weighs you down. And most, if not all, will drop the suggestion of "treat yourself" when talking to you.

15. Eat Real Food

Outside, there is a market for special low-carb diets. It's easy to get fooled by the creative market.

Yes, you should eat low-carb food, but the practical way is from real food. That's what will make your weight loss progress sustainable.

Shy away from the liquid diet fad, no-carb diet, and any other extreme diet. As far as excess carbs make you fat, your body needs carbohydrates. It is the only energy source for the brain and red blood cells. So, smarten up with your diet choice.

16. Start with Aerobic Exercise ( Cardio Exercise)

You don't want to dabble your way by starting an exercise program and then dropping it after a while. It demoralizes and makes exercise appear difficult. You'll have the best results if you start with aerobic exercises.

But why?

There are lots of reasons. But here are the two main reasons:

• It builds a person's aerobic capacity, which is critical in any workout you'll be doing.
• And more importantly, it involves large muscles, which means you'll burn more fat and encourage you to continue.

But aerobic alone isn't great because it only burns fat when you're exercising. If you want to burn calories even when asleep, you need to stretch further to do weight lifting.

17. Lift Weight to Build Muscles that’ll Burn Calories Even When Sleeping

The idea is to make your body a fat shredder even when you're not training.

Weight Lifting (anaerobic exercise) builds and increases muscle mass. In time, your body's metabolism will increase to burn more calories even when at rest.

But weight lifting alone does not lead to considerable weight loss because it does not burn tons of calories. However, after you build enough muscles, it'll burn calories even when you're at rest.

18. Boost your NEAT

NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis) is anything that increases your energy expenditure.

For instance, you can play with your kid (if you've one), dance to music, take stairs rather than lifts, walk to the mall, and do any other activity that gets you moving. As a result, your body will work a little harder, increasing your calorie deficit.

Even if your NEAT only gets you a calorie deficit of 70 calories daily, it is still okay. That translates to 490 calories a week, which brings you closer to your weight loss goal.

19. Schedule Your Workout

As with any other important but non-urgent thing, you must schedule time for exercising, or it won't happen at all.

Set aside a specific time for your workout and make an appointment with your exercise ahead of time to eliminate the excuse of not having time for exercise.

20. Have a Workout Partner

One of the key benefits of having a workout partner is getting a space to unpack difficult puzzles and dig deep into the challenges you're going through in your approach.

Get yourself a workout partner — even if it's your Labrador — it will help keep you honest about your plan.

Bonus + Way To Lose Weight Consistently

After reading through this guide, you might feel like, "Well, damn, I am just a screw-up. How do I get serious about losing weight."

Here is the fact:

We're all screw-ups. Everybody makes mistakes. And looking back, it is horrifying how many mistakes you've made.

But you're still here.

Learn from each wrong step. Get the hacks from smart weight-watchers and master the craft. When you listen to every other successful weight loss story, you'll hear the same story. Over and over again.

It isn't a coincidence — that's how consistent weight loss happens. You live and learn.

If you're struggling with any weight loss tip in this guide, it just means you're in the beginning stage of your journey. Take your licks, do your best to learn from them, and never lose faith in yourself.

You really can do this.

There is nothing wrong with you.

Just keep going.