How to maintain weight after a diet?

While different diet camps argue among themselves about which diet is best for weight loss, it is becoming increasingly clear that the most suitable for healthy weight loss are those diets that allow for diversity in their macronutrient content and thus provide greater flexibility in management. The best diet will be the one that allows the dieter to choose the diet plan and strategy that he can adhere to most comfortably in the long term and that will take into account his current health condition, including individual risk factors for chronic diseases (for example, insulin resistance).

Increasing physical activity is also a necessary factor for effective regulation of the energy balance of incoming and expended energy after successful weight loss.

In general, for most people, a healthy diet that involves reducing portion sizes, eating foods with lower caloric density, and engaging in physical activity are successful tools for maintaining a healthy body weight over the long term. Some populations, such as those with insulin resistance, may benefit from a strategy that reduces carbohydrates and increases unsaturated fats in order to more effectively manage their diet and well-being.

In addition, people must actively engage in changing their social, physical, and eating behaviors in order to maintain their body weight within the normal range achieved through diet in the long term. This is a very important factor, since maintaining weight in the long term is very difficult due to certain metabolic adaptations inherent in the new body weight (loss of body weight entails a decrease in the number of calories needed to maintain it).

It is also important to note that metabolic adaptation that occurs during and after weight loss (decreased sympathetic nervous system activity and increased parasympathetic nervous system activity, decreased leptin levels and levels of biologically active thyroid hormones, more efficient use of energy by skeletal muscles, loss of metabolically active tissue, etc.) affects both the dynamics of weight loss during a diet and the maintenance of weight after it (since all the above metabolic elements of the general system begin to actively work in favor of restoring the body weight lost during the diet), and should be taken into account in the transition period from the end of the diet (for weight loss) to the phase of weight stabilization and its further maintenance.

In addition, there is a whole list of secondary and primary factors that prevent easy weight maintenance after finishing the diet:

MAINTAINING CHANGE IS A CONSTANT STRUGGLE

The need to constantly overcome oneself
Mental exhaustion from trying to stick to the right behavior
Psychological disorientation eventually leads to relapses of overeating
OLD HABITS AND MINDSETS
It is necessary to change eating and physical activity habits
Without control, there is a tendency to return to old habits.
DISSATISFACTION LEADING TO BREAKDOWNS
Overeating is driven by personal needs and self-indulgence.
It is necessary to regulate the balance between mood and stress
Finding ways to be self-employed (fighting boredom)
Lack of pleasure in the process of maintaining results
Lack of recognition of efforts/achievements from others
THOUGHTS AND DOUBTS ABOUT SELF-IDENTIFICATION
The need to get rid of the concept of the "past self"
Possible discomfort associated with the renewed appearance of the body
THOUGHTS AND DOUBTS ABOUT BODY WEIGHT
Inflexibility in thinking due to the presence of limiting rules
Negative weight management experiences
Viewing the issue of "attempting to lose weight" as unnatural behavior imposed by social patterns
"Giving up" in case of breakdowns
Dissatisfaction with the results
FACTORS INFLUENCING THE COMPLEXITY OF THE MAINTENANCE REGIME
Personal circumstances, such as health, finances, mood
Attitude of family, friends, peers
Environmental factors such as time of year, work, holidays
Over time and depending on the effort expended, personal motivation for the process of maintaining weight changes.
WILLPOWER OR MOTIVATION
Reluctance to return to previous lifestyle, habits, condition
Taking on new roles and actions that are necessary to manage the supportive mode
DEVELOPMENT OF AUTOMATION
The new way of life must become habitual and natural
Autoregulation should become a habit
Maintaining a routine should become less tiring and easier over time.
Making the deliberate effort needed to change habits
FINDING SATISFACTION IN A HEALTHIER LIFESTYLE
Finding Alternative Ways to Cope with Stress
Finding ways to cope with emotional problems other than overeating
Enjoying physical activity and healthy eating
CHANGING BELIEFS AND SELF-ESTEEM
Accepting yourself as a new, renewed person
Taking on new roles or goals
Realizing that weight management is an integral part of a new lifestyle
Reducing preoccupation and fixation on worries about current weight and body shape (excessive worry about this leads to breakdowns and relapses)
Heightened sense of self-control
Increase self-esteem
Perception of physical activity as an integral part of the new self