Maintaining Weight Loss

Losing weight is tough and it can be frighteningly easy to regain. But there is hope in effectively maintaining weight loss through healthy eating, building muscle mass and exercise. Lori Bowden, our Fitness and Exercise Expert, tells the Wellness Advisor how to do it.

Wellness Advisor: What are the basic rules for maintaining a healthy weight?

Lori Bowden: Exercise and healthy eating are the keys for maintaining a healthy weight. It is a combination of both exercise and diet, not one or the other. Fad diets don’t work in the long run and eliminating entire food groups does not work either. You need to keep a healthy, balanced lifestyle. Also focus less on the scale and more on how your clothes fit and you level of fitness.

WA: What happens to our body when we lose weight?

Bowden: Maintaining a healthy weight is vital to good health. In overweight people, even a small amount of weight loss can produce positive reactions. As we lose weight, there are a number of changes which occur in our body. As we lose weight, we lose both lean body weight--which is muscles, bones, etc.--and fat body weight--which is fat. Ideally the weight loss process causes as much fat to be lost as possible, and as little lean body weight as possible. If we do not include exercise as part of our weight loss regime though, we can actually lose muscle mass while losing weight. Maintaining muscle mass during weight loss in critical to maintaining that loss, and the only way to maintain muscle is to do weight bearing exercise, such as strength training. Lean muscle mass actually helps us to increase our metabolism and lose weight, so we want to preserve as much of it as possible.

WA: What is the most effective way of maintaining weight loss?

Bowden: Develop healthy habits as you are losing weight, not just as something you will do once the weight is lost. The most effective way of maintaining weight loss is to develop a healthy lifestyle that includes healthy eating, and also exercise. You do have to be a fanatic, but you do need to emphasize a healthy balanced diet and regular exercise.

WA: How does body fat ratio come into play when maintaining weight loss?

Bowden: While maintaining weight loss, it is best to try to decrease fat, and increase lean muscle mass. The more muscle you have, the more you will raise you metabolism and the more calories you will burn at any time. The more fat you have, the less efficient your body is, and the fewer calories you will burn. You will increase your metabolism if I you increase your muscle mass. You may find your weight goes up a few pounds as you build muscle, because it weighs more than fat, but you will be healthier.

WA: Why does muscle weigh more than fat?

Bowden: Muscle is more dense than fat, and weighs more, but it will burn more calories for you in the end.