5 Ways to Make Your Diet Plan Stick

It’s an infuriating cliché at this point: Some milestone rolls around in your life — the New Year, turning 30, 40, 50, etc., or discovering you don’t fit most of your summer clothes — and you realize you wish you could shed a few pounds.

But try program after program, fad after fad, and the weight just creeps back through your routine. So how can you kick the habits that trip you up, and stick to a diet plan that gets you to your ideal weight? Let’s find out.

1. Avoid Extremes and Elimination Diets

Too often, diets begin from a place of shame, fear, or anger, and these emotions easily drive people to make drastic cuts to their diet, eliminating food groups or solid food entirely. But decisions like these often backfire for multiple reasons. Either the extremity makes the diet unsustainable, or the health effects of a certain plan end up causing more problems than it solves.

Instead, the goal of a diet plan should be to create a healthy relationship with food through moderation and healthy thought processes.

2. Don’t Jump on the Fad Bandwagon

It’s a medical fact that there’s no “get skinny quick” scheme that leads to healthy, sustainable weight loss. The truth is that losing weight is most effective when it is built on changing habits, which takes time and effort. Fad diets that promise massive results without much effort are rarely backed by rigorous research, and won’t allow you to keep the weight off long-term.

3. Switch to Natural, High-Quality Foods

While many diet plans offer meal replacements or pre-packaged solutions so you don’t have to think through your every meal, dieticians recommend centering your diet around fresh, whole foods as the best way to give your body the nutrients and energy it needs. This means avoiding overly processed food or food with added sugars. It means sourcing high-quality, nutrient-rich proteins and maintaining a diet balanced with fruits and veggies.

4. Follow the Research and Experts

Rather than listen to the personal claims of celebrities and paid spokespeople, follow the advice from doctors and nutritionists who have a proven track record of publishing peer-reviewed research. Although much of modern research doesn’t point to a specific system of eating for weight loss benefits, diets like the Mediterranean or DASH have been proven to lower cholesterol and blood pressure in addition to providing general weight loss benefits. These diets are largely plant-based and contain lots of “good” fat from things like nuts and fish, among key nutrients and lean sources of energy.

5. Practice Intermittent Fasting

Though not a diet in itself, a significant amount of current research points to the benefits of time-restricted eating in addition to a healthy diet. Intermittent fasting has been shown to improve metabolism by restricting the time in which you eat to when you’re active. This way, you burn the energy you consume, rather than storing it in fat tissue. The rule of thumb is that you restrict your eating to an 8-hour period, fasting for the rest of your 16-hour day. Exactly when you choose will depend on your lifestyle and when you’re most active.

Personalized Weight Loss for You

At CARE Plastic Surgery, we know how hard it can be to find your own permanent, sustainable weight loss solution. Everyone’s habits, preferences, and goals are unique, which is why we work with individuals to experience their best body and fullest life. To learn more about how we can help you achieve your weight loss goals, contact us online today!

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