8 Habits To Track And 9 Changes To Make – To Lose Weight

Permanent Weight Loss: Dr. Barbara L Katz

You have been eating “healthy,” exercising, and counting your calories (or points or macros). Has the needle on the scale stopped moving?

“Those extra bites are often the food that causes us to gain weight.”

Do you feel like you’re doing everything you can to lose weight, and yet you’re stuck? Do you feel like you’ll look frumpy or matronly for the rest of your life?

Maybe, you’re not doing “all of the things” that would make you successful. Unless you’ve been tracking or documenting what you eat and your habits, there is no way to be sure you are actually doing what you think you are. Those tastes, licks, and bites are often undocumented and unnoticed. Those extra bites are often the food that causes us to gain weight.

8 Habits To Track To Lose Weight:

Habit tracking is a valuable tool when the scale seems to be stuck. When you track the habits you want to follow and the habits you want to discard, you can find areas for improvement. Worthwhile habits to track include:

1. Were you hungry when you chose to eat?
2. How full were you when you stopped eating?
3. If you had any snacks, were you hungry at the time?
4. How much water did you intake?
5. Did you sleep (at least 7 hours)?
6. Did you exercise?
7. How was your stress level?
8. Did you do any urge eating?

All these factors can influence your weight and ability to lose and keep it off. When you have data, you can see where you are consistent and where work can be done.

Get That Scale Moving:

If there are new habits that you want to form, by tracking those, you will often increase your motivation to follow those habits. Consider planning a reward when you have followed a new habit a certain number of times or days. Consistency is often the key to losing and then keeping off weight.

It may only take some minimal changes to get that scale moving.

“Consistency is often the key to losing and then keeping off weight.”

9 Minimal Changes To Lose Weight:                    

1.   Leave a bite or two of food on your plate whenever you eat.
2.   Bake, rather than fry, or have one slice of bread rather than two.
3.   Drink only one glass of alcohol when you choose to drink.
4.   Have dessert less frequently.
5.   Put a little less food onto your plate.
6.   Have an appetizer or dessert – rather than both – at a restaurant.
7.   Skip the bread at a restaurant.
8.   Use less salad dressing, mayonnaise, sauce, or butter on your food.
9.   Wait to take more food until you’ve given yourself time for your meal to digest (about 20 minutes).

Give Yourself Time:

Becoming aware of your hunger and satiety, eating when you’re hungry, and stopping at “enough” is often sufficient to move that needle on the scale again. Examine your data; if it isn’t clear where you are stuck, have someone else look at your information.

Be honest and include all of those bites, licks, and tastes. And give yourself time for the scale to move to show you have lost weight. Many women lose weight in chunks rather than steadily day by day. If you are doing “all of these things” and nothing is changing, then seek some help.   

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