How to Maintain Body Weight

In a world where the headlines always read "obesity rates at an all time high," weight maintenance seems to take a back seat. But that doesn't mean that it is not important. Maintaining weight isn't about cutting calories or going on crash diets. Actually, it's not just about maintaining weight. It's also about maintaining good eating habits, maintaining good exercise habits and maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

Things You'll Need

• Journal

Instructions

The Way to Maintain

1. 

   Make smart food choices. You need to eat to stay alive and you need to eat for energy. But eating the wrong foods can hamper both of these efforts. Do not eat big portions of food and also avoid high fat foods, highly processed foods and refined foods since these all contribute to weight gain.

2. 

   Eat healthy foods. Now that you are abstaining from the high calorie, gut bombs, it's time to bring in the good stuff. Eat foods that are nutrient dense and have a generous amount of calories. Choose foods such as lean meats, fish, low fat dairy, fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes and whole grains.

3. Drink plenty of water. Water will help with metabolism. It helps keep you hydrated, is good for the skin and has no calories. Another added benefit of water is that it will give you the feeling of fullness when you eat. Select this beverage at the dinner table over higher calorie options like soda and alcohol.

4. 

   Go to the gym. You don't need to do hours of high-intensity weight training. Just try to do some king of weight training two to three days a week. This can be full body circuit training with light weights or it can be doing a circuit on the machines targeting all of the major muscle groups.

5. Do some cardio. Once again, this doesn't have to be really long duration and high intensity. It could be as minimal as fast-paced walking or low-intensity jogging. Do this three days a week and keep the time around 30 to 45 minutes.

6. Keep a journal. In the journal, track your meals, your weight training sessions and your cardio sessions. Also write down and periodically check your weight. Make sure you are not gaining. If you are, you can easily adjust by looking at your journal and seeing where you might be overeating or if you were slacking off with exercise.