"I let myself go" is a phrase we hear all too often at the gym. It comes from people who have allowed months to go by without taking stock of their physical condition.
Hey, we all get busy. And time seems to fly by between workouts. But if you let yourself get "too busy" with work or family demands, the next thing you know you can’t fit into your lounge-around-the-house sweats. That’s when you know you’ve got to get your weight under control – and it can be simpler than you think.
Researchers from Drexel University and Brown Medical School studied 3,003 members of the National Weight Control Registry who had already lost 30 pounds. Their goal was to determine the impact of consistent "weighing in" on weight maintenance.
Just over 36 percent of the subjects reported weighing themselves every day, a habit that was initially associated with a lower body mass index. At the end of one year, these subjects also tended to gain back less weight (an average of 1.1 kg) than those who weighed themselves less frequently (4.0 kg).
Consistently monitoring yourself after you’ve lost weight is clearly a key component of keeping it off. To stay on track, I recommend purchasing a Tanita Body Fat and Bodyweight measuring scale. (It costs about $49.) Then weigh yourself every day, preferably under the same conditions.
[Ed. Note: Fitness expert Craig Ballantyne is the creator of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss system. For a free online source of information, motivation, and social support to help you improve your health, lose weight, and get fit, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-letter.]
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