Lose and maintain weight during the festive season

Lose and maintain weight during the festive season

Ms. Mai Al-Jawdah, Clinical Dietitian, Medeor 24×7 International Hospital, Al Ain

• What are the golden tips to maintain the ideal weight after losing excess weight?

Maintaining an ideal weight is not easy, but at the same time it is not as difficult as it seems. It is very important for you to maintain an ideal weight as it reflects on your general health and protects you from diseases in the long run. And the easiest way to help us maintain an ideal weight is to balance the calories we eat and exercise. Balancing calories means following a healthy diet that includes all food groups, and always making sure to make it from colorful and varied foods to avoid feeling tired and bored, and making sure to give your body all it needs from important nutrients such as vitamins and minerals. Here are some steps that help us maintain weight after losing it:

• Drink water instead of soft drinks and sweetened juices if you feel thirsty.
• Eat snacks and appetizers like fruits and vegetables if you feel hungry instead of sweets
• Eating specific amounts in 3 main meals, giving up a meal makes you feel more hungry and you are likely to eat more food at the next meal.
• Eat foods rich in fiber that make you feel full, such as: fruits, vegetables, legumes such as lentils, and whole grains.
• Use smaller plates to eat, fill half the plate with colorful vegetables that do not contain starch, a quarter of the plate with proteins such as fish, meat, chicken, or legumes, and the last quarter of the plate is filled with complex carbohydrates, such as potatoes or whole grains (such as brown rice, brown pasta, or brown bread).
• Do not eat while watching TV.
• Eat slowly, because eating quickly makes you prone to hunger more or to eat more quantities, and thus gain more weight.
• Sleep well at night, as lack of sleep may cause changes in hormones that make you eat more amounts of food, which leads to weight gain.

• What is the normal rate of weight loss during one week?

The normal rate of weight loss during a week is between ½ - 1 kg per week, and when we lose a lot of weight very quickly, we are prone to gaining weight again, perhaps at a double rate than the previous weight.

• What mistakes do we make after dieting and losing weight?

Most people, after completing a healthy diet, and reaching the ideal weight, begin to change their lifestyle and return again to the bad eating habits that were followed before their commitment to a healthy diet. They return to eating large quantities of food, especially sweets and fried foods. And their choices turn to unhealthy foods, they skip breakfast, eat heavy meals at night before bed, and they don't do sports. To avoid such decline, dieting must lead to permanent behavioral change in eating habits and lifestyle choices. To achieve this, make sure you eat a healthy, balanced diet that keeps you feeling full while providing a variety of options for all food groups.

• How many meals should we eat during the day?

       Organizing meals during the day is one of the most important ways that we can follow to maintain the ideal weight after losing weight. It is better to eat specific amounts in 3 main meals, as giving up a meal makes you feel more hungry and you are likely to eat a larger amount of food in the next meal. . And it can be interspersed with the main meals with light, healthy (2-3) snacks per day.

Clinical Dietitian Mai Al-Jawdah answers the most important questions in weight loss