Prescription medications for weight loss, like Tirzepatide or Semaglutide, can be a great way to kickstart your journey towards a healthier weight, providing not just the initial push, but the motivation you need to get started. While weight loss drugs can provide significant assistance, they are not a permanent solution on their own. To ensure that you maintain your progress and continue to see positive results, it’s important to adopt healthy habits to support your weight loss goals.
In this blog, follow along as we explain ten tips for achieving sustainable weight loss after taking a weight loss drug, and reveal one secret that can help make sticking to all of them easier.
10 Tips for Sustainable Weight Loss
Follow these top tips to help ensure you continue to lose weight even after following a prescription weight loss program.
1. Avoid Processed Sugars
Most modern diets tend to have some things in common, one of them being avoiding processed sugars and carbs. The reason is simple: heavily processed foods and excessive sugar are empty calories; they don’t provide your body with essential vitamins, minerals, fiber, or healthy fats and can only hinder your weight loss efforts. Plus, they can lead to unhealthy cravings that can undermine your progress. Instead, opt for eating wholesome, nutrient-dense foods whenever possible.
2. Ensure You Are in a Calorie Deficit
Weight loss fundamentally depends on consuming fewer calories than you burn. That’s why it’s smart to utilize a combination of healthy eating and regular physical activity to maintain one. By consuming less calories than you should to maintain your existing weight, and burning off extra calories through exercise, you can continue to shed pounds, even if you choose to stop taking a weight loss drug.
3. Eat When You Are Hungry
Here’s another tip that can help you learn how to control your eating. Instead of eating when you’re bored, tired, or stressed, eat only when you’re full. (And instead of eating until you are stuffed, eat until you are full.) By eating mindfully, as it’s often called, you can learn to tell the difference between emotional and physical hunger, prevent overeating, and promote a healthier relationship with food—which can all help make maintaining weight loss easier.
4. Focus on Three Balanced Meals a Day
Are you someone who likes to constantly snack on food, no matter what time it is? Rather than constantly grazing throughout the day, it can be helpful to prioritize three well-rounded meals, each made up of a mix of lean proteins, whole grains, healthy fats, and a variety of fruits and vegetables. This approach helps regulate your metabolism and prevents excessive calorie consumption, helping you continue to lose weight in the process.
5. Pre-plan Your Meals When Eating Out
While eating out is sure fun, unfortunately it can also lead to overindulgence. That’s why it can be smart to plan your meals in advance by taking proactive steps before heading to a restaurant. Check the menu in advance and decide on healthier options that align with your diet, so that you’re less likely to make impulsive, calorie-laden choices.
6. Establish a Nighttime Routine to Improve Sleep Quality
Few people realize how important sleep is in achieving sustainable weight loss. Poor sleep quality can disrupt hormonal balance, leading to increased cravings and decreased willpower, not to mention make you tired and groggy the next day. Instead, create a bedtime routine to help you go to sleep on time and aim for 7-9 of uninterrupted sleep, so you wake up refreshed and ready for the day ahead.
7. Budget in a Small Treat Every Day
At Blue Tree Health, we know that completely depriving yourself of treats and indulgences can often backfire, leading to binge-eating episodes and feelings of resentment. Instead, incorporate a small treat into your daily routine. This can be a piece of dark chocolate, a bite of your favorite fruit, or a handful of nuts. By allowing yourself a controlled indulgence, you're less likely to feel deprived and more likely to stay on track.
8. Track Your Food Intake
Monitoring your food intake can be a powerful tool for weight management, and can be a great way to help motivate you to continue to make healthy choices. Plus, there are now dozens of apps and online tools available to help you track your calories or macronutrients. We suggest recording what you eat so long as it keeps you accountable (or helps you learn about your eating habits) but don’t get too obsessed with the numbers. It's not about being "perfect," it's about doing your best to make healthy choices.
9. Take a Maintenance Dose
As you make the transition from actively losing weight to maintaining your progress, it can be helpful to consult your healthcare provider about adjusting your medication. A maintenance dose, combined with your new lifestyle changes, can help you sustain your progress over the long term. Just be sure to keep up with your regular check-ins to ensure that your medication remains effective and appropriate for your needs.
10. Be Patient and Focus on Sustainable Weight Loss
In a world where instant results are often expected, it's important to remember that healthy and sustainable weight loss takes time. While rapid weight loss might seem appealing, it often leads to rebound weight gain once your normal eating patterns resume. Instead of fixating on quick results, shift your focus to gradual, sustainable weight loss and embrace the small victories along the way.
Bonus Tip: How To Make It All Easier
Prescription weight loss drugs can be an effective tool, but their success ultimately depends on the habits you develop after using them. And while you can certainly lose weight by embracing these ten tips, adopting any one of them can be a challenge. That’s why we recommend working with a medical weight loss doctor, who can help you identify the right habits and strategies to help you achieve your weight loss goals. By working with someone who understands you, your lifestyle, and your unique challenges, you can develop healthy, sustainable habits even faster.
Achieve Healthy, Sustainable Weight Loss in Austin!
At Blue Tree Health, we understand that the path to successful weight loss requires know-how, determination, and commitment. That's why we're proud to offer prescription weight loss programs with complimentary weight loss plans—all designed to suit you, your lifestyle, and your unique weight loss goals. With the help of our professional staff and coaches, you'll receive the guidance and resources you need to achieve your goals and maintain your hard-earned results.
Contact us to learn more about our cutting-edge weight loss programs today!
