Losing weight can be a long, hard road, but what comes after the weight loss is even more difficult. Maintaining your weight loss is a lifelong process that you must constantly be aware of to succeed. Here are four great tips to help you maintain your weight loss and stay at a healthy weight.

Tip 1: Continue to eat at regular intervals. During the weight loss phase, many diets encourage eating at several intervals during the day-usually 3 to 5 times per day. To maintain your weight loss, it is a wise idea to continue eating at these regular intervals. If you do this, you decrease your chances of getting too hungry and splurging on food that you have been avoiding during your diet.

Tip 2: Continue to use your food journal to record what you are eating throughout the day. One of the most effective tools to use during weight loss is a food journal. Using a food journal helps you keep track of how many calories you intake per day, how many calories you are burning through exercise (if you are exercising), how much water you are drinking, and other things of that nature. In general, using your food journal keeps you accountable for your choices, and this is a good habit to keep even once you have crossed over into the maintenance stage of dieting.

Tip 3: Continue to exercise daily or at least 3-5 times per week. Exercising is one thing that should become a permanent part of your life if you want to stay healthy and maintain your weight loss. If you do not enjoy exercising, it is important to try to find something that you enjoy doing that burns calories. If going to the gym is not for you, you should try to find outdoor activities that you enjoy, such as tennis, bike riding, rollerblading, etc. If you do not enjoy exercising outdoors, then you can try classes that are offered or walking on a treadmill or indoor track. Either way, try to keep active and do not go back to a sedentary lifestyle.

Tip 4: Weigh yourself periodically and note any significant gains or losses. In addition to keeping a note of the actual number on the scale, you can also pay attention to how your clothes are fitting-this is often the way that many people to choose to keep track of their weight, rather than using a scale. If you do begin to see your clothes becoming more snug or your weight increasing on the sc ale, you can go back to your food or exercise journal and see what you did differently that is causing the weight gain, and then fix those behaviors accordingly.

It is important to remember that if you do eat something unhealthy and gain a little weight back, it is not the end of the world. Just hop right back on your healthy eating regimen and the weight will come back off. Maintaining a weight loss is all about consistency, and these four tips above will help you tremendously when it comes to keeping the weight off.