How to keep weight off for good

Hitting your goal weight can feel like crossing something off your to-do list, but pretty soon you’ll need to think about what happens next: maintaining your weight loss. This stage is its own kind of race, and it needs its own training plan — something that isn’t always easy to figure out. “Whether it’s social media or books, we have so much information available about weight loss,” says Lauren Moss, M.S., RDN, L.N., nutrition program lead at WeightWatchers Clinic. “There’s not as much information or support in regard to weight maintenance, and sometimes weight maintenance is harder.”

One reason it can feel so tough is that when you don’t see the number on the scale going down each week, it can be hard to keep the motivation going. The good news is that weight maintenance is a skill you can learn. With proper support and the help of this evidence-based playbook, you can take steps to make your weight loss stick.

Key takeaways

• Keeping weight off is a different skill from losing it, and without the motivation of seeing your weight go down, it can be tougher to stick with your healthy habits.

• There are also biological factors at play that can make it seem like your body is trying to gain the weight back.

• What can help for weight maintenance: Eat plenty of protein and fiber, get regular exercise, and lean into your support system and a structured routine.

• Weight maintenance is about consistency (not perfection) and resilience, so focus on building realistic habits you can keep and fall back on when hiccups happen.

• Community matters: People who have strong support systems are more likely to maintain their loss over time.

• If you lost weight on a GLP-1, the lifestyle habits you build while taking the medication are what can help protect your results if you taper or stop taking it.

You worked hard, stayed focused, and hit your goal weight…only to have it creep back on a few months later. Sound familiar? No, it’s not just you. And no, it’s not your fault.

One study estimated that roughly 20% of people who had overweight and had lost weight through lifestyle changes were successful in maintaining their weight loss long term. In a separate analysis of dozens of studies that looked at long-term weight loss maintenance, researchers found that more than half of the weight people had lost was regained within two years, and more than 80% of lost weight had been regained by the five-year mark. 

What’s behind this frustrating pattern? A lot of factors can contribute to making it hard to keep weight off. For one, maintaining the habits that helped you lose weight, like getting regular exercise and prioritizing nutritious food, can be hard to do for months and years on end when you aren’t spurred on by the lower number on the scale. 

And then there’s the biology aspect. Weight loss can cause changes in metabolism and the hormones that control appetite. “We know that appetite hormones such as leptin and ghrelin play a major role,” says Melissa Jacoboson, R.D., CDCES, a dietitian and diabetes educator at Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center’s Weight Management Clinic in Portland, Oregon. 

Leptin is a hormone produced by fat cells that signals to your brain that you are full. Lower fat levels, which can happen with weight loss, mean decreased leptin, so your brain isn’t getting as much of that “I’m full” messaging. Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the stomach that, among other things, stimulates hunger before meals and affects the brain’s reward system related to eating. Ghrelin levels can increase after weight loss, which means your brain gets hit with “I’m hungry!” signals more often.

On top of this, losing weight can cause your metabolism to slow down and get more efficient, which means your body requires fewer calories to do its job. “So you’ve got a system that can work against you with hormones and a slower metabolism, making weight loss maintenance all that more challenging,” Jacobson says. “I think it’s important for people to really grasp the biology of what is happening versus feeling like they haven’t tried hard enough or been disciplined enough.”

That might all feel disheartening — why bother losing weight if you’re just going to gain it back — but instead, think of it as empowering. Now you know what the challenges are and can plan to address them head on.

What works for one person might not work as well for someone else, but there is a core playbook to helping maintain weight loss.

Keep protein and fiber high

As you plan your meals, make sure you’re including foods that are high in protein and fiber. Protein has been shown to improve weight management by slowing down digestion, which keeps you feeling full and satisfied after a meal. It can also help keep cravings to a minimum. “Protein slows down the absorption of sugar from your stomach into your bloodstream. As a result, it stabilizes blood sugar levels and reduces the likelihood of future cravings,” says Jacobson. Finally, protein helps prevent the loss of muscle mass that often comes with weight loss, and it can boost the amount of calories you burn in a day (one reason: digesting protein uses more calories than digesting carbs or fat).

Diets that are high in fiber have been shown to help keep weight off as well. This is because eating fiber slows down food digestion, promotes a sense of fullness and satiety, and also slows down the quick rise in insulin levels that can happen after eating. And steadier insulin and blood sugar levels can help reduce cravings and hunger.

Keep moving, including strength training 

Managing your weight isn’t all about food. Physical activity is an important part of the playbook too. A survey by the National Weight Control Registry found that 85% of people who’ve maintained weight loss for more than 5 years had one thing in common: They used physical activity as part of their weight-loss strategy. As a basic guideline, the Centers for Disease Control recommend aiming for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week.

You’ll also want to incorporate strength-training into your regimen because it’s common for people to lose muscle mass when they lose weight. Lean muscle mass improves metabolism, burning more calories even when you’re sedentary. There are lots of options to choose from: lifting weights, using exercise bands, or doing body weight exercises like push-ups, planks, pull-ups, or squats.

The key with strength training is going until you almost can’t do another rep. “In order to stimulate muscle development, you need to be doing some activity that you can’t do indefinitely,” says Dr. Mitch Biermann, M.D., Ph.D., obesity and internal medicine specialist at Scripps Clinic in San Diego, California. That might mean pushing yourself by lifting with heavier weights or doing more reps.

Monitor your weight 

What you don’t want to do is assume you’re keeping the weight off, then step on the scale and realize you’ve gained back 10 pounds. A better approach: Keep track of your weight over time with regular weigh-ins, like once or twice a week. This can help you make adjustments along the way if you notice your weight ticking back up. 

But Jacobson points out that if you do see a slight weight regain, it doesn’t necessarily mean things aren’t working. For example, increasing physical activity might mean you’re building more muscle, which can show up on the scale as an increase in weight. Incorporating waist-to-hip measurements or noticing how your clothes fit can help you see if you’re still on track.

Keep a steady structure 

Maintaining weight loss is all about staying true to the routines that made your weight loss work in the first place. An important strategy for sticking with healthy eating is to plan ahead by meal planning and keeping convenient protein-rich, high-fiber snacks on hand. “I like telling people ‘if you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail,’” says Moss. “Have a general idea of what the day to come is going to bring in terms of meals. When we’re busy or exhausted at the end of the day, we get decision fatigue and it’s harder to consistently make those choices.” This is where the behavior-change strategies taught by Weight Watchers coaches can come into play — they’ll show you how to make it easier to choose healthier foods, avoid feeling like you need to be perfect, and be more mindful with how you eat. 

Also: It’s a guarantee that life will throw you some curveballs. Holidays, illnesses, schedule changes, and stress at work and at home will mean you don’t stick to your ideal routines 100 percent of the time. The important thing is to develop some resilience to get yourself back on track when things do go awry. Weight Watchers can help here too, with Vacation Mode helping you pause your tracking for a short period of time without losing your streak, then get back to it once normal life resumes.

Manage your mental health 

Successful weight maintenance can depend on more than diet and exercise. Your mental health plays an important role too. Stress can lead to emotional eating, which can cause you to take in more calories than you think you are. To counter that, eat regularly throughout the day (being super hungry can make you more susceptible to emotional eating), keep a journal to understand your triggers, or use the HALT technique to "interview" your hunger (ask yourself if you’re hungry, angry, lonely, or tired and if that’s what’s making you reach for comfort food). Lastly, give yourself some grace when things don’t go as planned. Practicing self-compassion when you stray from your plan can help avoid giving into the “what-the-hell” effect, which can lead you to pile up less-than-ideal choices.

Make sure you’re also getting enough sleep, ideally seven to nine hours each night. “Research indicates that insufficient sleep can impact hormones, making you feel hungrier and experiencing more cravings,” says Jacobson.

Extensive evidence shows that people who don’t go it alone are more successful at maintaining weight they’ve lost. “Ongoing support can help provide accountability, encouragement, and problem solving, but perhaps most importantly, a reminder that challenges you’re experiencing are completely normal,” says Moss.

That support can take many forms. “Whether it’s a family member cheering you on, a friend offering encouragement, a regular meeting or support group to share your successes and struggles, or a healthcare provider providing guidance and expertise, having a strong support system can make all the difference,” says Jacobson.

Since support plays such an important role in weight maintenance, look into what resources you have available to you, whether that’s meeting with a registered dietitian, joining a regular fitness group, or joining a Weight Watchers virtual Workshop. 

If you lost weight using a medication like a GLP-1, maintaining weight can look a little different. For one thing, these medications are intended to be continued even after you stop losing weight, which can help you keep the weight off. But sometimes people want to talk with their clinician about going down in dose (often called tapering) or stopping the medication completely. This could lead to some weight regain. One thing that can help: Tapering instead of going off completely. A recent clinical study showed people successfully kept weight off after they reduced the frequency of their GLP-1 use (but still kept taking it). 

You can also improve your odds of success by building up supportive habits, like eating a balanced diet and getting plenty of exercise, during the weight loss phase and before stopping your GLP-1 so they’re firmly in place by the time you start decreasing your medication. This is what Weight Watchers Med+ and its accompanying lifestyle program — called GLP-1 Success — can help with. Learning how to build healthy habits on a GLP-1 gives you a foundation to fall back on when you’re off a GLP-1. 80% of those who follow the program say that they are learning sustainable eating habits they will lean on even after they’re done taking a GLP-1.* And you don’t have to do it alone: Unlike some other online GLP-1 providers who don’t have anything to offer once you’re off their meds, Weight Watchers helps you lose weight or maintain your weight whether or not you’re taking a GLP-1.

Weight Watchers gets a lot of attention for how it helps members lose weight, but it also has many tools and services that can help you maintain weight loss. For Core+ members, using the Weight Watchers Points program and prioritizing ZeroPoint foods will keep you full and satisfied — and will help keep cravings at bay. There’s even a Weight Maintenance mode in the app that’s designed to keep your weight steady. In addition, you can join Weight Watchers Workshops for support and live workouts and find recipes in our guide to eating for weight maintenance. 

Losing weight is a huge accomplishment — and one you should be proud of. But once you’re through that phase, weight maintenance is a whole new skill you’ll need to develop. Be sure to keep plenty of protein and fiber in your diet, move your body daily, focus on consistency of your habits instead of perfection, monitor your weight so you can make adjustments when necessary, and build up a support system you can lean on along the way. Weight Watchers can help you maintain your weight with its program built on decades of research and community of others to help you stay focused.