Most people can lose 3 to 5 kg quickly if needed. The most difficult part is not regaining them. How do you go about maintaining your ideal weight throughout life, despite changes in metabolism and lifestyle? By adapting! Even people who are naturally thin change their habits to achieve this! These tips for maintaining your ideal weight are also beneficial for your health and well-being.
1. Recognize that your body changes as you age
Aging begins long before 40 or 50. It's important to understand that you're constantly changing, and what worked to maintain your ideal weight 1, 3, or 5 years ago may not work anymore.
- Leave food on your plate. As you age, your metabolism slows down (1 to 2% per year after 30). It takes very little extra food to affect your weight: 3 extra bites can add 100 calories per day, almost 5 kg in a year.
- Adjust the number of meals per day. Digestion slows down with aging, especially fiber digestion. It's beneficial to lighten meals and split them into smaller, healthy meals to maintain sufficient energy and avoid cravings.
- Don't forget to count liquid calories. A glass of red wine (15 cl) contains 133 calories, a glass of champagne 94 calories, a kir 215 calories, a beer (25 cl) 95 calories. For heavy drinkers, alcohol can add up to 15 kg in a year. Preferably enjoy a glass of good red wine from time to time for pleasure and the polyphenols it contains.
- Pay attention to how food is prepared. People in their forties and older, who no longer have to prepare daily meals for children, cook less frequently and eat out more often. While pleasant and convenient, these new habits often result in higher calorie consumption because it's difficult to know how foods are prepared and their origins.
2. Keep moving
A gradually slowing metabolism from adulthood means that to maintain a comparable weight, you need to eat less than you could when you were 20! But you can also offset this slowdown by fighting against inertia and the prevailing sedentary lifestyle among those in their forties. Numerous studies have shown that thinner people are also those who are more physically active without necessarily engaging in intense physical activity. It's more effective and enjoyable in the long run to keep moving throughout the day by gardening, cleaning, walking outdoors for at least 30 minutes every day (running errands, strolls, digestive walks), and using stairs instead of escalators and elevators. To put this into practice:
- Get up every hour. A recent study found that obese people sit for more than 9 hours a day, while thin people sit for only 7 hours a day. In 2011, researchers at the University of South Carolina concluded that people who sit longer have larger waistlines. To counter this trend, it's best to get up regularly throughout the day to keep your muscles working.
- Use all devices that do things for us in moderation. A Mayo Clinic study compared people who did daily chores like washing dishes, grating vegetables, sweeping, walking to the store, with others who used electrical or mechanical devices such as dishwashers, cars, vacuum cleaners, etc. Supplementary calorie expenditures are very low (26 extra calories for hand washing dishes), but they add up day after day. Thus, people who drive to a store two blocks from their home gain an extra 4 kg per year. Obviously, you can't do everything on foot, but walking is a simple and healthy activity.
- Wear a pedometer to assess how many steps you take per day and try to improve your mobility.
3. Eat plant-based foods all day, every day
In his book "Food Rules," Michael Pollan gives simple dietary advice: "Eat food, not too much, mostly plants." According to this author, eating lighter and better always means a more vegetarian diet.
- Include a serving of vegetables at every meal, every snack (fruits or vegetables).
- Ensure that vegetables, grains, and legumes form the basis of your meal. To do this, reverse everything you've learned! For example, stop using meats or fish as the main element of the meal. Forget, for example, chicken with potatoes and instead combine vegetables with grains (vegetarian couscous, vegetable curry, broccoli puree with quinoa, carrot rice with a green salad, etc.). Think of meat as if it were a condiment!
- Prefer fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains. Cook more often, so you consume fewer processed foods. This way, you'll reduce the amounts of salt, sugar, and saturated fats found in large quantities in processed dishes, which affect weight while increasing inflammation. Indeed, these highly acidic substances contribute to disrupting the acid-base balance, which plays a significant role in cell inflammation and its consequences on overall health (insulin spikes, prevalence of obesity, diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseases).
4. Hydrate properly
Of course, water fills the stomach - but that's not the only reason drinking plenty helps maintain your ideal weight. It's important to be well-hydrated, especially as you age, as the thirst-evaluating receptors become less efficient. Since our bodies are mostly water, our organs must remain well-hydrated to function optimally. Thus, stabilizing your weight is easier when all the body's organs function optimally.
- Don't confuse hunger with thirst. Before eating something, make sure you're not simply thirsty.
- Keep a water bottle handy wherever you go: in the car, at the doctor's office, when you go for a walk.
- To help develop this habit, try flavoring your water. Drop a slice of organic lemon or orange with the zest into your bottle. It's also nice to drink light tea or fresh or hot infusions (without sugar) throughout the day according to the seasons.
5. Get enough sleep
Many young adults stay thin even though they sleep very little, drink a lot of alcohol, and eat junk food. But that only lasts for a while! As you age, stress, work worries, emotional balance, and family responsibilities affect sleep quality. We know that people who sleep poorly and suffer from chronic insomnia tend to eat more. Why?
- People with disturbed sleep cycles or who fail to get enough restorative sleep experience hormonal changes that influence appetite. Leptin levels, which regulate satiety, decrease, while ghrelin, which triggers appetite, increases. Additionally, cortisol (the stress hormone) also increases, promoting insulin resistance and pre-diabetes. Sleeping 6 to 8 hours per night is therefore beneficial for waistline management.
- Consider sleep as important as diet and exercise for weight control.
- Learn to manage problems that interfere with sleep, such as sleep apnea. Consult your doctor.
- Avoid eating before bed. Your body will expend energy digesting food, and sleep won't be restorative. Leave at least three hours between dinner and bedtime.
- For dinner, prefer grains and legumes over meats and raw vegetables. End the meal with something sweet (in moderation): compote, rice milk custard, etc.
- Try to promote restful sleep by taking appropriate supplements (magnesium) and plants with sedative and anti-stress properties.