Habits That Help You Sustain Weight Loss
Key Takeaways
Sustaining weight loss is harder than achieving it.
Daily weighing can improve weight awareness and reduce weight regain.
High-protein diets help preserve muscle mass, support metabolism, and improve satiety.
Meal tracking enhances calorie awareness and encourages mindful eating.
Staying hydrated supports metabolism and reduces mistaken hunger cues.
Consistency is more important in weight management as these small actions lead to lasting results.
You’ve successfully lost some weight, but now you’re worried about gaining it back. Almost everyone who has shed a significant amount of weight will tell you that maintaining it is the real challenge.
While fad diets and intense workout regimens may deliver quick results, they rarely offer sustainable weight loss. Research and real-world experience consistently show that the key to lasting weight management isn’t radical change, it’s building and sticking to small, daily habits such as exercising regularly, consuming a low-calorie, low-fat diet and maintaining a consistent eating pattern.
Here are five science-backed habits that can help you maintain their weight over time.
Habit #1: Weighing Yourself Every Day
Weighing yourself regularly is good for monitoring your progress (or how well you’re maintaining your weight). Although the scale does not distinguish between muscle mass, fat, or water weight, it still offers valuable feedback, allowing you to detect small gains early and make the necessary lifestyle adjustments.
A literature review found that adults who weighed themselves daily were more likely to maintain weight loss compared to those who did not. Another randomized trial, The STOP Regain Study, reported that frequent weighing was associated with significantly less weight regain over 18 months.
Tip: Focus on weekly trends rather than day-to-day fluctuations. Apps such as the NOVI App will help you monitor this. Hydration, sodium intake, and hormonal shifts can all affect your daily weight, so use your data to track patterns, and not to judge yourself.
Habit #2: Including More Protein in Your Diet
Protein is essential in weight maintenance by supporting numerous critical functions in the body (including hormone and enzyme production), increasing satiety, and maintaining muscle mass in a calorie deficit. When you reduce your calorie intake, you normally get hungry – to the extent of giving in to your (unhealthy) cravings. By reducing your body’s production of ghrelin, the "hunger hormone", protein consumption could help you feel fuller for longer, ultimately cutting down your food intake.
Did you know that muscle burns more calories than fat? Research shows that adequate protein intake could help preserve your muscle mass during weight loss, enabling sustained results. This is important as your body tends to lose a significantly higher proportion of muscle mass than fat mass when you are in a calorie deficit.
Ideally, protein should make up about 10 to 35% of your total caloric intake per day. This usually means eating about 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. Aim to be at the higher end of the range if you are consuming protein for weight maintenance.
Take a look at this article: How Much Protein Do You Need for Sustainable Weight Loss?
Tip: Aim to include a source of protein with every meal and snack to help keep hunger at bay and maintain muscle mass, especially during calorie restriction. Some examples of high protein foods include:
Meat
Fish
Eggs
Edamame
Beans
Greek Yogurt
Almonds
Jerky
Cheese
Habit #3: Tracking Your Meals
Keeping a record of what you eat increases awareness, reinforces accountability, and helps prevent mindless eating. Remember that meal tracking isn’t just about counting calories though, it encourages mindfulness and better food choices. Apps like the NOVI App help make meal tracking easier and more convenient.
A study found meal logging improves long-term success when it comes to weight management. For support with accurate food tracking and making healthier choices, check out How to Read Nutrition Labels and Choosing the Right Supplement.
Tip: Try to be consistent and allocate a few minutes of your time to track your intake.
Habit #4: Staying Hydrated
Can drinking more water help you lose weight? Research suggests that drinking more water may be linked with weight loss, however there is not enough evidence to establish a direct cause-and-effect relationship between water intake and weight loss. Another study showed that drinking water before meals helps curb your hunger and helps you eat less. Nonetheless, water affects metabolism, digestion and appetite signals. Mild dehydration can mimic hunger, leading people to eat when their body actually needs fluid.
Different organizations have different recommendations, and the right amount of water for a particular person to consume depends on numerous factors, including body size. People should aim to consume approximately:
These recommendations are for total fluid intake throughout the day.
Tips: On busier days, it might be more difficult to track your water intake, so always carry a water bottle and set reminders on your phone. You can also choose water-rich foods like fruits and vegetables for additional fluids. In addition, limit sugary drinks and excessive caffeine, which can be dehydrating.
Habit #5: Increasing Your NEAT (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis)
NEAT refers to the energy you burn from any activity outside of sleeping, eating or any intentional exercise: Examples include fidgeting more, doing household chores, walking to work, typing, household chores, and standing. These small movements can add up significantly, especially for people who are largely sedentary. Before you dismiss the calories you'd burn from these activities as "meager" or "insignificant", consider the following:
Research suggests that an individual working in an agricultural field could theoretically burn an extra 2,000 calories daily through NEAT-related activities than someone with the same height and body composition who works in a chair-bound job.
If you don’t work in a physically active job, don’t worry: this study shows that you could burn up to 40 more calories per hour by simply sitting and “fidgeting” (e.g., toe-tapping, stretching your legs and arms, or flipping through papers) than if you were to sit motionlessly. Spend eight hours working, and that’s an additional 320 calories.
In a nutshell, people who maintain their weight loss tend to have higher daily movement levels, even without engaging in structured workouts.
Here are some ways to boost NEAT:
Take walking meetings or short strolls near your workplace throughout the day
Stand during phone calls or invest in an ergonomic standing desk
Use the stairs instead of elevators
Do light chores or stretching while watching TV
Tip: Think of movement as something to integrate into every hour of the day, not just during gym sessions.
The Right Habits Support Sustainable Weight Management
Sustainable weight loss isn’t about being perfect, it’s about building systems and habits that support your goals over the long run. Daily weigh-ins, high-protein meals, food tracking, hydration, and movement through NEAT may seem simple, but their consistent application can produce impressive long-term results.
The biggest mistake is thinking that you need to be perfect. Being consistent 80% of the time beats being perfect 50% of the time. What success actually looks like:
Hit your protein goal 5 days out of 7
Drink enough water most days
Move your body regularly (not never missing)
Track food Monday-Friday, relax on weekends
And when you slip up:
Bad meal? Make the next one better
Bad day? Fresh start tomorrow
Bad week? Get back on track when life settles
Remember: Ask yourself "Am I better than 3 months ago?" not "Am I perfect?" Progress matters more than perfection.
These habits should feel sustainable, not like punishment. If something isn't working, adjust it rather than quitting entirely.
If you're starting, or already on, a medication-based weight management journey, speak with a healthcare provider or fitness expert to design a plan that helps you maintain your weight the right way – while optimizing your health.
At NOVI, we designed Optimum 365 to support your long-term results. From nutrition supplements to recovery tools, everything is curated to help you protect your muscles, maintain your metabolism, and feel your best, even after the medications stop.