Monitoring Helps Prevent Overindulgence

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Achieving long-term success in weight loss requires developing skills of self-improvement. To ensure that an individual's food intake is conducive to weight loss and personalizing one's menu plan is a great way of moving closer to their goal. The key to success for sustained and effective weight loss does not lie solely in physical activity or dietary change alone. Instead, developing the skills for self-improvement is essential and doing so can help you reach your goals faster.

When the frequency of self-monitoring diet or exercise was measured in self-weighing studies, there was significant difference in weight loss results of those who weighed daily to the outcomes of those self-weighing less often. Weight loss is an intricate process that requires dedication and persistence to achieve lasting results, so you must develop certain self-improvement skills to reach and maintain your desired weight in a healthy manner over time.

Tracking Gets Easier the More You Do It

There is a learning curve to self-monitoring your weight loss plan. Basically, daily tracking will get easier the more that you do it. Listed below are four benefits of tracking your food, weight and daily exercise:

1) Understand What You Are Eating – If you are prone to skipping meals because you get too busy at work and simply forget to take the time to eat, forcing yourself to keep a daily log will help you understand why you need to eat.

2) Helps Prevent Overindulgence – Breaking the habit of overindulging at mealtime or when you snack requires focus. Being dedicated to self-monitoring makes it easier to check in with your body’s hunger cues.

3) Tracks Your Fitness Progress – Studies show that consistently using a fitness tracker, such as pedometer or other wearable device, encourages people to increase their daily activity. Tracking fitness progress helps to keep you motivated.

4) Allows You to Plan Ahead – According to the Mayo Clinic online, if your goal is to lose weight, start by organizing your weight-loss plan for lifelong self-monitoring of weight control interventions.

Record Your Progress and Achievements at MRC

The science behind successful weight loss suggests that self-monitoring of weight, dietary intake and physical activity is key for severely overweight adults to lose weight and keep the lost weight off for the long-term through self-regulation. Self-monitoring provides important feedback to help you make adjustments to stay on track to reach your specific goals for living healthy. But, goal progress and goal achievement should be celebrated with those who supported your efforts. Research has demonstrated that the timing and frequency of self-monitoring one’s dietary intake are directly related to good and bad outcomes and more frequent monitoring is associated with larger amounts of weight lost.

Whether you are struggling to lose weight or need help in keeping it off, it is important that you understand how to self-monitor your weight, dietary intake and physical activity. At MRC, we provide personalized support for your weight loss journey.