I'm so scared of gaining my weight back

It's normal. You've worked so hard, but you're scared to stop tracking or increase calories. What if you overeat and all that hard work goes to waste? I get it. I've been there too.

The hardest thing to let go of is that feeling of control - control over your food, your exercise, and most importantly, your weight.

The Transition Strategy

Rather than completely scaling back, slowly scale off to your ideal life as you feel comfortable. Too many people revert to the same habits they had before the diet, which causes their body to return to its previous state.

Instead of tracking all meals, maybe track one meal instead. Use your weekly weight average as the true definition, and regain awareness of how your body feels before and after meals. You must relearn to rely on and listen to your body's signals. If you feel uncomfortable, scale back or add in an extra step.

Finding Balance

It's about a healthy balance of:

• Slowly enjoying the foods you were restricting
• Sticking to habits you picked up while dieting (walks, workouts, etc.)

Mindset Shift

You need to slowly reintroduce the concept to your mind that no food is "off-limits". When you view food less as a reward, you'll yearn for it less. Instead, focus on how it makes you feel and your energy levels.

Special Consideration: Crash Diet Recovery

If you were in an unsustainable crash diet, your body has likely metabolically adapted to new lows and will be sensitive to calorie changes. If this is you, be careful. Aim to increase your calories by 200 calories slowly per week.

Put That Extra Energy to Good Use

As you increase your calories and feel more energized, use that extra energy to:

• Enjoy that walk in nature
• Work extra hard at the gym
• Go out with friends and laugh a bit harder

The 2 Mindsets That Helped Me

These two mindset shifts were game-changers in my journey from strict tracking to intuitive eating:

1. Have Faith in Yourself

Trust that you can put the work in and regulate to a healthy weight. You've lost weight once - so what if you eat dessert at night? Trust your body. It doesn't directly turn into fat, and if you listen to your body, it may even give you signals to intuitively eat less the next day.

Even if you gain weight, can you put in the work using what you've learned to help you get there? Do you want to live the rest of your life being worried to go on holiday and gain weight?

2. Remove Viewing Food as a Reward

As soon as I opened up the ability to allow myself to eat whatever I want, my yearning for the reward decreased. I realised I didn't need to eat the whole cake - it would make me feel terrible, and I could just eat it the next day.

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As always, seek a professional for professional advice if you're feeling stuck. Feel free to contact us if you don't know where to start.