Maintaining weight loss means making permanent lifestyle changes that you can stick with over time. Avoid short-term diets that recommend eliminating entire food groups – they’re neither sustainable nor safe!

Here are a few easy strategies that will help you shed weight naturally and sustain it over time.

1. Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables are packed with nutrition while being low-cal foods, providing plenty of water and fiber that makes you feel satisfied without overeating. Try to consume more colorful produce such as fruits, veggies, beans, whole grains etc.

Studies have revealed that eating more fruits and vegetables can help you shed unwanted weight. Eating this healthy fare provides energy while strengthening immunity, plus helps flush away toxins from your system.

Choose fresh fruits and vegetables such as berries, kiwi fruit, grapefruits, leafy greens, raisins or bananas with high levels of sugar for dessert; instead eat whole fruits as well as fruit juices as these provide better nutritional values.

Some vegetables contain high amounts of protein, helping you build muscle while burning more calories. By including beans and broccoli in your diet, you can boost muscle building efforts while simultaneously burning more calories. There are numerous ways you can prepare these foods including steaming, roasting or sauteeing them; or dressing them with herbs and spices to add extra flavor.

2. Drink More Water

Drinking water may help you shed unwanted pounds by helping you feel full and curbing appetite, and by swapping high-caloric drinks like soda or juice with water as a source of hydration – both ways can contribute to greater weight loss.

However, this claim lacks strong supporting evidence. Studies have revealed that those who drink water prior to meals tend to consume fewer calories overall; however these studies were small-scale and short-term in scope.

Additionally, drinking too much water may actually make you hungry; your body requires energy to warm the liquid up to body temperature, thus draining vital resources away. To optimize hydration naturally and save some money at the same time, add fruits or vegetables to your water or opt for black tea or decaffeinated coffee instead.

Try to drink at least 16 ounces (2 cups) of water daily, especially when exercising or eating. Water-rich foods like berries, grapes, melons, tomatoes, cucumbers and celery provide more hydration than plain water does; alternatively flavored seltzer waters offer similar levels of hydration but with added vitamins and minerals.

3. Get More Exercise

Your weight-loss journey may start by eating less, and then exercising regularly – though eating fewer calories has an immediate effect, regular physical activity is also crucial for weight maintenance and to maintaining health. Making small changes to your daily routine, like adding walking laps in the living room instead of sitting watching television – or by taking stairs rather than the elevator can add up over time to great benefits for weight management and increased physical activity levels.

4. Eat Less Fat

Weight loss information on the internet can often be misleading; however, some proven natural techniques do work, including increasing water intake and eating more fruits and vegetables to shed unwanted weight.

Eating less fat is another effective strategy for weight loss, which means substituting processed food with whole grains, lean proteins, healthy fats and legumes/nuts which provide filling meals without too many extra calories being consumed. These meals also offer plenty of fiber so that you feel satisfied without consuming excessively.

Faddish diets may be restrictive and difficult to stick with for the long haul, so instead it is better to focus on making changes that you can maintain long term – for instance using smaller plates can help you consume less by creating the illusion of there being more food on your plate; exercise will also help burn extra calories off. By doing these things, weight can be shed naturally while staying off!

5. Eat Less Sugar

As part of any weight loss initiative, measuring what you eat can be helpful in tracking progress and finding areas for improvement. According to the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, no more than 10% of your calories should come from added sugars – this can include candy, desserts, soda pop, sweetened yogurt and granola bars with added sweeteners as well as condiments such as ketchup or pasta sauce that contain additional sugars.

Fruit and vegetable-derived sugars do not constitute added sugars, but you should still strive to limit your consumption. Checking the nutrition label to see the “total sugars” content can help determine how much of this you are consuming.

Replace one or two sugary beverages a day with water or seltzer with fun flavors, low-fat milk or unsweetened iced tea, spices, fruit or raw vegetables as natural sweeteners instead of using added sugar for sweetening food, or keeping a bowl of fresh fruits handy to satisfy cravings without resorting to processed snacks like cakes, cookies and candy.