Dr Penny Adams’ weight maintenance routine revealed! She is one of Australia’s most respected GPs and weight loss experts. But as Dr Penny Adams explains, even doctors have to watch their weight! Today, she’s revealing in an exclusive blog how she stays slim, trim and healthy using the SuperFastDiet method of intermittent fasting.
SFD: It can be quite difficult to maintain weight loss…
Dr Penny Adams: Weight maintenance can be difficult. How many times have you lost weight, felt really pleased with yourself and then six months later, found that you have put that weight back on – and more! This is the so-called yo-yo dieting effect. And along with the frustration of not being able to do up your favourite jeans, you give yourself a big dose of self-loathing. ‘Why have I done it again? How could I let this happen?’ The self-recrimination is endless!
SFD: Why is weight maintenance so difficult?
Dr Penny Adams: Well, maybe it’s not actually your fault? Our bodies have an extremely complicated system of regulatory hormones that control hunger and satiety (or the feeling of fullness). The main players are leptin (made in fat cells) which decreases hunger, and grehlin (made in the stomach lining) which increases hunger.
SFD: Isn’t there something we can do about it?
Dr Penny Adams: Unfortunately, to maintain weight loss, we can’t just pop a ‘leptin pill’ or take a ‘grehlin blocker’ – even if these pills actually existed. These hormones are also affected by sex hormones and individual genetics in a complex feedback loop with the brain.
The bottom line is that our bodies are programmed to avoid starvation at all costs. And when we lose weight, our body will constantly try to push us back to our starting weight (and then some). This is why most diets don’t work in the long term.
SFD: So, what’s the secret to maintaining weight loss?
Dr Penny Adams: The secret to keeping weight off involves maintaining a lifestyle that is doable. In my case, if I need to drop a couple of kilos, I use the 2-Day fasting method of the SuperFastDiet program, and for maintenance, drop back to a one day fast.
SFD: So, what’s your weekly maintenance routine?
Dr Penny Adams: Every Monday (my busiest day at work) I have a 500-calorie day and after some possible ‘excesses’ over the weekend, I’m ready for a day of clean low-calorie eating. Other people who do the Part-Day fasting method to lose weight, maintain their weight by part-day fasting from Monday to Friday and then easing up on the weekend.
SFD: Any other tips for weight maintenance, Dr Penny?
Dr Penny Adams: The other essential element to maintaining your weight loss is to keep weighing yourself. I jump on the scales four times per week (I, personally, use my work scales) and if I see the numbers creeping up, I know that I have to self-regulate – before it gets ‘too hard’.
Maintaining weight loss isn’t easy when your body’s regulatory system is working against you. I’ve accepted this difficult science, learnt to tweak my intermittent fasting and I keep jumping on those scales!
And that’s how Dr Penny Adams’ weight maintenance routine works. Simple, right? Because it is possible to maintain your weight loss when you have a program that fits your lifestyle. (And the fact that it’s only part-time helps too.)
If you want to kick off your weight loss goals and get started with Dr Penny Adams’ weight maintenance routine, join the Super Squad now.
