Weight management refers to behaviors, techniques, and physiological processes that contribute to a persons ability to attain and maintain a healthy weight. It is a process of reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight. Weight management involves developing meaningful ways to track weight over time and to identify ideal body weights for different individuals. It encompasses long-term lifestyle strategies that promote healthy eating and daily physical activity.

Key factors in weight management include energy balance, which is the difference between the number of calories a person consumes and the number of calories that same person expends in a given time period. Most weight management strategies focus on achieving healthy weights through slow but steady weight loss, followed by maintenance of an ideal body weight. However, weight neutral approaches to health have also been shown to result in positive health outcomes.

Obesity is a chronic disease that affects more than one in three adults and about 17 percent of children and adolescents in the United States. Having overweight or obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, fatty liver disease, kidney disease, and other health issues. If you are struggling with your weight, you may find that a healthy eating plan and regular physical activity help you lose weight and keep it off over the long term.

Healthy weight management is about implementing lifestyle changes that you can maintain on a long-term basis so that you can lose weight, but also keep it off. While losing weight is an important first step in weight management, it isn’t the only step. Proper and healthy weight management involves keeping weight off long term and maintaining a healthy weight. Losing weight can be a battle, but keeping the weight off can often be just as hard.

In summary, weight management is a process of reaching and maintaining a healthy body weight through long-term lifestyle strategies that promote healthy eating and daily physical activity. It involves developing meaningful ways to track weight over time and to identify ideal body weights for different individuals.