Weight Maintenance: No More Slipping and Sliding

Weight maintenance is the homely sister of the much-hyped weight loss. “Keeping your weight off is certainly not as exciting as watching it come off,” says Janet R. Laubgross, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist and weight management specialist in Fairfax, Virginia. The truth is maintaining a goal weight can be just as hard, if not harder, than dropping pounds. How can you avoid a relapse?

Physical activity is key. “Nine out of 10 of the people I see who have lost weight and kept it off are people who exercise on a regular basis,” says Anne Fletcher, M.S., R.D., author of Thin for Life (Houghton Mifflin, 1994).

Another component to weight maintenance is responsible portion control and consuming 5 to 10 percent fewer calories from fat than the average American. (The average American gets 30 to 35 percent of their calories from fat.) Mastering these healthful eating habits has helped thousands of people who have lost at least 30 pounds keep that weight off for more than a year, according to the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR).

Self-monitoring is another aid, says Mary Lou Klem, Ph.D., project coordinator for the NWCR, which manages the national database of more than 2,800 weight-loss subjects. Weighing on a regular basis, while not encouraged during weight loss, seems to be important to weight maintenance. “That way, the minute you gain a little bit of weight, you can nip it in the bud,” says Fletcher, “instead of allowing a controllable 3- to 5-pound weight gain turn into an uncontrollable 50-pound one.”

More important than the scale, however, is attitude. “If you have a diet mentality,” Laubgross warns, “at some point you’re going to want to go off that diet.” Fletcher reports that most of her subjects had been on three to five types of diets before they successfully lost weight on their own. What made the difference? “They said to themselves, ‘This is for me, and I accept the fact that I’m going to have change my lifestyle forever,’” Fletcher says. “People have to really believe that the changes they are making are absolutely worth it, and they have to never want to go back.”

Losing weight, and even maintaining that loss, doesn’t always mean happily ever after. A lot of issues besides exercise and food arise once someone has lost weight. “You’re presented to the world as a different person — perhaps a more attractive, sexual person — and that can be unsettling,” says Laubgross. For example, a woman who may have stayed in an unhappy marriage because of her low self-esteem will have to reevaluate the relationship once she loses weight and realizes that she can attract other men. “Many people will gain back the weight instead of having to deal with some of the issues that weight loss brings up,” adds Laubgross. “People hide behind fat.”

Other factors can make maintenance difficult as well. Binge eaters are at elevated risk for relapse, as are people who suffer from depression. In addition, major stresses, such as a family death, job change or anything that disrupts your routine (even a vacation) can trigger a relapse.

At difficult times such as these, Fletcher suggests that people remind themselves of the pain they felt when they were heavier and how unhappy they were with themselves. “Constantly reflect,” she advises, “on how far you have come and how much better you feel now. Know that you can maintain what you’ve accomplished.”