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Maintaining Weight Can Be Harder Than Losing It

Posted on: Friday, 9 September 2005, 06:00 CDT

With all the talk about getting extra weight off your body, there's a lot less being said about how to keep it off -- an elusive concept that is still poorly understood by the average dieter. Yet, if you think about it, weight maintenance is significantly more important and more difficult than losing weight.

"It is ironic that we focus on weight loss, when the real challenge is weight maintenance," says James Hill, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and a founder of the National Weight Control Registry (an ongoing study of more than 4,000 individuals who have lost significant weight and kept it off).

So why don't we pay more attention to the most important aspect of weight control? "Weight maintenance is just not as sexy. No scale moves, no dramatic 'before-and-after' experiences; it's a routine and, as a result, can be boring," says Suzanne Phelan, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I.

So what do you do after the fat is gone?

*Avoid the "fast-metabolism-I-can-eat-whatever-I-want" club

Does this sounds familiar? After losing those pounds you indulge, and the diet you had been on is now ancient history. You need to create practices you can live with -- forever.

*Keep your pants on

Almost all successful weight-loss maintainers have some kind of "5-pound warning system" -- a way of measuring and/or monitoring their weight before it gets out of control. It could be keeping a "thin" pair of pants or a dress they try on periodically.

*Walk

Your body burns fewer calories as you lose weight. Physical activities keep your calorie-burning capacity high. Walking is easy to do and easy to maintain. According to the National Weight Control Registry, 77 percent of successful losers use walking as their primary activity. They do some combination of physical activity for at least one hour each day.

On rainy or cold days, malls can be converted into indoor tracks. Scope out scenic outdoor paths to keep motivated. Also make arrangements to walk with someone -- socializing helps get you there and keeps you busy, so you actually have fun.

*Make it automatic

Successful maintainers have figured out ways to make their behaviors and choices second nature. It's based on the concept of automaticity -- the subconscious ways we perform daily behaviors. The idea is to apply the same principle to your diet. Set yourself up so that you don't have to think about your diet by coming up with very practical, "doable" changes. Then keep doing them until they become as routine as brushing your teeth.

*Keep it consistent

According to research at Brown University Medical School, a major predictor of successful weight maintenance is dietary consistency. Those who maintain the same diet regimen across the week and the year are more likely to maintain their weight loss during the following year than those who diet more strictly on weekdays and/or during nonholiday periods. That means there are no breaks, so make sure you choose your new behaviors carefully.

*It gets easier

According to Phelan, research has shown, "Once you've lost weight and maintained it for more than a few years, weight maintenance gets easier."

*Low-calorie diet

Research from the National Weight Control Registry indicates that successful losers eat a low-calorie, low-fat diet, not a low-carb diet. And last, the research shows that all successful dieters eat breakfast each morning, most likely preventing them from overeating during the rest of the day.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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