Doomed outlook for maintaining? Not so!
BarbaraJatmfp
Posts: 463 Member
I've read some posts here and there about the dismal outlook for us to maintain the weight loss we work so hard - and long - to achieve. I'm sure we've all seen the stories of the regained weight on the Biggest Loser contestants, and I've wondered what my future will be.
I've been researching studies of people who lost weight and maintained a loss. I want RESEARCH on this because we all know one or two people who lost a lot of weight and kept it off. I don't want to hear about the 1%. I want to know what the average person can expect.
The National Weight Control Registry surveyed 3,000 members who had been in the registry for 10 years:
-- Average weight started at 224.
-- Average loss: 69 pounds. (Ranged from 30 pounds to 300 pounds lost.)
-- Average maintained loss: 52 pounds at 5 years; 51 pounds at 10 years.
But you weighed more than 224? and you lost more than 69 pounds? 51 pounds after 10 years is 75% of their initial weight loss. That means if I lose the 130 pounds I want to lose, I will maintain a 97.5 loss in 10 years.
I'll take it.
So how did they keep their weight off?
-- Track their food intake.
-- Count calories or fat grams or a commercial weight-loss program.
-- Eat breakfast regularly. (78%)
-- Limit the amount of times they eat out. (Average 3 times per week and fast food less than once a week.)
-- Eat similar food regularly and don't splurge on holidays and special occasions.
-- Walk about an hour a day or burn the same calories with other activities. (90%)
-- Watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. (62%)
-- Weigh themselves at least once a week. (75%)
If I want to be like them (lose a significant amount of weight and keep off 75% after 10 years), then I will have to ACT like them.
98% follow a low-calorie, low-fat diet. That means tracking my food because if I don't I won't know when I've eaten too many calories or too much fat. I'm on MFP to track my food, so I'm in the right place.
90% burn calories through exercise, walking or other types. I just can't avoid it anymore: if I want to be successful, I MUST get back to exercising.
78% eat breakfast regularly. I'm in that camp already, unless I sleep in and "lunch" is my first meal. (I'm OLD! and old people get to sleep in! lol) But if you are not a breakfast person, that's okay. 22% didn't eat breakfast regularly and they still maintained a 75% loss.
75% weigh themselves at least once a week. I do that, too. If that isn't for you, that's okay, because 25% didn't weigh themselves every week and they maintained a 75% loss.
62% watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. I'm lumping "computers" and "video games" into that category. Unfortunately for me, I'm in the 28% that spends more than 10 hours being sedentary. So I have room for improvement. I can compensate by exercising more, and I could change my video games to Wii Sports.
They reported that the longer someone is able to maintain a weight loss (such as 2 - 5 years), the greater the chance of keeping it off.
So regaining weight isn't inevitable. Some people have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off at least 10 years.
I want that to be me.
I've been researching studies of people who lost weight and maintained a loss. I want RESEARCH on this because we all know one or two people who lost a lot of weight and kept it off. I don't want to hear about the 1%. I want to know what the average person can expect.
The National Weight Control Registry surveyed 3,000 members who had been in the registry for 10 years:
-- Average weight started at 224.
-- Average loss: 69 pounds. (Ranged from 30 pounds to 300 pounds lost.)
-- Average maintained loss: 52 pounds at 5 years; 51 pounds at 10 years.
But you weighed more than 224? and you lost more than 69 pounds? 51 pounds after 10 years is 75% of their initial weight loss. That means if I lose the 130 pounds I want to lose, I will maintain a 97.5 loss in 10 years.
I'll take it.
So how did they keep their weight off?
-- Track their food intake.
-- Count calories or fat grams or a commercial weight-loss program.
-- Eat breakfast regularly. (78%)
-- Limit the amount of times they eat out. (Average 3 times per week and fast food less than once a week.)
-- Eat similar food regularly and don't splurge on holidays and special occasions.
-- Walk about an hour a day or burn the same calories with other activities. (90%)
-- Watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. (62%)
-- Weigh themselves at least once a week. (75%)
If I want to be like them (lose a significant amount of weight and keep off 75% after 10 years), then I will have to ACT like them.
98% follow a low-calorie, low-fat diet. That means tracking my food because if I don't I won't know when I've eaten too many calories or too much fat. I'm on MFP to track my food, so I'm in the right place.
90% burn calories through exercise, walking or other types. I just can't avoid it anymore: if I want to be successful, I MUST get back to exercising.
78% eat breakfast regularly. I'm in that camp already, unless I sleep in and "lunch" is my first meal. (I'm OLD! and old people get to sleep in! lol) But if you are not a breakfast person, that's okay. 22% didn't eat breakfast regularly and they still maintained a 75% loss.
75% weigh themselves at least once a week. I do that, too. If that isn't for you, that's okay, because 25% didn't weigh themselves every week and they maintained a 75% loss.
62% watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. I'm lumping "computers" and "video games" into that category. Unfortunately for me, I'm in the 28% that spends more than 10 hours being sedentary. So I have room for improvement. I can compensate by exercising more, and I could change my video games to Wii Sports.
They reported that the longer someone is able to maintain a weight loss (such as 2 - 5 years), the greater the chance of keeping it off.
So regaining weight isn't inevitable. Some people have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off at least 10 years.
I want that to be me.
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Replies
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I couldn't agree more. Re-gain is NOT inevitable. I've had my own share of slips (as much as 30 pounds) but I have maintained a weight loss of 100+ pounds for 8 years. For me, the key has been unfailing commitment to exercise. Even if my portions crept up, I never skipped a workout. Aside from the calorie burn and metabolism boost, it has always been a powerful reminder of how strong I am and how far I've come. Thank you for reminding us all that we are not doomed.
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People who stay committed keep the weight off.
People who don't stay committed and go back to their old behaviors regain all the weight and usually those pounds bring some friends.
I think that all of those "X percent did this" stats just show that those people are paying attention. It looks to me like correlation rather than causation. Calories are still king. If you keep tracking food and weighing yourself so that you can adjust your calorie intake, the rest doesn't seem an essential part of keeping weight maintained.11 -
I'm hoping I will be able to maintain without tracking calories for the most part, although I expect to regain a few pounds here and there, and logging to get back on track is probably a tool I'll use. I'm a HUGE breakfast eater, so I've got that one covered. I don't eat out often, and when I do I find it fairly easy to stay on track. You can get a nice salad almost everywhere. I DO tend to splurge on special occasions, but I'm willing to limit a little more in the week following. I'm happy to get daily exercise. Watching tv for 10 hours a week is a bit nebulous for me. if I have a job that forces me to be sedentary for 8 hours a day, I would want to be careful about sitting too much outside of work. Luckily for me, I don't. I expect that I will continue weighing myself at least once a week.
But what I think will be the biggest factor for me in not regaining my 30 lb weight loss is that I have acquired the skills/habits to lose weight slowly and painlessly, so I don't need to wait for "the right time" to set about losing any weight I gain.3 -
People regain the weight because they don't plan for maintenance. They hit their goal weight and go right back to whatever it was they were doing before they lost the weight. There's a number of different strategies for maintenance.8
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I have 30 more lbs to lose & i'm going to do all i can not to gain it back. I take my dogs out every morning for 1-2 hrs and go to gym at least 3x/wk. I rarely eat out or eat fast foods3
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Doom and gloom, to sell more diet products.BarbaraJatmfp wrote: »I've read some posts here and there about the dismal outlook for us to maintain the weight loss we work so hard - and long - to achieve. I'm sure we've all seen the stories of the regained weight on the Biggest Loser contestants
This is looking for answers in all the wrong places, and the conclusion as well as the semantics is painful. Just the idea that scientists are trying to find an average in a set of vastly different approaches, is sad. To blindly copy what looks like someone is doing, without understanding what exactly is done, and why, isn't going to work. Instead one should look for the essence, and emulate what the successful people do, and also find out how they think and feel and adopt those basic premises.I've been researching studies of people who lost weight and maintained a loss. I want RESEARCH on this because we all know one or two people who lost a lot of weight and kept it off. I don't want to hear about the 1%. I want to know what the average person can expect.
The National Weight Control Registry surveyed 3,000 members who had been in the registry for 10 years:
So how did they keep their weight off?
-- Track their food intake.
-- Count calories or fat grams or a commercial weight-loss program.
-- Eat breakfast regularly. (78%)
-- Limit the amount of times they eat out. (Average 3 times per week and fast food less than once a week.)
-- Eat similar food regularly and don't splurge on holidays and special occasions.
-- Walk about an hour a day or burn the same calories with other activities. (90%)
-- Watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. (62%)
-- Weigh themselves at least once a week. (75%)
They reported that the longer someone is able to maintain a weight loss (such as 2 - 5 years), the greater the chance of keeping it off.
Normal weight people balance their intake and expenditure. It doesn't matter when, where or what you eat, but you have to eat enough and not too much. You don't have to exercise to keep weight off, but of course it can burn additional calories if it doesn't make you so exhausted that normal daily activity is reduced. Moderate exercise is good for general health.
"Eat breakfast", that's just silly. If you eat every day, you are eating breakfast, it's the first meal of the day.
Low calorie/low fat - what does low mean, and what's the significance? Too low would mean undereating, and that's not what a maintainer is after.
Regular weigh-ins is not what causes maintenance, but successful maintainers are happy with their weight and don't mind seeing it.
I have been fat and slim while watching lots of TV, and fat and slim while not watching TV.
"Eat boring food" often comes up, too. That's not the point. What is boring to you, may not be boring to someone else. We like our own favorites, right? But sticking to the same kinds of meals, day in and day out, creates a routine, a structure. It's getting warmer. Normal weight people are more structured. It may seem chaotic for an outsider, but there is structure.
Normal weight people have "eating rules" that they effortlessly stick to. Their trade-offs are automatic. They don't spend a lot of time thinking about what and how much to eat, they just eat. A big lunch is followed by a smaller dinner, not because they "have to watch their intake", but because they don't want a big dinner after a big lunch. They will eat a salad or a fish dish because that's what they want that day. Another day, it's a hamburger. They don't feel deprived. They eat what they want, when they need it, and they enjoy it. They don't worry about food and eating. So they don't eat for other purposes than nourishment and pleasure, and they don't feel obligated to eat. They don't panic when they have to wait a couple of hours to eat, and will rather not eat than eat something/somewhere they don't want. They don't feel "entitled" to eat too much, or envy towards others who can eat more than them. Permanently former overweight people don't miss the habits that made them overweight.
It's really simple, but not what we are used to dealing with.
I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at the "scientists" who get paid to do this nonsense.7 -
My intention is to keep tracking calories. In part because it is a habit after three years - just eyebaling a little more and allowing myself a few more over days (As I actually like my low calfoods a lot!) something along the lines of low cal during the week slight over days on the weekend.
Also I have started to weigh myself, but will not do more than once a month and have already set myself a maintain range. As soon as I'd be over or under I'd change back into deficit for a few weeks.
I am currently just 500 over my top maintain level.
Currently my goal is to drop 4kgs more and then I am at my lower end. That is when I will start to determine maintenance calories. FWIW to reach that lower end I have given myself another whole year. I have always done this the slow way and that seems to work best for me1 -
BarbaraJatmfp wrote: »
So how did they keep their weight off?
-- Track their food intake.
-- Count calories or fat grams or a commercial weight-loss program.
-- Eat breakfast regularly. (78%)
-- Limit the amount of times they eat out. (Average 3 times per week and fast food less than once a week.)
-- Eat similar food regularly and don't splurge on holidays and special occasions.
-- Walk about an hour a day or burn the same calories with other activities. (90%)
-- Watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. (62%)
-- Weigh themselves at least once a week. (75%)
It's important to have a plan for maintenance. I personally do. Those who regain don't, or allow live to shift their focus (which sometimes is inevitable, but catching it before it goes too far would be a smart thing to do).
As for the list above:
- Track food:
It's important to have some strategy for controlling food. My personal strategy is to keep logging my intake, but a little bit less strictly than I do now.
- Count calories:
This one is basically like the first one. A strategy for controlling intake.
- Eat breakfast:
Maintainers in that survey eating breakfast regularly is more of a correlation than a causation. We've been hammered with the "most important meal of the day" media, so naturally, those who are interested in weight loss will often try to adhere to this rule.
- Limit eating out:
Eating out can take a toll on the calories if not planned carefully, so it's natural that those interested in weight loss would often prefer the safety and certainty of nicely home calorie-controlled foods. Those who don't mind doing such planning more often won't regain if they eat out often.
- Eat similar foods:
I'm of two minds about this one. I like to experiment, but I do have a bunch of to-go meals I find myself cycling regularly. It's more like a safe zone of calorie-trusted foods, which I suspect may be the case for those maintainers. As for special occasions, I tend to splurge, but it's all controlled. Control is the key. Some prefer not to deal with the hassle of banking calories or making up for extra calories so they don't splurge.
- Active:
Activity makes maintaining weight easier making the gap between original maintenance calories and new maintenance calories smaller. I'm a big fat of activity, and walking seems like a nice cheap and low impact activity that can be done anywhere.
- Watch less TV:
This most likely translates to increasing NEAT. You are more likely to be more active when you aren't sitting on the couch for prolonged periods. It has nothing to do TV in particular.
- Weigh themselves:
I think this is one of the most important things I plan to do. There needs to be a way of carefully monitoring maintenance status, be it through weight, measurements, how clothes fit, or any other monitoring method. Weighing is the simplest in my case. I don't trust the way my clothes fit because most of my clothes have some stretch to them.
As for following low calorie low fat diet, it has roots in the "fat makes you fat" claims, so it's more of a correlation than causation because many believe they are increasing their chances of calorie control when they limit fat. Low calorie foods simply means adding volume to their diet with low calorie foods, which could be a successful calorie control strategy. Again, not important if you are able to sustainably control calories without having to choose lower calorie options.
Specifics aren't really important. Maintenance really boils down to 3 things:
1. Having a strategy to control calories, be it through intake, exercise, or both.
2. Making sustainable changes that aid calorie control.
3. Monitoring maintenance status.3 -
amusedmonkey wrote: »Specifics aren't really important. Maintenance really boils down to 3 things:
1. Having a strategy to control calories, be it through intake, exercise, or both.
2. Making sustainable changes that aid calorie control.
3. Monitoring maintenance status.
This.
Just like with weight loss, the details of how these things get done are less important than the fact that they do get done.3 -
I've been here on MFP maintaining at goal for 5 years now. It's pretty simple. By the time you get to goal, you already know what to do. Hopefully, the method you used to lose the weight was a sustainable, livable, enjoyable one. You can't just go back to life as it was before weight loss and expect to keep it off. I think that's one of the main problems people have with maintaining. (That's why I hate to see people doing drastic things to lose weight. If you aren't willing to keep it up forever, you might as well not bother. It's just gonna come right back when you get off your crazy diet.)
You can easily maintain if you make it a priority to keep monitoring or at least stay aware of your eating and fitness behaviors and keep practicing basic good habits. If you notice yourself slipping, get back on the program. If other things (that conflict with healthy habits) are more important to you and/or you tend to slack off, then you probably won't maintain long-term. I think you just have to want it enough to dedicate some of your energy to your ongoing maintenance. I find it's pretty easy, really. Or at least very straightforward. There's no trick to it. It just takes a little effort and continued perseverance. Good luck, everyone!
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It boils down to only to three things and it has nothing to do with counting calories:
1) Planning properly for maintenance.. need I say more?
2) Keep moving.. both day to day activities and exercise (if already do this)
3) Pay attention every day....
By the way, tv watching/video games are how I spend my nights with my family.. we enjoy being entertained and this is not what made me fat.. And I eat out.. gotta get out of the kitchen sometimes as I need a break from my apron from time to time.
While I think doing research and broadening ones knowledge is always a great.. just find your method.. I am not one that likes to think I fit into a statistic category or perhaps looking for that reason, scientific research or not) for why I might fail.2 -
To elaborate on a common thread I see here in this discussion, IIRC, the study which gave rise to the often quoted 95% failure rate of dieting was because the people went back to their previous lifestyle and eating habits. DUH. That study was from the 1950's and the author has admitted it was deeply flawed, but it persists and is passed around as common knowledge.
It really needs to go away.5 -
To add to the conversation, here's a great thread from Reddit with some more insight regarding The Biggest Loser study:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fatlogic/comments/4i0m8i/the_glaring_problem_with_the_biggest_loser_study/Here is the model they use, which they generated using "best fit" software against the 14 participants at baseline:
1001 + 21.2 * ffm + 1.4 * fm -7.1 * age in years + 276 (if male)
The problem is, this model was not validated against non-dieters at matched weights and body compositions at their states at 30 weeks and and 6 years. If you plug in normal weight people, you get very strange results. For example, here is my calculated RMR using their formula:
1001 + 21.2 * 52kg ffm + 1.4 * 6kg fm -7.1 * 53years + 276(male) = 2011.5 Calories a day.
Mifflin St. Jeor gives my RMR as 1470. Given my non - exercise TDEE of about 2200 and my non exercise activity of ~ 10,000 steps a day, this is pretty close to actual. If I were a member of this study, I would be listed with 600 Calories a day of "metabolic damage."
Try it on yourself. Compare the results to Mifflin St Jeor, Katch McArdle or actual RMR measurements. Post below. What we're seeing here is an artifact of a poor model - not "metabolic damage."
EDIT: Here are calculators you can use for comparison.
Katch-McArdle - best for normal levels of body fat: http://www.calculatorpro.com/calculator/katch-mcardle-bmr-calculator/
Mifflin St Jeor - Good fit across a broad range of weights: http://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html
Be sure to pick "basal metabolic rate" in these calculators and not "sedentary" or anything higher.
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I've been more or less maintaining for over 3.5 years. I personally don't look at it as maintaining some number on the scale...I look at maintenance as maintaining my health, general wellness, and fitness...when I'm doing the things I need to do to maintain my health, general wellness, and fitness, the rest tends to fall into place.
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I've been here on MFP maintaining at goal for 5 years now. It's pretty simple. By the time you get to goal, you already know what to do. Hopefully, the method you used to lose the weight was a sustainable, livable, enjoyable one. You can't just go back to life as it was before weight loss and expect to keep it off. I think that's one of the main problems people have with maintaining. (That's why I hate to see people doing drastic things to lose weight. If you aren't willing to keep it up forever, you might as well not bother. It's just gonna come right back when you get off your crazy diet.)
You can easily maintain if you make it a priority to keep monitoring or at least stay aware of your eating and fitness behaviors and keep practicing basic good habits. If you notice yourself slipping, get back on the program. If other things (that conflict with healthy habits) are more important to you and/or you tend to slack off, then you probably won't maintain long-term. I think you just have to want it enough to dedicate some of your energy to your ongoing maintenance. I find it's pretty easy, really. Or at least very straightforward. There's no trick to it. It just takes a little effort and continued perseverance. Good luck, everyone!
This. Maintenance is easy if you just see it as a continuation of the positive habits you learned while losing. That's one reason that it's a good idea to lose slowly. It's not only healthy. It allows you to build those habits. 2+ years in, and I find those things are second nature to me now.3
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