What are the Proven Benefits of a "Lifestyle Change"?

mjterp

All the proof I need is in my miriad of MFPs who have LOST the weight and are several years into maintenance and who report at their doctors appointments being taken of diabetes medication, being taken off high blood pressure medication, no more infections...and a plethora of other improvements. All of those individual case studies located RIGHT HERE in the Success stories section.

_KitKat_

This article mentions these studies and the following quote speaks to a "realist" point of view, in actuality it speaks to having a positive assumption of success in itself contributing to longterm success.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2010/0915/p630.html

"Social support, better coping strategies, and the ability to handle life stressors are factors associated with successful weight loss maintenance.25 Disinhibited eating, binge eating, more intense hunger, eating in response to negative emotions and stress, passive reactions to problems, and less assumption of responsibility in life are all factors posing a risk of weight regain. On the other hand, strong internal motivation to lose weight, self-efficacy (defined as greater confidence in achieving successful weight loss), and a sense of autonomy contribute to successful weight loss maintenance.25 Food journaling is an additional proven strategy for short-term weight loss and successful weight loss maintenance.25  A summary of behavioral strategies contributing to successful weight loss maintenance is shown in Table 2.25"

rexroars

Wait I'm really confused why this needs a "study"??

If you go on a temporary "diet", you will lose weight temporarily, then gain it back when you go back to your old habits.

If you change your "lifestyle" then it's a permanent change.. so whatever health benefits you get will be permanent as well.

"Lifestyle change" isn't a weight loss technique, it's what someone needs to do to make ANY improvement in their life, not just health/weight loss. It's a really, really general/simple concept?

FlaxMilk

If you change your "lifestyle" then it's a permanent change.. so whatever health benefits you get will be permanent as well.

"Lifestyle change" isn't a weight loss technique, it's what someone needs to do to make ANY improvement in their life, not just health/weight loss. It's a really, really general/simple concept?

But a lifestyle is built on a lifetime of choices, not a single choice to change. It requires commitment and follow through. Most people who fail to maintain eating in moderation or counting calories probably were shooting for a lifestyle change and said that's what they wanted to do and were doing. Actually getting that means doing the work most of the time. There is no permanent change until you die. The most confident lifestyle changer here can't predict with certainty what he or she will do, think, or feel in 10 years. You can plan, hope, and work. But you cannot guarantee permanent success.

Iwishyouwell

If you change your "lifestyle" then it's a permanent change.. so whatever health benefits you get will be permanent as well.

"Lifestyle change" isn't a weight loss technique, it's what someone needs to do to make ANY improvement in their life, not just health/weight loss. It's a really, really general/simple concept?

But a lifestyle is built on a lifetime of choices, not a single choice to change. It requires commitment and follow through. Most people who fail to maintain eating in moderation or counting calories probably were shooting for a lifestyle change and said that's what they wanted to do and were doing. Actually getting that means doing the work most of the time. There is no permanent change until you die. The most confident lifestyle changer here can't predict with certainty what he or she will do, think, or feel in 10 years. You can plan, hope, and work. But you cannot guarantee permanent success.

Nailed it.

jofjltncb6

If you change your "lifestyle" then it's a permanent change.. so whatever health benefits you get will be permanent as well.

"Lifestyle change" isn't a weight loss technique, it's what someone needs to do to make ANY improvement in their life, not just health/weight loss. It's a really, really general/simple concept?

But a lifestyle is built on a lifetime of choices, not a single choice to change. It requires commitment and follow through. Most people who fail to maintain eating in moderation or counting calories probably were shooting for a lifestyle change and said that's what they wanted to do and were doing. Actually getting that means doing the work most of the time. There is no permanent change until you die. The most confident lifestyle changer here can't predict with certainty what he or she will do, think, or feel in 10 years. You can plan, hope, and work. But you cannot guarantee permanent success.

Nailed it.

So you finally got the answer you were fishing for?

Good.

Only took six pages.

Iwishyouwell

If you change your "lifestyle" then it's a permanent change.. so whatever health benefits you get will be permanent as well.

"Lifestyle change" isn't a weight loss technique, it's what someone needs to do to make ANY improvement in their life, not just health/weight loss. It's a really, really general/simple concept?

But a lifestyle is built on a lifetime of choices, not a single choice to change. It requires commitment and follow through. Most people who fail to maintain eating in moderation or counting calories probably were shooting for a lifestyle change and said that's what they wanted to do and were doing. Actually getting that means doing the work most of the time. There is no permanent change until you die. The most confident lifestyle changer here can't predict with certainty what he or she will do, think, or feel in 10 years. You can plan, hope, and work. But you cannot guarantee permanent success.

Nailed it.

So you finally got the answer you were fishing for?

Good.

Only took six pages.

No I didn't get the answer I was looking for.

Agreeing with someone's post doesn't mean the purpose of the thread was fulfilled. Obviously nobody provided the evidence I was searching for, nobody backed up the popular claims with any study or proof.

But then again I'll just assume you were being facetious and call it a day.

parkscs

No I didn't get the answer I was looking for.

Agreeing with someone's post doesn't mean the purpose of the thread was fulfilled. Obviously nobody provided the evidence I was searching for, nobody backed up the popular claims with any study or proof.

But then again I'll just assume you were being facetious and call it a day.

Studies have conclusively proven (I don't have citations, look them up) that avoiding use of the term "diet" and instead using the term "lifestyle change" leads to long-term success in weight loss, fitness and life. This is common knowledge, much like how a lack of pop tarts in your di- ... er, "lifestyle change eating plan" necessarily leads to failure.

On a more serious note, your request is silly because it's not the type of hypothesis that a study would prove. But use your common sense - if you change your lifestyle in such a way that you eat a caloric deficit to maintenance and then eat at maintenance calories, how can you NOT see long-term success with respect to weight loss? Can you concoct a hypothetical in which someone eats at maintenance and gains a bunch of fat, thus failing in their long-term weight loss? I certainly can't. Now, if instead you just call your diet a "lifestyle change", get distracted upon reaching your goal weight and revert to your old habits, you can expect to see the same weight gain as the guy who called his diet a diet and then reverted to his old habits.

Rather than getting all caught up the semantics of a "lifestyle change" and "proving" that it works, the important takeaway should be that your focus needs to be on the long-term and that weight loss and maintenance isn't a transitory activity. While you may not count calories the rest of your life, you do need to be constantly aware of your body/weight/diet/etc. if you want to keep your body at a healthy weight. It doesn't matter what you call it, but rather what matters is keeping your focus on long-term results.

FlaxMilk

Studies have conclusively proven (I don't have citations, look them up) that avoiding use of the term "diet" and instead using the term "lifestyle change" leads to long-term success in weight loss, fitness and life. This is common knowledge, much like how a lack of pop tarts in your di- ... er, "lifestyle change eating plan" necessarily leads to failure.

On a more serious note, your request is silly because it's not the type of hypothesis that a study would prove. But use your common sense - if you change your lifestyle in such a way that you eat a caloric deficit to maintenance and then eat at maintenance calories, how can you NOT see long-term success with respect to weight loss? Can you concoct a hypothetical in which someone eats at maintenance and gains a bunch of fat, thus failing in their long-term weight loss? I certainly can't. Now, if instead you just call your diet a "lifestyle change", get distracted upon reaching your goal weight and revert to your old habits, you can expect to see the same weight gain as the guy who called his diet a diet and then reverted to his old habits.

Rather than getting all caught up the semantics of a "lifestyle change" and "proving" that it works, the important takeaway should be that your focus needs to be on the long-term and that weight loss and maintenance isn't a transitory activity. While you may not count calories the rest of your life, you do need to be constantly aware of your body/weight/diet/etc. if you want to keep your body at a healthy weight. It doesn't matter what you call it, but rather what matters is keeping your focus on long-term results.

This post has inspired me to create the Decision Diet. Screw the rest of your life, just remember that everything you eat is a choice and stay aware of the choices you are making, one choice at a time.

WalkingAlong

I agree with the OP. Nearly everyone thinks they're on a 'lifestyle change', regardless of their method or eating plan of choice, in my experience.

"Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

It doesn't specifically say "lifestyle change DOES NOT work" but it does say that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer. I've seen a meta-analysis of 30+ studies that showed people on VLCD (800 calories or less) were the most successful 5 years out. I'm not suggesting that means there IS a magic bullet and it's VLCD, just that our assumptions are often wrong about who maintains and why.

parkscs

Studies have conclusively proven (I don't have citations, look them up) that avoiding use of the term "diet" and instead using the term "lifestyle change" leads to long-term success in weight loss, fitness and life. This is common knowledge, much like how a lack of pop tarts in your di- ... er, "lifestyle change eating plan" necessarily leads to failure.

On a more serious note, your request is silly because it's not the type of hypothesis that a study would prove. But use your common sense - if you change your lifestyle in such a way that you eat a caloric deficit to maintenance and then eat at maintenance calories, how can you NOT see long-term success with respect to weight loss? Can you concoct a hypothetical in which someone eats at maintenance and gains a bunch of fat, thus failing in their long-term weight loss? I certainly can't. Now, if instead you just call your diet a "lifestyle change", get distracted upon reaching your goal weight and revert to your old habits, you can expect to see the same weight gain as the guy who called his diet a diet and then reverted to his old habits.

Rather than getting all caught up the semantics of a "lifestyle change" and "proving" that it works, the important takeaway should be that your focus needs to be on the long-term and that weight loss and maintenance isn't a transitory activity. While you may not count calories the rest of your life, you do need to be constantly aware of your body/weight/diet/etc. if you want to keep your body at a healthy weight. It doesn't matter what you call it, but rather what matters is keeping your focus on long-term results.

This post has inspired me to create the Decision Diet. Screw the rest of your life, just remember that everything you eat is a choice and stay aware of the choices you are making, one choice at a time.

Perhaps that's my (sometimes overly) logical approach to life, but that sounds about right to me. Everything you eat is a conscious decision because you're an adult human being with free will. At worst, you have to deal with social pressure to eat/drink something, but that's pretty easy to overcome. As for taking it one choice at a time, what other choice do we have?

And that's not to say you will never make poor choices with respect to weight loss. But if you're focused on the long-term, you can make up for any slip ups along the way. It's only when you lose that focus or stop caring that you start to slip.

FlaxMilk

Perhaps that's my (sometimes overly) logical approach to life, but that sounds about right to me. Everything you eat is a conscious decision because you're an adult human being with free will. At worst, you have to deal with social pressure to eat/drink something, but that's pretty easy to overcome. As for taking it one choice at a time, what other choice do we have?

And that's not to say you will never make poor choices with respect to weight loss. But if you're focused on the long-term, you can make up for any slip ups along the way. It's only when you lose that focus or stop caring that you start to slip.

Agreed. I'd rather take it one choice at a time than think about a lifetime.

Iwishyouwell

I agree with the OP. Nearly everyone thinks they're on a 'lifestyle change', regardless of their method or eating plan of choice, in my experience.

"Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

It doesn't specifically say "lifestyle change DOES NOT work" but it does say that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer. I've seen a meta-analysis of 30+ studies that showed people on VLCD (800 calories or less) were the most successful 5 years out. I'm not suggesting that means there IS a magic bullet and it's VLCD, just that our assumptions are often wrong about who maintains and why.

I've seen that study brought up two or three times, once by myself actually.

Crickets.

andreavarangu

bump

MB_Positif

Haven't read all the responses, but I am proof that it's possible to make sustainable lifestyle changes to keep weight off. Lost 50 pounds my first year here, managed to keep it off with only fluctuations of up to 5 pounds above my lowest weight since making the changes. I even managed to maintain my loss through an period of Illness, brain surgery and the recovery that followed for a total of 9 months with zero exercise. Had I not made true lifestyle changes in my eating habits (which has pretty much only been portion control) I would surely have gained during that time.

kethry70

I agree with the OP. Nearly everyone thinks they're on a 'lifestyle change', regardless of their method or eating plan of choice, in my experience.

"Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

It doesn't specifically say "lifestyle change DOES NOT work" but it does say that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer. I've seen a meta-analysis of 30+ studies that showed people on VLCD (800 calories or less) were the most successful 5 years out. I'm not suggesting that means there IS a magic bullet and it's VLCD, just that our assumptions are often wrong about who maintains and why.

I've seen that study brought up two or three times, once by myself actually.

Crickets.

I don't see that that indicates anything beyond the participants' willingness to commit and adhere to their eating modifications. It says all participants were encouraged to eat to a loss of .45 kg a week. So, the first week, some people went under that calorie goal and were labelled fast, some went over and became slow. Moderate adhered more closely to the directions given. The end results therefore don't surprise me a bit - some of the women were more serious/motivated and that translated to greater losses over time and greater long-term success. And, given that they were all obese, a loss of up to 1kg (2.2 lbs) a week or so would hardly be problematic.

amusedmonkey

To be honest, regardless if the way the weight was lost, maintenance strategies is what keeps weight off. Now from personal experience, when I tried to lose weight in the past I was not too educated about how calories work and failed to maintain. This time, I lost the most I ever did (and maintained for 6 months before resuming, for personal reasons) and it came much easier to me than all the previous times I tried to lose, because lifestyle modifications (I wouldn't say total change) just started being a natural part of my daily life. So in my case, fad diets were harder to do and harder to maintain, and a more balanced view was easier to do and easier to maintain. Here is a study that matches my experience:

http://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(13)00528-X/abstract

This study shows that ". . . Larger initial weight losses and longer duration of maintenance were associated with better long-term outcomes. Decreases in leisure-time physical activity, dietary restraint, and frequency of self-weighing and increases in percentage of energy intake from fat and disinhibition were associated with greater weight regain."

One could interpret "larger initial weight loss" as "more time to form habits", and many studies show that once you have maintained for 5 years while keeping up the lifestyle modifications like frequent weighing, exercise and being aware of food intake, the less likely you are to slip back into "old habits" because these changes become a part of your daily life.

With that said, if I had lost through a fad diet and had the tools I have now for maintenance, I may be able to succeed at maintenance as well, though it would be a bit harder since I would need to re-integrate the habits into my life.

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/74/5/579.long#T2

This study shows that people who continued exercising (which is a lifestyle modification) after losing their weight were about twice as likely to keep it off

What's interesting is that people who have lost through very low energy diets were able to maintain about 1.5 times better than those who did through a balanced diet. I find that interesting, and since it does not match my own experience, I'm intrigued. Does anyone have an explanation for that?

I'm personally a very strong advocate for "whatever works for you" approach, as long as you learn and adapt strategies for maintenance.

neandermagnon

There are a few threads going on at the moment detailing various studies that show that long term weight loss management has pretty abysmal success rates.

The common rebuttal is that said studies are reflecting participants that lost weight the "wrong" way with various fads, cleanses, diet pills, etc, and that these rates do not reflect people who did it the "right" way with a "lifestyle change".

I've been looking for evidence to back up this claim and so far I've found nothing. I also haven't seen anybody on MFP actually offer solid proof either.

So I'm asking for people to please offer links to studies that show concrete evidence that "lifestyle changes" in the area of calorie counting, slow weight loss, "everything in moderation" all lead to more successful maintainers in the long run.

Thank you.

(haven't read the rest of the thread just this post)

Lifestyle change = permanent, i.e if you revert back to your old ways, it wasn't a lifestyle change

Doing it right = doing everything necessary to maintain your weight long term (and it's a continued process) - if you regain weight, then you're not doing it right (notice the use of the present tense, because it's an ongoing process it's not just about what you did in the weight loss phase).

If people think "doing it right" only applies to the weight loss phase and not to long term maintenance again then they are not "doing it right" and they also don't understand the concept of "lifestyle change"

............Unless you saying that even if someone is proactive in maintaining a healthy weight, as in continuing to exercise, count calories (or other successful portion control method) and do all the things that got you thin, throughout maintenance and continue doing that for the rest of their life, monitoring their weight etc, that you believe that people are going to regain weight no matter what they do?

Yes, maintaining after you lose weight requires continued effort. And yes, some people will slip back into old ways. But like I said, slipping back into old ways means that the "lifestyle changes" were not really lifestyle changes, they were just a temporary thing.

EvgeniZyntx

I agree with the OP. Nearly everyone thinks they're on a 'lifestyle change', regardless of their method or eating plan of choice, in my experience.

"Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

It doesn't specifically say "lifestyle change DOES NOT work" but it does say that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer. I've seen a meta-analysis of 30+ studies that showed people on VLCD (800 calories or less) were the most successful 5 years out. I'm not suggesting that means there IS a magic bullet and it's VLCD, just that our assumptions are often wrong about who maintains and why.

I've seen that study brought up two or three times, once by myself actually.

Crickets.

That study is a prime example of sampling selection error.

The cohorts were chosen on the ability to lose weight so those that stuck to the plan to lose 0.45/week or more were likelier to stick to it afterwards for a year. No surprise there, just bad methodology. All individuals in that study had the same weight loss target and cohorts were chosen after the study based on actual average weight lost.

This type of post-hoc bias is common. Assuming that a bias might exist when the determinant of weight loss maintenance versus weight loss rate versus target would seem rather obvious.

Also the conclusion of that study do not say that "that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer." It actaully says:

No significant group differences were found in weight regain between 6 and 18 months (2.6, 1.8, and 1.3 kg, respectively, ps < 0.9)

That means no difference in the groups.

kethry70

I agree with the OP. Nearly everyone thinks they're on a 'lifestyle change', regardless of their method or eating plan of choice, in my experience.

"Fast weight losers obtained greater weight reduction and long-term maintenance, and were not more susceptible to weight regain than gradual weight losers."

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12529-010-9092-y

It doesn't specifically say "lifestyle change DOES NOT work" but it does say that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer. I've seen a meta-analysis of 30+ studies that showed people on VLCD (800 calories or less) were the most successful 5 years out. I'm not suggesting that means there IS a magic bullet and it's VLCD, just that our assumptions are often wrong about who maintains and why.

I've seen that study brought up two or three times, once by myself actually.

Crickets.

That study is a prime example of sampling selection error.

The cohorts were chosen on the ability to lose weight so those that stuck to the plan to lose 0.45/week or more were likelier to stick to it afterwards for a year. No surprise there, just bad methodology. All individuals in that study had the same weight loss target and cohorts were chosen after the study based on actual average weight lost.

This type of post-hoc bias is common. Assuming that a bias might exist when the determinant of weight loss maintenance versus weight loss rate versus target would seem rather obvious.

Also the conclusion of that study do not say that "that people on more aggressive diets maintained better and longer." It actaully says:

No significant group differences were found in weight regain between 6 and 18 months (2.6, 1.8, and 1.3 kg, respectively, ps < 0.9)

That means no difference in the groups.

You said it so much better than I did :bigsmile: :flowerforyou: