Long-term success: Data from the National Weight Control Registry
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While I totally plan on having exercise be a part of my continued maintenance plan....I am a little uncomfortable with the causation being made here out of a correlation.
People who maintain successfully also tend to exercise on average one hour per day. Fact. However does that mean that exercise is therefore something that is required for successful maintenance? I don't know. Maybe it might be that those who successfully maintain might also have a higher focus on healthy behaviors which would include working out. Maybe those who maintain also continue to focus on logging and keeping a balance of calories and therefore are more likely to incorporate exercise in order to have more calories to play with. I don't know.
I am also curious of those who have successfully maintained....how many of them also incorporated exercise during the weight loss phase. I would hypothesize that it is high. I find it doubtful that they were not active for an hour a day and then suddenly started doing it when they got to goal and beyond.
I workout on average 60+ minutes per day now. I did it before I got to goal and plan on continuing it now that I am in the maintenance phase. I like being active. I like that I can do more things physically now than I could when I weighed 50 lbs more. However, I also know for me personally the thing that is most important is that I control any issues around binging and that I continue to log my food. I know that is what got me off the road from maintenance in the last year. It didn't matter how much I moved....it was that I was eating at a surplus and doing it consistently. I'd also like to point out that for me personally I often worked out 60 minutes per day while I was gaining weight.
Shell, I think you're right that it's more likely correlative with healthy behavior. It's clear that all of maintaining is a collection of healthy behaviors.
I can get behind all of them.
Except breakfast. Technically I eat it.
At noon.
I doubt that will ever change.
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While I totally plan on having exercise be a part of my continued maintenance plan....I am a little uncomfortable with the causation being made here out of a correlation.
People who maintain successfully also tend to exercise on average one hour per day. Fact. However does that mean that exercise is therefore something that is required for successful maintenance? I don't know. Maybe it might be that those who successfully maintain might also have a higher focus on healthy behaviors which would include working out. Maybe those who maintain also continue to focus on logging and keeping a balance of calories and therefore are more likely to incorporate exercise in order to have more calories to play with. I don't know.
I am also curious of those who have successfully maintained....how many of them also incorporated exercise during the weight loss phase. I would hypothesize that it is high. I find it doubtful that they were not active for an hour a day and then suddenly started doing it when they got to goal and beyond.
I workout on average 60+ minutes per day now. I did it before I got to goal and plan on continuing it now that I am in the maintenance phase. I like being active. I like that I can do more things physically now than I could when I weighed 50 lbs more. However, I also know for me personally the thing that is most important is that I control any issues around binging and that I continue to log my food. I know that is what got me off the road from maintenance in the last year. It didn't matter how much I moved....it was that I was eating at a surplus and doing it consistently. I'd also like to point out that for me personally I often worked out 60 minutes per day while I was gaining weight.
These people weren't saying, "Here are the things you must do if you want to be successful." They're just saying, "Here's what people who have been successful have done."
An average of an hour a day means some do more and some do less. It's just an idea.
It interests me because they noticed the sleep thing, too. I was happy to hear that lots of other people have done high-carb, low-fat. Reading here, I'd have thought the opposite. In fact, I did think the opposite. I thought I was one of precious few. I wasn't going to change what I did. I do what works for me. I trust that it will work because it has worked. It's really nice to hear that other successfully maintain that way.
Everyone says losing is easy and maintaining is hard. Losing isn't easy for me, but if maintaining is harder...Well, that's something I want to hear about.
I've tried a lot of wacky stuff while losing. As long as it fits into my overall plan, I'm all for trying it. Breakfast is the only thing that stuck. So, seeing these people have been successful with breakfast is nice. That doesn't mean that all of them do it or that everyone must or they will fail.
It's just interesting info.
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I am a little uncomfortable with the causation being made here out of a correlation.
That's what always strikes me about these things. People who are motivated to lose or maintain weight do what is generally advised that people do to lose (or maintain) weight. But the question is, why are they motivated? What gets them to care enough to watch their diets or get on that scale or go work out an hour a day?
Making it habitual helps. From my past experience, making it an essential part of your life (having social life and friends that support it, ideally) helps a lot too.0 -
I got my packet in. Need to submit...
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I was happy to hear that lots of other people have done high-carb, low-fat.
High carb, low fat was the standard advice for a diet/healthy eating plan for ages. Someone motivated to try to lower calories or eat healthy is likely to assume it's the best way to go, so it's not surprising that it would be common, especially among people who have been doing this for a while (see, e.g., the '90s and Susan Powter's stuff).
I don't think macro mix matters much except as a matter of personal preference, and who knows what "low fat" or "high carb" even is (although I'm pretty sure I do balanced).So, seeing these people have been successful with breakfast is nice.
The breakfast one probably doesn't mean much, IMO. Most people probably eat breakfast, most maintainers eat breakfast. One question is if more maintainers eat breakfast than the general public. (I eat breakfast now, and I did when I was fat. I like breakfast. In my younger days, before I transitioned to a morning person, I did not eat breakfast, even though most of the time in question I was normal weight.)
Also, it's hard to figure which was the causation goes, even if it's statistically meaningful. If people are constantly told that eating breakfast helps maintain weight, people motivated to maintain will eat breakfast. That doesn't mean eating breakfast helps them maintain, in reality.
Re sleep, my own experience is that I eat better (or at least it's less effort to eat well) when I am not exhausted. I also have an easier time motivating myself to exercise and recover better from workouts when I get adequate sleep.0 -
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CICO doesn't say anything about high or low carb, high or low fat. CICO can be anything - high fat, high protein, high carb, etc. "I use CICO" doesn't tell you what the person is actually eating.While I totally plan on having exercise be a part of my continued maintenance plan....I am a little uncomfortable with the causation being made here out of a correlation.
People who maintain successfully also tend to exercise on average one hour per day. Fact. However does that mean that exercise is therefore something that is required for successful maintenance? I don't know. Maybe it might be that those who successfully maintain might also have a higher focus on healthy behaviors which would include working out. Maybe those who maintain also continue to focus on logging and keeping a balance of calories and therefore are more likely to incorporate exercise in order to have more calories to play with. I don't know.
I am also curious of those who have successfully maintained....how many of them also incorporated exercise during the weight loss phase. I would hypothesize that it is high. I find it doubtful that they were not active for an hour a day and then suddenly started doing it when they got to goal and beyond.
I workout on average 60+ minutes per day now. I did it before I got to goal and plan on continuing it now that I am in the maintenance phase. I like being active. I like that I can do more things physically now than I could when I weighed 50 lbs more. However, I also know for me personally the thing that is most important is that I control any issues around binging and that I continue to log my food. I know that is what got me off the road from maintenance in the last year. It didn't matter how much I moved....it was that I was eating at a surplus and doing it consistently. I'd also like to point out that for me personally I often worked out 60 minutes per day while I was gaining weight.
These people weren't saying, "Here are the things you must do if you want to be successful." They're just saying, "Here's what people who have been successful have done."
An average of an hour a day means some do more and some do less. It's just an idea.
It interests me because they noticed the sleep thing, too. I was happy to hear that lots of other people have done high-carb, low-fat. Reading here, I'd have thought the opposite. In fact, I did think the opposite. I thought I was one of precious few. I wasn't going to change what I did. I do what works for me. I trust that it will work because it has worked. It's really nice to hear that other successfully maintain that way.
Everyone says losing is easy and maintaining is hard. Losing isn't easy for me, but if maintaining is harder...Well, that's something I want to hear about.
I've tried a lot of wacky stuff while losing. As long as it fits into my overall plan, I'm all for trying it. Breakfast is the only thing that stuck. So, seeing these people have been successful with breakfast is nice. That doesn't mean that all of them do it or that everyone must or they will fail.
It's just interesting info.
First bolded statement: Really? From my experience on this forum and the boards....those have are successfully losing weight and those who have gotten to goal seem to more often than not do CICO.
Second bolded statement: I maintained for 3+ years until I gained some weight back and now I have lost it again and am back to maintaining. Maintaining weight is a bajillion times harder than it is to lose weight. I'm now hunkering back down and getting back to the hard work.
If you want to share, I'd love to hear your ideas on why you think you gained weight back. Not so much what you didn't do, but what you did - thoughts, actions, etc.
I realize it's a personal question and very much don't expect an answer. But if you ever want to share, I'd live to hear about it.
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Protein or amino acid deficient diets.kshama2001 wrote: »"Low fat, high carb" sounds like it's maybe "eating a lot of veg and fruit"
Veggies, fruit, and legumes made up the majority of the diet for the vegans and vegetarians at the yoga communities in which I used to live. Coupled with an active lifestyle, and weight was not an issue for them.
(I'm an omnivore and this is an observation, not a recommendation.)
Close community that tends towards isolation.
Constant physical activity that leaves people tired.
Low weight from a combination of physical activity and lack of calories in a diet.
Interestingly that meets a lot of the bullet points for how cults keep members - all combined leave a person with very little mental clarity to resist consensus.0 -
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Around the 20-21 minute mark sounds a lot like my grandfather's weight maintenance (he was never overweight). He weighed himself everyday and had a plan A when his weight was up, and plan B when his weight was down. When he weighed himself in the morning, if he was over his mark, he went for a walk after dinner (plan A). If he was below his planned weight in the morning, he'd eat a bowl of ice cream (plan
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CICO doesn't say anything about high or low carb, high or low fat. CICO can be anything - high fat, high protein, high carb, etc. "I use CICO" doesn't tell you what the person is actually eating.While I totally plan on having exercise be a part of my continued maintenance plan....I am a little uncomfortable with the causation being made here out of a correlation.
People who maintain successfully also tend to exercise on average one hour per day. Fact. However does that mean that exercise is therefore something that is required for successful maintenance? I don't know. Maybe it might be that those who successfully maintain might also have a higher focus on healthy behaviors which would include working out. Maybe those who maintain also continue to focus on logging and keeping a balance of calories and therefore are more likely to incorporate exercise in order to have more calories to play with. I don't know.
I am also curious of those who have successfully maintained....how many of them also incorporated exercise during the weight loss phase. I would hypothesize that it is high. I find it doubtful that they were not active for an hour a day and then suddenly started doing it when they got to goal and beyond.
I workout on average 60+ minutes per day now. I did it before I got to goal and plan on continuing it now that I am in the maintenance phase. I like being active. I like that I can do more things physically now than I could when I weighed 50 lbs more. However, I also know for me personally the thing that is most important is that I control any issues around binging and that I continue to log my food. I know that is what got me off the road from maintenance in the last year. It didn't matter how much I moved....it was that I was eating at a surplus and doing it consistently. I'd also like to point out that for me personally I often worked out 60 minutes per day while I was gaining weight.
These people weren't saying, "Here are the things you must do if you want to be successful." They're just saying, "Here's what people who have been successful have done."
An average of an hour a day means some do more and some do less. It's just an idea.
It interests me because they noticed the sleep thing, too. I was happy to hear that lots of other people have done high-carb, low-fat. Reading here, I'd have thought the opposite. In fact, I did think the opposite. I thought I was one of precious few. I wasn't going to change what I did. I do what works for me. I trust that it will work because it has worked. It's really nice to hear that other successfully maintain that way.
Everyone says losing is easy and maintaining is hard. Losing isn't easy for me, but if maintaining is harder...Well, that's something I want to hear about.
I've tried a lot of wacky stuff while losing. As long as it fits into my overall plan, I'm all for trying it. Breakfast is the only thing that stuck. So, seeing these people have been successful with breakfast is nice. That doesn't mean that all of them do it or that everyone must or they will fail.
It's just interesting info.
First bolded statement: Really? From my experience on this forum and the boards....those have are successfully losing weight and those who have gotten to goal seem to more often than not do CICO.
Second bolded statement: I maintained for 3+ years until I gained some weight back and now I have lost it again and am back to maintaining. Maintaining weight is a bajillion times harder than it is to lose weight. I'm now hunkering back down and getting back to the hard work.
If you want to share, I'd love to hear your ideas on why you think you gained weight back. Not so much what you didn't do, but what you did - thoughts, actions, etc.
I realize it's a personal question and very much don't expect an answer. But if you ever want to share, I'd live to hear about it.
I think that is the point to me. CICO is the thing that works above or below anything else. I have many MFP friends and what not and I have no idea what they actually eat. However, I know they know how to do the whole CICO thing. That is the crux. Those who can manage their calories will be successful whether they eat more carbs or fat or protein.
It is personal, but I will share it. I was diagnosed many years ago with BED. I had it managed and under control until I didn't. I was a block away when the Boston Marathon bomb went off. I told myself I was okay (and physically I absolutely was), but things started to unravel. Friends became distant and then disappeared. Things will my family got difficult. I basically retreated. I went back to comforting myself with food and food alone. It got pretty bad for about 6 months in terms of binging behavior and significant depression symptoms.
I finally was able to fully confront my behavior and get myself back on the trail to health. It's been a process and one that I learned a lot from. I am more aware of some red flags and warning than I was before. I now have a plan in place if I get myself in that head space again. I know that BED is rare, which is why I rarely talk about my weight loss or maintenance plan specifically because it is just different. However, I do fundamentally believe that whatever your relationship with food is that got you to your starting weight needs to be addressed so that you can make sure it won't become an issue again.
Thank you for sharing that. I'm very happy for you, being all Take Charge and getting yourself back on the path. You should be very proud of yourself. 0 -
Around the 20-21 minute mark sounds a lot like my grandfather's weight maintenance (he was never overweight). He weighed himself everyday and had a plan A when his weight was up, and plan B when his weight was down. When he weighed himself in the morning, if he was over his mark, he went for a walk after dinner (plan A). If he was below his planned weight in the morning, he'd eat a bowl of ice cream (plan.
I love the story. I knew many people growing up that had plans to stay fit. One was a great uncle that stayed trim by eating what he wanted all week except for Wednesdays...he fasted all day. He was doing IF long before IF became a thing!
I have to ask...what did your grandfather do if he weighed and he was right on his planned weight?
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Since scales were analog, probably tilted his head to get the result he wanted. Which, given his and my grandma's personality could as easily be the walk outside away from the table.Around the 20-21 minute mark sounds a lot like my grandfather's weight maintenance (he was never overweight). He weighed himself everyday and had a plan A when his weight was up, and plan B when his weight was down. When he weighed himself in the morning, if he was over his mark, he went for a walk after dinner (plan A). If he was below his planned weight in the morning, he'd eat a bowl of ice cream (plan.
I love the story. I knew many people growing up that had plans to stay fit. One was a great uncle that stayed trim by eating what he wanted all week except for Wednesdays...he fasted all day. He was doing IF long before IF became a thing!
I have to ask...what did your grandfather do if he weighed and he was right on his planned weight?
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