How do you feel...

I feel neutral. I do feel bad for people when they're affected negatively by them, though. These are sources of entertainment and should be treated as such. A show's or a magazine's goal is to skillfully craft entertainment to make money. Information is not their main focus. Skillful entertainment needs certain criteria. It needs to be relatable, exciting, polarizing, or emotionally charged, among other things. Given that humans tend to have this "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it" mentality, maintenance is not relatable to enough people. Not to mention it's basically doing the same things over and over without any of the exciting big reveals and shocking numbers you can have with weight loss.

As for research, there are studies on maintenance. There tends to be more short term weight loss studies than any other type because of funding and time restraints. Getting published is really important for researchers.

threewins wrote: »

When you see numerous tv shows, competitions, boot camps, documentaries, news items, magazine articles, research blah blah blah etc on weight loss, but barely a smidgen on weight loss maintenance?

Most TV actors are a healthy weight. That would seem to be its own Reality Show on how to do it.

We all know what to do. Eat less and move more and maintain by using some sort of measuring system like a body weight scale, a tape measure, a mirror or a size of clothing.

It's not rocket surgery.

It used to bug me, but I really don't care anymore. Even though I only watch 2 TV programs regularly and do not have the TV on very often, I still see this stuff constantly online, in stores, magazines/newspapers everywhere I go. It seems impossible to avoid. I think the diet/weight loss industry is a huge & somewhat corrupt one just like so many others, and I try to avoid it. I feel like doing my own thing - and using this website to lose a huge chunk and maintain my loss - has served me well, for years so far...

I DO get a little annoyed though when it's friends and acquaintances going on and on about their efforts and failures. I have so many friends running the gamut from trying to lose 100+ to those last 10 vanity pounds and doing lots of fad diets and subscribing to new & "exciting" weight loss products and ideas. It gets a little annoying. I care a lot less now, years into my own maintenance, but when I first lost a lot with calorie counting it was upsetting to me to hear the raves about how magical super-overpriced weight loss shakes/coffee were going to change someone's life only to watch them lose and gain the same 10 lb over and over.

Edited to add: I also fully admit I feel a tiny bit smug, when I went from 300 lb to 160-170 lb and now I'm beginning Year #7 of being in my lowest range. It is very nice when I hear the occasional "you've really kept it off, wow".

There are plenty of shows and other information sources about weight maintenance. We just don't think of them as being about weight maintenance. We think of them as being about cooking, nutrition, exercise, fitness, gardening, and topics like that.

People who've always been a healthy weight are part of the same species as those of us who have lost weight and are trying to stay at a healthy weight, and we all do it pretty much the same range of ways: Implicitly or explicitly, we manage the balance of our eating and activity, over time. I can't imagine why someone would want to narrow their audience potential by targeting only the subset who used to be overweight.

Yes, weight loss is more trumpeted, for reasons others have mentioned, mostly profit potential. Also, if the weight maintenance topic were made the centerpiece of a TV show or movie, for the viewer that would be pretty much like watching paint dry. No drama.

(One of the things that makes maintenance difficult to do is that it's boring, and lasts forever.)