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  #1   ^
Old Sun, Jul-24-11, 00:45
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
Posts: 26,664
 
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
Default How did we become successful weight losers and maintainers?

I've already posted this article over in the media forum, but felt that it would be a good idea to post it here as well as I think it makes a great discussion piece for the maintenance forum:


Quote:
From The Sunday Times
London, UK
24 July, 2011


Sorry, science says once you get fat, you will always stay fat

Investigation concludes that your body will attempt to return to its original size no matter how hard you try to keep the weight off


Frustrated dieters have long suspected it and now science has confirmed it: almost nobody who cuts down their calories can keep the weight off for long.

Scientists have found that once people gain weight their body will almost inevitably return to its former size — no matter how much they try to exercise or diet.

Their research showed that, even though more than 12m Britons go on a diet each year, fewer than 10% succeed in losing significant amounts of weight. Most of those who do succeed put the weight back on within a year.

The finding does not mean dieting is pointless. People trying to lose weight tend to eat better and exercise more, which can increase fitness and lower blood pressure.

The Medical Research Council’s National Survey of Health and Development has followed 5,362 men and women since their birth in 1946, and 20,000 people born in 1958, measuring their weight and blood pressure and assessing their lifestyles.

Rebecca Hardy, the council’s programme leader on body size, said: “Both groups began increasing in weight in the 1980s and since then people have been increasing in mass all through life.

“For men it goes up steadily through life. For women it starts slowly and accelerates in the mid-thirties. Once people become overweight they continue relentlessly upwards. They hardly ever go back down.

"A few lose weight but very few get back to normal. The best policy is to prevent people becoming overweight.”

The latest Health Survey for England shows that in 2009, about 14% of all children and 25% of adults were obese. Another 14% of children and 36% of adults were overweight.

Excess body fat leads to a higher risk of diabetes, heart disease, arthritis and cancer. Industry studies suggest the average British woman starts three diet regimes a year and spends £25,000 on diet and fitness aids in her lifetime.

Professor Nick Finer, an endocrinologist at University College London hospital, suggests evolution is partly to blame for the difficulty in losing weight.

“It is unlikely that man would have evolved with mechanisms to counter obesity, which has only become a problem in the last 30-40 years,” he said. “For most of human history storing fat would have been an advantage.”

One emerging idea is that humans have a “set point” for weight that our bodies try to stick to. However, becoming overweight can reset this to a high level.

Coleen Nolan, a presenter on ITV’s This Morning and former member of the Nolans, said her weight had fluctuated between 9 and 14 stone (126lb and 196lb). “I have never found it difficult to lose weight but I have found keeping it off very hard,” she said.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto...ticle675755.ece


So my question, and hence the title of the thread, is how did we become successful weight losers and maintainers?

What have we done that is so special that we've succeeded where the majority have failed? What can others do to lose weight and keep it off as we have managed to do?



IMO, many people view dieting as a means to an end, rather than look at it as a permanent change. That usually means that all the good habits they picked up along the way, from making the right food choices, exercising, regularly weighing themselves etc., fall to the wayside as soon as they've reached their goal.

It stands to reason that if your old eating and exercise habits are what made you overweight in the first place, then resuming those ways will cause the weight to creep back on.

To me, understanding how to maintain weight loss is just as important as the actual method used for the weight loss. For some reason many people make the mistake of forgetting all about the maintaining weight loss once they lose the weight. Either that, or they are just not prepared to continue with the hard work that is required to maintain that loss. Others, I feel, become complacent and slowly but surely the pounds start piling on again.

That's definitely what happened to me the first time I got to goal. I became complacent, took my eye off ball, and ended up regaining all the original weight lost and more. This time, I had to fundamentality change my attitude towards food, realise that exercise needed to be a lifetime experience, and that strategy is far more important than willpower. So far, it seems to be working.

Remember that old adage 'nothing tastes as good as thin feels', well the way my body feels when it is fed, exercised and looked after properly is worth far more to me than falling head first into a pile of junk and stuffing my face. I also know that on those days where I really don't feel like it, that once my workout or whatever is finished, I'm going to feel great.

Am I perfect? Absolutely not! But I know what I can and can't do, and plan for success.
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  #2   ^
Old Sun, Jul-24-11, 11:31
freckles's Avatar
freckles freckles is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 8,730
 
Plan: Atkins Maintenance
Stats: 213/141/150 Female 5'4 1/2"
BF:
Progress: 114%
Location: Dallas, TX
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Demi
I
To me, understanding how to maintain weight loss is just as important as the actual method used for the weight loss. For some reason many people make the mistake of forgetting all about the maintaining weight loss once they lose the weight. Either that, or they are just not prepared to continue with the hard work that is required to maintain that loss. Others, I feel, become complacent and slowly but surely the pounds start piling on again.




For me, both times it was a slow progression borne of complacency. I maintained for a year or two both times. I think I just thought it was easy and started having off plan stuff here and there and it slowly grew to being every day. Fortunately I get pretty aggressive low blood sugar symptoms, so I never gained all the weight back.

I want this time to be different! I now have some rules in place for myself that will help me overcome what caused the slippery slope in the past.....and most of them have come from reading those of you who <have> maintained for a length of time and who make posts like this.
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  #3   ^
Old Mon, Aug-15-11, 15:02
eveh eveh is offline
Registered Member
Posts: 57
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 165/124.8/125 Female 5"4"
BF:
Progress: 101%
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I lost pretty fast the last time around on Atkins but gradually I started dabbling in higher carb food and put most of it back on. I would gain ten and take them off, put them back on and just kept battling the lbs coming back. I don't think it had anything to do with a higher set point. It had to do with me being careless and ignoring what was happening. I stopped weighing myself which was a big mistake.
I am hanging out with successful maintainers this time around and listening to what they have to say.
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  #4   ^
Old Mon, Aug-15-11, 15:23
mainecyn's Avatar
mainecyn mainecyn is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 6,011
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 242/161/155 Female 5'6
BF:don't u ask
Progress: 93%
Location: Wyoming
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I admit that the first time around i dropped the lbs super fast and saw great results..it kept me motivated and excited. I gained some back and then was super dedicated to it. Half way thru, I've lost about 60 lbs. i quit smoking, a year ago. I have halted. I keep gaining and relosing the same 10 lbs or so and can't get back to the structure i had. It gets discouraging. I've noticed i can do well for a few weeks and the lbs come off..then i will binge on things like fruit or popcorn..gain a few lbs back, go back to being good, not drop all the lbs i gained, binge again, and add to those lbs again. its a terrible cycle. I wouldn't allow myself anything off plan the first time, stuck to it like a religion. It was life and death, I was serious. I know the lbs take longer to come off this time yet i don't have the patience to wait for it to happen.
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  #5   ^
Old Wed, Aug-17-11, 08:08
Judynyc's Avatar
Judynyc Judynyc is offline
Attitude is a Choice
Posts: 30,111
 
Plan: No sugar, flour, wheat
Stats: 228.4/209.0/170 Female 5'6"
BF:stl/too/mch
Progress: 33%
Location: NYC
Default

I'm editing out my post due to no response from the person that I was trying to help.

Last edited by Judynyc : Thu, Aug-18-11 at 07:29.
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  #6   ^
Old Thu, Aug-18-11, 07:14
Robin120's Avatar
Robin120 Robin120 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,140
 
Plan: low carb
Stats: 171/125/145 Female 5'9
BF:
Progress: 177%
Location: DC
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Well, my point of view is different than many here in that i have never actually been "overweight." I have been at the top end of the BMI "healthy" category, but it is really been about 20 vanity pounds, not a huge loss like so many awesome people here have accomplished.

I have however lost, regained, lost and regained and here is what i eventually discovered along the way:

1. a food journal is an amazing tool- keeps me honest, helps minimize carb creep, helps to point out to me potential problems (i.e. oops, missing the protein here....or, oh i need more greens!, etc...). even after losing, tracking my diet is really needed!

2. vacations and such are not a reason to go overboard. enjoy treats, but make them TREATS. For example, i will have the champagne but not the dessert plus champagne plus more food than usual plus....for days on end!

3. i have always been very active, but when due to injuries/extreme weather/etc... i stop exercising/ walking places, the pounds begin creeping on. I firmly believe that just as we evolved to walk all our the Savannah all day looking for dinner, we need to move every day

4. always continue to look for new recipes if you are getting "bored" or feeling "deprived." There is no reason not to enjoy eating low carb.

5. keep an eye on the scale- set a weight RANGE that when you get above, you know it is time to reign things in, before a couple of pounds become 10 or more pounds....or worse....

6. keep using that trusty food scale- at least to check in periodically, or else those eye balled portions tend to get larger!

good luck and congrats to all those who have reached their weight loss goals

Last edited by Robin120 : Thu, Aug-18-11 at 10:49.
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  #7   ^
Old Thu, Aug-18-11, 07:25
Demi's Avatar
Demi Demi is offline
Posts: 26,664
 
Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160 Female 5'10"
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Robin120
Well, my point of view is different than many here in that i have never actually been "overweight." I have been at the top end of the BMI "healthy" category, but it is really been about 20 vanity pounds, not a huge loss like so many awesome people here have accomplished.

I have however lost, regained, lost and regained and here is what i eventually discovered along the way:
Some great discoveries there Robin, in fact, I would say they all were.

In my case, I think that #2 is the most important. It took me quite a while to see that, while treats were OK, they were only OK on occasion. In other words, NOT all day, every day!
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  #8   ^
Old Thu, Aug-18-11, 07:31
hayes's Avatar
hayes hayes is offline
Sugar Free & Sober!
Posts: 4,897
 
Plan: Atkins/maintenance
Stats: 186/155/140 Female 5'8"
BF:
Progress: 67%
Location: NE Arkansas
Default

# 5 and 6 for me... I have weighed daily for years. That seems to help.
I also struggle with portion control. I like BIG portions. LOL
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  #9   ^
Old Thu, Aug-18-11, 07:52
Judynyc's Avatar
Judynyc Judynyc is offline
Attitude is a Choice
Posts: 30,111
 
Plan: No sugar, flour, wheat
Stats: 228.4/209.0/170 Female 5'6"
BF:stl/too/mch
Progress: 33%
Location: NYC
Default

Those are really wonderful, Robin!
With that list, its no wonder that you were never overweight.

I've had to learn hard lessons that forced me to make serious changes in the way I view and feel about food. I was(and am still to a certain degree) and real addict when it comes to certain foods. I needed to learn just how I used to use sugar and flour as my drugs of choice. Extreme stress for many years, put me into that situation.

I've written about this in my journal and success story. I've lost and regained too many times to even try to count. I'd never actually lost all my weight in 15 yrs of trying, until this time. This time was different for me....very different!!
When I first got to my goal weight, I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to maintain it. It felt as if I was all alone in it then as nobody I knew was maintaining back then. That was when I decided to see if anyone out there wanted to weighin with me each week here. That was 5.5 years ago. Most of the original people have stopped weighing in with us but I'm still here and doing it each week.

During my weight loss time, 20 months of it, I had gotten it that this was going to be the way I eat for life. I realized that if that was to become my reality with food, that it had better be interesting and varied to keep my attention. I had to learn how to cook and stop looking for fast and easy ways to get food into my mouth. Cooking became a sort of hobby for me. It had become my WOE for life!
Because I journaled my food daily into my journal here(800 days in a row) and ate according to the meal plan guide from the SBD, I became very adept at eating this way. I allowed myself to have an old favorite food/treat( a bagel or pasta) once a month while in weight loss mode. I have not had either in about 2 yrs now so it appears that I've weaned myself from those foods.

But, because I ate according to a plan that encourages us to eat fruit and veggies and small amounts of starch daily, I did not trash my thyroid being in menopause. I still eat the same way I ate to lose the weight.
I walk 5-6 hours daily for my work and that helps a lot!!
I used to weigh daily but now weigh a couple of times per week.

I do not believe in doing zero carb for weight loss when it causes such feelings of deprivation that binging becomes common place. I've seen that scenario way too many times on this site....sorry to say.
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  #10   ^
Old Thu, Aug-18-11, 19:05
Robin120's Avatar
Robin120 Robin120 is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 4,140
 
Plan: low carb
Stats: 171/125/145 Female 5'9
BF:
Progress: 177%
Location: DC
Default

Thanks for complimenting my list- you all are giving me a big head

I have learned so much from this board, I am always glad when i can contribute something helpful.
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