Struggling to maintain weight loss? Here’s how to make it last

Many people believe that is pointless trying to lose weight because everyone just puts it back on again.

M T McGuire (University of Pittsburg, USA) and colleagues looked at this idea and found:

“A large proportion of the American population has lost … [an amount greater than or equal to] 10% of their maximum weight and has maintained this weight loss for at least 1 y. These findings are in sharp contrast to the belief that few people succeed in long-term weight loss maintenance.”

This is in contrast to the work of Traci Mann, professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota (USA). She and her graduate students analysed every randomised controlled trial of diets that included a follow-up of at least two years. They concluded:

“The dieters had little benefit to show for their efforts, and the non-dieters did not seem harmed by their lack of effort. In sum, it appears that weight regain is the typical long-term response to dieting, rather than the exception.”

Your own experience may be of losing weight and then putting it back on again. This can make you feel that losing weight is a horrible struggle that is just not worthwhile. You may see a bleak future where you’re either overweight/obese or you are constantly having to restrict what you eat.

This may be because you’ve been entirely focussed on restricting calories or carbs, as the way to lose weight. This isn’t surprising when magazines, newspapers and websites are full of information about such restrictive diets.. It may be why the statistics for long term maintenance are so depressing – too many people have just focussed on how many calories they are eating.

But let’s have a look at some of the research on people who manage to keep weight gain to a minimum.

Research from the University of Colorado (USA) found:

“… successful weight-loss maintainers rely on physical activity to remain in energy balance (rather than chronic restriction of dietary intake) to avoid weight regain. In the study, successful weight-loss maintainers are individuals who maintain a reduced body weight of 30 pounds or more for over a year.”

Adam Collins and Aoife Egan of the University of Surrey (UK) say:

“Studies show exercise (or simply physical activity) may be one way to prevent weight regain, by improving our ability to maintain our weight and can potentially minimise metabolic slowing. Exercise can also help regulate appetite and fuel burning in the short term, and may make weight loss more sustainable in the long term.”

The US government Centers For Disease Control says:

 “To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity aerobic activity, 75 minutes of vigorous‐intensity aerobic activity, or an equivalent mix of the two each week. Strong scientific evidence shows that physical activity can help you maintain your weight over time. However, the exact amount of physical activity needed to do this is not clear since it varies greatly from person to person. It’s possible that you may need to do more than the equivalent of 150 minutes of moderate‐intensity activity a week to maintain your weight.”

Judy Kruger and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control (USA) found:

“Self-monitoring strategies such as weighing oneself, planning meals, tracking fat and calories, exercising 30 or more minutes daily, and/or adding physical activity to daily routine may be important in successful weight loss maintenance.”

The US National Weight Control Registry is a research group that seeks to gather information from people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off. They found that:

“Most report continuing to maintain a low-calorie, low-fat diet and doing high levels of activity.         

        78% eat breakfast every day.

        75% weigh themselves at least once a week.

        62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.

        90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour per day.”

Another study of National Weight Control Registry participants found:

“Decreases in leisure-time physical activity, dietary restraint, and frequency of self-weighing and increases in percentage of energy intake from fat and disinhibition [lessening self-control] were associated with greater weight regain.”

Professor Debra Haire-Joshu says:

“Any weight gain–prevention method that is not comprehensive, multi- component and sustainable is going to have less effectiveness. The more comprehensive an effort can be, including eating and regular activity, the more effective it will be.”

M T McGuire (University of Pittsburgh, USA) and colleagues say this about their research:

 “This study suggests that several years of successful weight maintenance increase the probability of future weight maintenance and that weight regain is due at least in part to failure to maintain behavior changes.”

Other research from M L Klem (also from University of Pittsburgh, USA) agrees that it gets easier as time goes on:

“Subjects who had maintained weight losses longer used fewer weight maintenance strategies and reported that less effort was required to diet and maintain weight and that less attention was required to maintain weight.”

These are the strategies that have been shown to work for long-term maintenance. It is not enough just to focus on calories, you need to look at your daily activity levels.