How To Keep the Weight Off

Al Truscott

The National Weight Loss Resistry include > 10,000 people who have lost an average of 70# and kept it off for an average of 6 years. What charactaristics do they have in common? From an NYTimes article today by Tara Parker-Pope:

"There is no consistent pattern to how people in the registry lost weight — some did it on Weight Watchers, others with Jenny Craig, some by cutting carbs on the Atkins diet and a very small number lost weight through surgery. But their eating and exercise habits appear to reflect what researchers find in the lab: to lose weight and keep it off, a person must eat fewer calories and exercise far more than a person who maintains the same weight naturally. Registry members exercise about an hour or more each day [emphasis added]— the average weight-loser puts in the equivalent of a four-mile daily walk, seven days a week. They get on a scale every day in order to keep their weight within a narrow range. They eat breakfast regularly. Most watch less than half as much television as the overall population. They eat the same foods and in the same patterns consistently each day and don’t “cheat” on weekends or holidays. They also appear to eat less than most people, with estimates ranging from 50 to 300 fewer daily calories." 

These are all things I do, not because I want to keep weight off (I never had any to begin with), but just cause that's the way I am. So it may work for prevention, as well. What's the deal with television watching? It shows these folks are movers, not sitters. In other words, they probably also get up and walk around at work, rather than sit at their desk for hours on end.

Swanie

I have lost 60# and kept it off for 5 years. I did it by doing this little thing called Ironman Training and not eating like a pig. I don't watch anymore or less television, but I go to bed at 8:30 and wake up at 4:00am everymorning to workout for 2 hours.

samritter

 @Steve,  Awesome! 

I guess I know what I have in store for me!   In September 2009, I started out at 350lbs.  I'm now at 255 and about 10 of that is what I gained from knee surgery.  January 1 is when I will start to lose that extra 10+.   My low weight was 242# and 8.3% bodyfat this past April just before my first marathon.  I'm training for IM Moo in 2012, and want to do the Goofy Challenge at Disney in Jan 2013.  

I think the real "secret" is to push away from the computer, and/or get off the couch!   Not that I don't get those things, I just don't spend as much time there as I used to.  There is just so much of life to enjoy by not sitting in front of a computer, or sitting on the couch!

Bruce Thompson

@Sam - That's awesome, over 100 lbs.  A great achievement.  I'm doing IM MOO in 2012 too,so I look forward to seeing you there.  I hear that the Goofy is quite a unique and humbling weekend.

Losing weight is HARD, but it is SIMPLE.  You just have to consumer fewer calories than you burn - simple math.  The hard part is doing the math everyday, day after day after day.  Like Steve I got way overweight (job demands, kid demands, long commute, no time to workout, wife is a great cook) over a period years.  By January 2007 I was up to 220 lbs and hated myself.  So I joined a gym, started running consistently again.  By Jan 2008, I was down to 190, by Jan 2009 I was 180, by Jan 2010 I was 170, by Jan 2011 I was 165.   I raced IMCDA in June 2011 @ 162, which was within 5 lbs of what I played intercollegiate lacrosse 35 years ago. Today I weighted in at 161.  Like Steve, IM training helps keep me active and at a stable weight and I still get to enjoy my wife's great cooking.  And like Sam, there is too much to life to waste it in front of a TV (besides I don't want to be a bad example for my teenage kids).

@ Al - thanks for posting this.

 

Keith Wick

One thing I wonder is whether it is the tracking of what people are eating or the fact that by tracking you are actually starting the process of "mindfully" eating. Mindfulness is a way of living that includes meditation, but the overall idea is that we are paying attention to the moment we are living in, not judging it and accepting it as it is. As it relates to diet, you are actually taking time to see if you are eating because you are hungry or if you are bored, depressed, etc. Also, by being mindful while you are eating, you are tasting your food, chewing slowly and thus know when you are full/satisfied. This would seem to help people decrease overall calories, eat good food, and thus create weightloss (for those that can lose) or homeostasis (in weight only, as our bodies may change form).

steveperx

I'll add my $0.02 as well. Although I haven't lost as much as some, I did drop 50 lbs from my heaviest (225 in 2003) to less than 175 this past year. I'd hovered between 190 and 200 for many years after I started triathlons, mostly skating by on the huge amounts of training, but not really watching what I eat. After racing LP in 2010 at 190 lbs, I decided to do a body comp experiment, and in 6 months, I'd dropped 20 lbs to 170.

My keys were 1) logging calories, 2) eating more frequently but fewer calories at each sitting, and 3) eating better foods by cutting out empty calories. Implementing these changes will probably make very rapid changes for most people. It's easy in theory, but difficult in execution, especially when you're used to eating differently. Giving up empty calories is really hard, too. I love my wine, cheese and chocolate!! But, if you can get past the first 30 days, it gets much easier!

Great stuff, Al! Exercise is key!

Keith Wick

@ Steve---So what were your empty calories, because the 3 you listed seem very fulfilling to me, not empty!!!

steveperx

It's amazing how fulfilling empty calories can be. ;-P

Unknown

 It is amazing how much people ACTUALLY eat vs what they THINK they eat.  There was a documentary about morbidly obese people that had them "guess" how much food they consumed each day and the producers kept track of how much they really ate.  Each of the morbidly obese folks would say they "only ate 3,000 calories today".  The TRUE numbers showed these obese people to be eating 13,000 to 19,000 calories per day.  Amazing how much discrepancy there was between the "this is how much I eat" vs "this is what you really ate".

 

Just goes to show how important it can be for people to keep track of their food intake.