by Kate Haisch

You might wonder, once the weight is off, how do I maintain my hard earned achievement? The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a website dedicated to answering this very question. They have a large registry of people who have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off for a long period of time. The average weight loss is 60 pounds, maintained for an average of 5 to 7 years. These registered people then participate in ongoing research, which surveys their habits, successes and difficulties. This helps us to get a better understanding of the most common factors in weight loss maintenance.

1. Follow a Low-Fat Diet

It takes work to keep those hard-earned pounds off. Even though 42% of National Weight Control Registry members believe it is easier to maintain weight loss than lose weight, you still need to be careful of what you eat. It is important to continue eating a low-fat diet, even after the pounds are gone.

What do we mean by low-fat? About 25% of your calories should come from fat. An example of this is if you eat 2,500 calories per day then 625 of your calories should be from fat. This is equal to about 70g of fat per day (there are 9 calories per gram of fat). However, one thing to remember is the type of fat you eat will play a major role in your health. Most of your fats should be heart-healthy fats, such as olive oil, canola oil, salmon, flaxseeds, avocado and nuts. Continue to limit saturated fats, such as fatty meat cuts, dairy fat and tropical oils. You can tell if a fat is saturated or not by its state at room temperature. If a fat is solid (like lard) at room temperature, then it is a saturated fat. If it is a liquid (like olive oil) at room temperature, then it is a healthy fat.

Good fats are an essential part of any healthy diet, just be careful not to over do it, because they can easily lead to weight gain.

2. Record Keep

A recent study by Kaiser Permanente reported that keeping a food diary, on average, doubled the weight loss as compared to those that did not record keep. Record keeping is so important that it’s one of our key Success Tracker tools available to all of our members. For weight loss, we recommend practicing daily food record keeping. If you don’t food record keep for a day or two, don’t worry about backlogging. Just pick-up again from where you are. It is important not to let a bad day (or week!) throw you off completely. Start fresh from where you are and do not stress about past choices. Even if you are not proud of the food you are recording, just keep going.

Record keeping isn’t just for those losing weight. It is also important for those that are doing weight maintenance and weight gain. Food record keeping helps to keep you on track and makes you aware of your eating habits and choices. When on weight maintenance you do not need to food record keep everyday, but it is helpful to check in every once and a while, just to see how many calories you are consuming and to ensure you are eating from all of the food groups to ensure adequate nutrition. We recommend checking in for a total of one week every month.

3. Weigh yourself frequently

75% of the National Weight Control Registry members weigh themselves at least once a week. Whether practicing weight loss or maintenance, we recommend weighing yourself weekly. Weight can fluctuate dramatically from day to day, often 1-2 pounds or more. One day you might weigh yourself and be down 2 pounds only to find that you are back up 3 pounds the next and this can be very disheartening. If you weigh yourself once per week, you will get a much more accurate reading of how much weight you have lost or maintained.

If you are on weight maintenance and find that you have gained a few pounds, take this as a warning sign that you need to reassess what you have been eating. This is a good time to start food and exercise record keeping again to learn what is causing your weight gain. Once you see how those extra desserts or missed days at the gym are adding up you will be able to make healthy changes to stop the unwanted weight gain.

4. Eat Breakfast Daily

One of the most important behaviors in weight maintenance is to eat breakfast daily.  We know – you are sick of hearing us harp about breakfast!  But, 78% of the National Weight Control Registry members who have lost weight and maintained it eat breakfast everyday!  Besides exercise, it is the most common practice among the “losers.”  The proof is in the pudding (or high fiber cereal)!  Breakfast gives your metabolism a daily kick-start plus it helps control your appetite throughout the rest of the day. Breakfast skippers normally tend to over eat at lunch and/or get the incredible “sweet tooth” at around 3-4:00 pm.   If you skip breakfast you are beginning the day in a deficit that your body naturally wants to make up.  This leads to greater calorie consumption throughout the day and when hunger strikes, your defenses fall making it difficult to choose a healthy lunch over a hamburger and fries.  Nutrition for You recommends eating breakfast within one hour of waking and eating a meal high in fiber.  The higher the fiber the better you can regulate glucose and control your appetite.  A good high fiber breakfast should have at least 15g of fiber.  You can achieve this by choosing breakfast cereals with 5g of fiber or more per serving and adding flaxseed meal and berries.   We’ve said it before, and we will say it again, breakfast is the most important meal of the day – so don’t leave home without it!

5. Exercise

One of the most important factors in weight maintenance is exercise.  90% of the National Weight Control Registry members participate in 60-75 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week (on average).  Over half of these people walk.  For weight loss, we recommend doing at least 30 minutes of some kind of cardio activity 4-5 times per week (brisk walking is great!) and doing strength training for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week (to maintain muscle mass).  Exercise is a very important component of weight loss and maintenance.  If you can work your way up to 60 minutes per day then that is excellent.  If not, just do the best you can.  Plus it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Even exercising in 10-minute increments 3 or more  times per day does the trick.  Be realistic about how much exercise you can do in a day.  Don’t make unattainable goals since you will only end up feeling bad about it.  If you don’t currently exercise, start off walking 15 minutes 5 times a week and slowly work your way up.  Exercise is not only a vital part of healthy weight loss and maintenance but it helps maintain bone density, enhances immunity, lowers risk of some cancers and type 2 diabetes, increases lung and circulation function, lowers incidence of anxiety and depression, enhances self-image and quality of life.  So, just do it!  We know you can.

References

Gorman, Kim.  “Strategies to Consider in the Maintenance of Intentional Weight Loss.”  Weight Management Newsletter 5.4 (2008): 1-5

National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/