Is your relationship with dieting more like a one night stand or a marriage?

When you are trying to lose weight, do you pick “special” diet foods, the ones that you wouldn’t normally eat? Do you eat different foods from your family? Do you think that you should “suffer” temporarily by forgoing foods that you really like?

Research showed that most “Regainers” - i.e. people who lost weight but failed to keep it off - do these¹ . Regainers treat losing weight more like a one night stand: a short and temporary relationship. And they fail to sustain it. Instead, they regain the weight that they have lost - and probably some more. How? There are 3 possible ways how this happens:

• There is a negative life event or lifestyle change that made it impossible for them to prepare special foods anymore or spend time exercising.
• Some go back to old ways without even realizing it.
• They feel so deprived, they can’t take it anymore and stop dieting at their own will.

What about those who succeeded in losing weight and keeping it off - the successful “Maintainers”? Do they lose weight differently?

You bet. Maintainers try to establish new eating patterns and would not stop until it happens. In fact, the new eating pattern becomes a habit and stays with them permanently. Maintainers said that ultimately they do not want to eat as much and that such foods as candy and donuts are no longer appealing because they are too sweet or fatty. They are able to ‘de-emphasize’ food in their life² .

Indeed, Maintainers are losing weight like people getting married. They don’t think of it as temporarily. They look at the relationship as for a longer term, or even forever.

Well, I’m sure that actually this is nothing new for you. You must have heard it before, perhaps many times already. “You need to change your life style permanently, make it your new habit,” dieting experts said. If you still haven’t done it, I think there could be 2 reasons why.

First, you don’t believe that it works. You think that unless you drastically change your eating pattern, you will not lose much. And if you do change it drastically, you can’t keep on doing it for too long. By now, I hope that I have converted you. There are many studies done by nutritionist, psychologist, behavioral therapist, etc, that prove what I say here.

Second, you don’t know how. Well, I’ll show you how. Basically, you know that you need to cut the amount of food that you eat, as well as fat and sugar. What you need to do is think of how to do so in ways that you can stick to forever. With those Maintainers, there is no “one size fits all” strategy. Each of them picks a different “personal” strategy that suits their own situation - something that perhaps they even enjoy doing. Here are a few examples to get you started:

• Change dinner plates into smaller size.
• Learn to cook low fat meals.
• Join a dance class.
• Buy and stock only low calorie snacks for the whole family.

And this is the most important thing: nobody knows yourself better than you. When picking a particular strategy, think carefully whether it is something that you can hold on for a long time. Be creative and look for ways to make it sustainable, even enjoyable. Sure you can do it!

Read the other articles in this 5 Proven Ways to Keep It Off Series here:

1. Warning: if you think of it as one night stand, you’ll fail.
2. Top weight loss secret.
3. Double your chance for keeping it off.
4. Little known reasons why people fail to keep it off.
5. You must stay alert in a diet battle.

1. Bryne S. et al. Weight Maintenance and Relapse in Obesity: a Qualitative Study. International Journal of Obesity 2003;27: 955-962. [↩]
2. Kayman S. et al. Maintenance and Relapse after Weight Loss in Women: Behavioral Aspects. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 1990;52: 800-807. [↩]