Key to Maintaining Weight Loss - A Little Planning & Lots of Vigilance

Why is it that some people who have lost weight keep it off, while others gain it back?
To understand more about 'successful losers', researchers from Brown University and the University of Colorado established The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) in 1994.
The NWCR is the largest prospective investigation of long term successful weight loss maintenance, tracking over 10, 000 individuals.

What they've found is that weight regain is not inevitable.
In their latest analysis of 3,000 members who participated in the registry for a decade, NWCR researchers noted that, while some regain is typical, almost all of the participants maintained a substantial loss even after 10 years - an average of 24 kgs at five years, and a 23 kgs loss at 10 years.
What emerged is that successful losers usually;
• Track their food intake
• Follow a weight-loss program or count kilojoules
• Eat breakfast regularly
• Follow a low kilojoule, low fat diet, taking in about 7500 kilojoules or less daily
• Limit their dining out - on average, three times weekly (fast food less than once a week)
• Eat similar foods regularly, and dont splurge much on holidays
• Weigh themselves at least weekly
• Watch less than 10 hours of tv per week (the South African average is 30+ hours)

The NWCR investigators have also discovered that:
• 90% of successful losers average about an hour of exercise daily, underscoring the importance of making time to be active.
• A key safety zone for weight maintenance is between 2 and 3 kgs.
That is, if people regain 2 kgs, they need ti put on the brakes and get back to a better eating and activity plan.

The take home message from this ongoing research is that constant vigilance about what you eat and how much, is important.
So is staying active and keeping track of your weight so you can regroup if the scale starts to creep upward.