How to Maintain & Manage a Healthy
Normal Weight
Weight Control
Weight Control
- Difference between Weight Loss and Weight Control
Weight loss
means losing weight - weight control refers to the act of maintaining
weight at a healthy level. Many dieters successfully lose weight, but
then lose control and regain most of the weight lost. Some dieters choose
diet programs that cause excessive amounts of water weight loss or lose
weight with pills. Typically, these weight loss methods are only temporary,
and most (if not all) weight is regained.
Weight Control
- Healthy Weight Maintenance
Weight control
focuses on developing stable and healthy eating habits, together with
regular exercise habits. Weight control is a pattern of behavioral routines,
rather than a weight loss program with a weight target to achieve within
a set time. Weight control is about controlling a range of weight-related
habits like: food shopping, cooking, dining out habits, exercise and lifestyle.
Weight control involves diet modification, and developing a healthy, positive
attitude to food. Weight control usually means adopting new attitudes
towards yourself, your weight and body shape, and developing more realistic
expectations of how weight affects your life.
Weight Control
- A Long Term Process
Successful
weight control is a long term process, especially for seriously overweight
individuals or those with obesity. It requires patience and a positive
approach to all weight-related behaviors.
Weight Control
- Support
Successful
weight control means knowing how to find support and information. As a
first step, consult your doctor or health-care provider. Visit your local
library to find out about nutrition, or surf the internet for weight-related
web sites and dietary information. Research shows that weight control
is easier for those who know about calories, nutrition and healthy diet.
Weight Control
- Weight Research Data from US National Weight Control Registry
National Weight Control Registry (NWCR)
The National Weight Control Registry was
founded in 1993 and is a collaborative venture between Dr James Hill of
the University of Colorado and Dr. Rena Wing of the University of Pittsburgh.
The NWCR is simply a database of people successful at maintaining a weight
loss.
National Weight Control Registry - Purpose
The purpose of this national database is
to identify a large group of people who have been successful at long-term
maintenance of substantial weight loss. The National Weight Control Registry
uses quantitative measures to describe weight-loss and weight-maintenance
strategies. This is NOT a treatment plan. To date, there are over 2,000
people, from all over the United States, enrolled in the NWCR.
National Weight Control Registry - Weight
Loss Myths
One of the most popular myths about weight
loss is that everyone who loses weight will eventually gain it back. The
National Weight Control Registry is a research study which has exploded
this myth and shown that successful weight loss is indeed possible.
Weight Control Findings - National Weight
Control Registry
General
- Successful weight losers report making
substantial changes in eating and exercise habits to lose weight and
to maintain their losses.
- On average, registrants’ report
consuming about 1400 kcal/day (24 percent calories from fat) and expending
about 400 kcal/day in physical exercise.
- Walking is the most frequently cited
physical activity.
- The average registrant has lost about
60 pounds and kept it off for about 5 years.
- Two-thirds of these successful weight
losers were overweight as children and 60 percent report a family history
of obesity.
- About 50 percent of participants lost
weight on their own without any type of formal program or help.
- Successful weight losers appear similar
to normal weight individuals in terms of resting metabolic rate.
Specific Weight Control Studies
Weight Control Less Diificult than Initial
Weight Loss
42% of the first 784 participants with
NWCR report that maintaining their weight loss is less difficult than
initially losing the weight. Future studies will examine in greater detail
the weight maintenance behaviors of these individuals and identify factors
which influence continued maintenance of weight loss.
(Source: Klem, M.L., Wing, R.R., McGuire,
M.T., Seagle, H.M., & Hill, J.O. A descriptive study of individuals
successful at long-term maintenance of substantial weight loss. American
Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 1997, 66, 239-246.)
Successful Weight Control Using Low Fat
Diet
This study looked at weight maintenance
strategies used by registry members who initially lost weight either 1)
on their own, 2) through organized programs, or 3) through programs utilizing
liquid diets. Participants who used liquid diets were more likely to be
women, older, currently heavier, and to have a history of health problems.
All three groups are currently maintaining their weight losses by eating
low-energy, low-fat diets and engaging in regular physical activity. Thus,
despite using very different methods to initially lose weight, individuals
who lost weight on their own, through organized programs, or with liquid
diets are all using similar strategies to maintain weight.
(Source: McGuire, M.T., Wing, R.R., Klem,
M.L., Seagle, H.M., & Hill, J.O. Long-term maintenance of weight loss:
Do people who lose weight through various weight loss methods use different
behaviors to maintain their weight? International Journal of Obesity,
1998, 22, 572-577.)
Weight Maintenance - Does Not Trigger
Psychological Symptoms
Prior studies have shown that individuals
may be genetically predisposed to become overweight. Based on this finding,
some researchers have suggested that attempts to lose weight (to drop
below one’s genetically determined "setpoint weight") will
inevitably lead to intense psychological pressures to regain the lost
weight. In this study, we examined the level of psychological symptoms
among registry members, all of whom have successfully lost weight and
who are therefore likely to be below their "setpoint weight."
Levels of depressive symptoms, general emotional distress, binge-eating
and self-induced vomiting in registry members are considerably lower than
the rates of these behaviors seen in psychiatric samples, and similar
to rates seen in random samples of the general population. Thus, we found
no evidence that successful maintenance of a weight loss is associated
with clinically significant levels of psychological symptoms.
(Source: Klem, M.L., Wing, R.R., McGuire,
M.T., Seagle, H.M., & Hill, J.O. Psychological symptoms in individuals
successful at long-term maintenance of weight loss. Health Psychology,
1998, 17, 336-345.)
Successful Weight Loss - No Evidence of
Reduction in Metabolic Rate
Some researchers have suggested that a
successful weight loss may be accompanied by a larger than expected reduction
in resting metabolic rate. If this is true, this reduction (also called
"increased metabolic efficiency") may be the reason so many
people find it difficult to maintain weight losses. In this study, we
measured the resting metabolic rates of 40 registry members and a group
of weight-matched control subjects. Resting metabolic rates for the two
groups were not significantly different, although registry members had
a respiratory quotient (RQ) slightly higher than that of control subjects.
We found no evidence of increased metabolic efficiency in registry members,
suggesting that this phenomenon is not an obligatory consequence of successful
weight loss. The observed difference in RQ may have been due to either
registry members’ consumption of a low-fat diet or to a reduced capacity
for fat oxidation.
(Source: Wyatt H.R., Grunwald G.K., Seagle
H.M., Klem M.L., McGuire M.T., Wing R.R. and Hill J.O. (1999). Resting
energy expenditure in reduced-obese subjects in the National Weight Control
Registry. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 69, 1189-1193.)
Weight Control After Substantial Weight
Loss - Comparison Study
Surgical treatments for obesity produce
large, well-maintained weight losses as well as improvements in psychosocial
functioning. It has been suggested that large weight losses achieved through
non-surgical means may produce adverse changes in psychosocial functioning.
The purpose of this study was to compare psychosocial functioning and
weight maintenance behaviors in registry members who lost large amounts
of weight through surgical versus non-surgical means. Both groups reported
that weight loss had led to significant improvements in many areas of
life, and members who used non-surgical means to lose weight were no more
likely than surgical patients to report symptoms of depression or disordered
eating. The surgical group reported eating a diet higher in fat, and were
much lower in physical activity, than the non-surgical group. Thus, while
both groups are functioning well and maintaining significant weight losses,
they appear to be using very different behaviors to maintain the weight
losses.
(Source: Klem, M.L., Wing, R.R., Chang,
C.H., Lang, W., McGuire, M.T., Sugerman, H.J., Hutchison, S.L., Makovich,
A.L., and Hill, J.O. (In press). A case-control study of successful maintenance
of a substantial weight loss: Individuals who lost weight through surgery
versus those who lost weight through non-surgical means. International
Journal of Obesity.)
Weight Control Gets Easier Over Time
For several health-related behaviors (smoking
cessation, alcoholism, weight loss), risk of relapse seems to decrease
over time. The purpose of this study was to examine, among registry members,
the relationship between duration of weight loss maintenance and the amount
of effort and attention required to maintain a weight loss. Registry members
who had maintained weight losses for longer periods of time reported using
fewer weight control strategies and indicated that less effort was needed
to stay on a diet and to maintain their current weight. Members who had
maintained weight losses for both shorter and longer periods of time derived
equal amounts of pleasure from exercise, low-fat eating and maintaining
their weight losses. Thus, as duration of maintenance increases, the effort
required to maintain seems to decrease. This shift may make it easier
to continue maintaining the weight loss.
(Source: Klem, M.L., Wing, R.R., Lang,
W., McGuire, M.T., and Hill, J.O. (In press). Does weight loss maintenance
become easier over time? Obesity Research.)
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Note: Dr James Hill is Professor of Pediatrics
and Director of the Clinical Nutrition Research Unit at the University
of Colorado Health Sciences Center. His interest is in factors that influence
body weight regulation. In particular, he is interested in environmental
factors that promote body weight gain and obesity. Currently he is researching
how physical activity level influences body weight regulation. Dr Hill
is a member of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney
Diseases Task Force on the Prevention and Treatment of Obesity, and is
Past President of the North American Association for the Study of Obesity.
Sources include: National Weight Control
Registry. 1-800-606-NWCR.
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