The seven predictors of successful weight loss
Last week’s article was about The National Weight Control Registry, a registry of people who have lost 30 pounds or more and who have maintained that loss for at least a year. The NWCR is an on-goingstudy of these people which analyzes their weight loss and weight loss maintenance strategies so that obesity researchers can learn what works and what doesn’t for permanent weight loss.Among the things they learned was that there are seven predictors of success.
The Seven Predictors of Successful Weight Loss
What do you need to do to lose weight? What do you need to do to maintain the loss? According to the NWCR the answer to both these questions is the same. What the registry members did to lose weight was also what they did to maintain the loss. The seven predictors of successful weight loss were also the predictors of successful weight maintenance.
Self monitoring was one of the predictors of success: 50 percent of registry members reported counting calories or using some other way of tracking caloric intake both to lose weight or maintain the loss. Forty-five percent weighed themselves once a day. Thirty-one percent weighed themselves once per week. Thus, over 75 percent weighed themselves at least once a week.
The second predictor of success was the habit of eating a fixed number of regularly scheduled meals each day.
The third was not eating less than two meals a day.
The fourth was preparing and eating the majority of meals at home rather than eating in restaurants.
The Three Most Important Predictors of Success
By far the best predictor of success was the habit of regular physical exercise. Ninety percent of registry members exercised regularly. Nearly every member of the registry reported using a combination of diet plus exercise to both lose weight and maintain the loss. The authors noted that this finding supports the growig literature on the relation between exercise and weight control and provides further evidence that long-term maintenance of weight loss is facilitated by regular physical activity. Registry members were very active.They engaged in a variety of different kinds of exercise that were roughly the equivalent of walking 28 miles per week.
The next most important predictor of success was a change in attitude. Successful losers accepted that permanent weight loss is not a matter of going on a diet, losing weight, and then returning to the habits that made them fat in the first place, but rather a commitment to lifelong changes in their eating and exercise habits. They also had a change in attitude about their goal weight. They accepted a realistic weight goal rather than an ideal that could not be sustained.
The last predictor of success was closely related to the acceptance of a realistic weight. It was the adoption of a way of eating that subjects were content to stay on for the rest of their lives, a way of eating that was satisfying and delicious and didn’t leave them feeling deprived.
Planning
The adoption of such a way of eating requires planning. It requires developing a repertoire of delicious yet healthful recipes; it require menu planning and shopping and cooking. It requires time. The biggest obstacle to permanent weight loss may be finding the time to develop new habits of eating and exercise. Planning is, therefore, a crucial element in successful weight loss and maintenance because it makes more efficient use of our time.
Planning is the habit upon which all the new habits depend. With planning we can establish new habits which are satisfying and enjoyable. Once the new habits are established (which they will be if they are satisfying and enjoyable), they will become more permanent than the old because they come with a built-in reward – looking good and feeling better.
Mary Lou Williams, M. Ed., is a lecturer and writer in the field of nutrition. She welcomes inquiries. She can be reached at 267-6480.