Weight Maintenance Strategy, Planning and Execution

[ETFnerd]

2011 was my road to weight loss. As stated in other threads I started at 255#s in late 2010. On 1/1/2011 I started to execute a weight loss regimen that included exercise, nutrition, rest, sleep and stress management. I initially set my goal at 170#s by year end, but blew by this in August this year (I think). So I re-calibrated to 160#s as my end goal. 10 years ago I found that my natural weight bottomed out at about 155#s and found it difficult to maintain there.

Today I am sitting at 161lbs, so my thoughts are now shifting towards weight maintenance within an ideal + or - 10-15#s band which would allow for normal variability before the alarm bells go off for action. Some say, and research seems to support that maintenance is actually more difficult than weight loss/gain.

I spent some time reading about this topic and found the National Weight Control Registry that appears to do research on people who have lost more than 30#s and who have kept it off for more than one year. They publish interesting findings like:

80% of persons in the registry are women and 20% are men.

The "average" woman is 45 years of age and currently weighs 145 lbs, while the "average" man is 49 years of age and currently weighs 190 lbs.

Registry members have lost an average of 66 lbs and kept it off for 5.5 years.

These averages, however, hide a lot of diversity:

Weight losses have ranged from 30 to 300 lbs.

Duration of successful weight loss has ranged from 1 year to 66 years!

Some have lost the weight rapidly, while others have lost weight very slowly--over as many as 14 years.

We have also started to learn about how the weight loss was accomplished: 45% of registry participants lost the weight on their own and the other 55% lost weight with the help of some type of program.

98% of Registry participants report that they modified their food intake in some way to lose weight.

94% increased their physical activity, with the most frequently reported form of activity being walking.

There is variety in how NWCR members keep the weight off. Most report continuing to maintain a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.

90% of maintainers exercise, on average, about one hour per day.

78% eat breakfast every day.

75% weigh themselves at least once a week.

62% watch less than 10 hours of TV per week.

Since we have a weight loss forum and a muscle building forum, but not a weight maintenance forum (what do you do after you reach your interim goals of achieving health?) I was wondering whether you had found useful articles or resources on this topic that we could gather here in order to discuss and find ways to continue on the road to a better life by maintaining our hard-won and fragile achievements.

I hope to see all of you here in this discussion one day.

Debra's Weight Maintenance Blog - 3% of people who lose radical weight maintain for 5 years

Lynn Haraldson's Blog

Michael Eades MD Blog - Protein Consumption and Weight Maintenance

[aj_rock]

I guess the first question to really ask is: how do we define 'weight maintanence'?

Technically, I've hovered around 185-195 for about 2 1/2 years now, but a) my body composition has improved drastically over this time and I still desire better results. I could also, say, lose significant muscle mass while gaining lots of fat and still maintain weight.

I know this is kind of side-stepping your question/plea for discussion, but I think a better way to define what you are thinking of lies somewhere along

- no such thing: we can always improve. Therefore this is a measure of how long you've gone since a major backslide in progress.

- meeting a goal measuring BMI compared to body composition. Therefore, losing your 'maintenance' is closely defined as moving beyond some limiting 'bar' for weight/composition. I.e. I wouldn't consider myself lost unless I slid back over say, 20% BF and 210#.

I hope this is clear. But knowing that we should be preaching body composition versus un-determined 'weight lost/mainted', we need a more rigorous definition.

I propose we call it 'long-term mass management'?

[ETFnerd]

Yeah, I recall the mechanical physics debates about weight vs. mass. Having said that, I think that the research indicates that regardless of body composition, carrying mass beyond your body frame and organs' capacity to maintain it, would tend to shorten your life and has other implications on longevity. Studies show that smaller dogs live longer than larger dogs mainly because the CV system is taxed more in the latter over a lifetime. So if your goal is to pack 50lbs of muscle above your natural, healthy weight (based on skeletal frame, size and genetic attributes of your heart and other organs), over time that can be detrimental to longevity.

I know 20-somethings tend to think less about mortality, and are willing to make more tradeoffs of mass vs. health, but I am less willing to do so as I get older. It irritates me to hear that more lean muscle mass lets you burn more calories so pack the lean muscle mass on, but there is a price to be paid in taxing the systems that service your body.

I think that one of the side benefits of boxing, karate and other competitive fighting things I've done is that it has allowed me to experiment with weight optimization in order to perform athletically at peak levels. Boxers at high levels do not carry unnecessary weight. Football/Rugby players need a layer of muscle as protection from impact that they subject themselves to. There is a tradeoff of safety and health in determining body composition there.

As such, I am comfortable that I should be in the 150-170lb range for my frame and that I will derive optimal benefit from operating within this range. BF% I guess can be my gauge for composition.

I also think it's up to the individual and her/his desired goals to dictate what the end-state should be. It is lazy to just look up a standard like BMI to avoid thinking about what your body needs to thrive. The definition should be personal and yours, taking into account the constraints of the physical World.

I'd be interested in your analysis of my thought process, because I am always looking to improve my plan.

[aj_rock]

You're correct, and that is pretty much the SOLE reason BMI still has any relevance left today. Your reasoning is sound, but there is a limit to how far you can argue small vs large in terms of longevity; my example would be that an elephant clearly lives longer than a mouse. Maybe that's not applicable. Maybe your theory works only across a single species. I think for humans, it's more strongly correlated to BMI, and even then, apparently recent research has shown that even being a little overweight does not significantly impact on longevity.

Anyways, yes different athletics have different compositional requirements. But some athletics can also be qualified as more physiologically damaging than others.

Heading home for the night from work, so thats it for now. Will continue discussion later.

[mgrif99]

ETFnerd, thank you for starting this thread and posting the blog links.

I like justmaintaining.com's description of the unfairness of weight maintenance.

Unfairness 6. Damage to the joints from the weight you once carried makes it difficult, over time, to create and sustain an exercise regimen that is intense enough to maintain losses.

I have carried 40+ lbs excess weight on my frame for several years, and it is a challenge to think (or to hear from someone else) that I should just go run around the block to get exercise. I've started -- and stopped -- running programs over and over, and it was never this hard on my body when I was thinner. (Okay, admittedly, my sore joints might be due to getting old...) It's so tempting to say "my body isn't made for running" and stop altogether, but it's good to know that it's very possible that it's so hard because of what my body has been put through all these years. I just need to keep at it.

Unfairness 8. All the support you received while losing weight dries up, and often turns to sabotage. People push food at you and lose patience with your time-consuming exercise. Freinds & family are cheerleaders when the weight is actively coming off; they can see evidence of your hard work! But there are no high-fives when you look the exact same as the last time they saw you. Little do they know, keeping it off is just as much as an accomplishment, if not more, as I am learning.

I LOVE lynnsweigh.blogspot.com's take on weight loss and weight management. What stuck out to me most was her idea that WEIGHT LOSS is to PARENTING as WEIGHT MAINTENANCE is to GRANDPARENTING. "I also get to have a little more fun and be a little more relaxed [with granddaughter] than I did when I was a parent. Same thing with maintenance. While I’m vigilant and mindful to food and exercise, I’m also having a little more fun and am a little more relaxed than I was during weight loss. I’m also a lot more patient, both as a grandparent and a person maintaining a weight loss, more so than I ever was with my kids or body before." Such a great analogy. And to think that when I lose weight, my job is over... no way. It doesn't end, it just changes.

Now, I have to say, this rocked my world: the idea that a diet high in protein will help keep the weight off. Maybe I don't read enough about this, but I never really thought about this before. I especially like proteinpower's description of protein's role (and scientific data backing it up... the science nerd is very happy).

"Additional protein consumption during weight maintenance after weight loss resulting in 18 vs 15 en% [percent energy] protein, resulted in a 50% lower body weight regain, only consisting of FFM [fat free mass, i.e., lean tissue] and related to increased satiety and decreased energy efficiency."

Looks like meat's back on the menu, boys!

WHAT TYPE of protein??? From that same site, apparently animal protein is more effective than veggie protein, and of the protein supplements, whey is more effective than casein. HOW MUCH protein??? Again, from the same source: "The take home lesson if you’re trying to maintain is to increase your protein intake by 50 grams or so daily, preferably with either whey or meat." So, I should actually go to that grass-fed farm I've been looking into, and I should be picking whey protein shakes over casein, soy, or other types of shakes, increasing my protein by ~50g/day. Good to know.

I also did a google search and found some supportive and interesting tidbits that help with the feeling of struggling with weight maintenance.

How do we know if we are considered "successful weight loss maintainers"? This article provides the following definition: "individuals who have intentionally lost at least 10% of their body weight and kept it off at least one year." I've lost 40 lbs from 233 lbs, which is 17% of my original body weight. And I've kept it off since July 2011. Only six months. Damn, I guess I'm not a successful weight loss maintainer. Yet.

WebMD: "Losing weight is the (relatively) easy part." Amen, brotha. "It is a three-phase process: weight loss, transition to maintenance, and maintaining the weight loss." '"Getting the weight off is only one task, which is followed by switching your mind-set to a more permanent way of living so you keep it off." Soooo.... keeping it off is actually HARDER than taking it off. Crap.

The good news is, there is light at the end of the tunnel. An article explains that "Weight loss maintenance may get easier over time. Once these successful maintainers have maintained a weight loss for 2-5 years, the chances of longer-term success greatly increase."

I found a (who knows how reputable) website that calculated the number of calories that I need to maintain my weight with "light" exercise at 2119/day. Every time I track my calories, which I do periodically, it's nowhere near 2119 Cal. I'm usually way under. Maybe adding that extra protein will bring it up.

A little bit about me:

Sep 2010: 233lbs

July 2011: 193 lbs

Dec 2011: 192 lbs

I'm not content to stay at this weight, but I am proud that I haven't gained any of the weight back since I lost it.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Congratulations on your success. I never understand why people let themselves get fat, I mean it seems so simple, eat a little less and exercise a little more. My attitude changed when my weight started approaching 200 and I tried to bring it back down and it was damn hard to lose any weight at all. So, I am in awe of your transformation.

I"ve lost at least 19# (10%) so far, but I'm not worried about maintenance. I've come to the conclusion that fitness and health aren't a crash diet or a Biggest Loser style exercise plan, but that they're a sum total of your daily habits. Learn to eat your fruits and veggies every day; find an activity that you'll do everyday; take the stairs; walk somewhere every day... This is my theory now, this is what I'm trying to do (the no doughnut habit is really hard to establish).

Good luck,

-ted