ARTICLE: The BIGGEST predictor of weight loss success is...
ARTICLE: The BIGGEST predictor of weight loss success is...
4,500 men and women who have lost weight and kept it off share their proven strategies.
By The Editors of Prevention
The good news on getting slim can sometimes seem alarmingly thin. According to an article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, more than 30% of adults in the United States are on a diet, yet the number of overweight children and adults has never been higher. You have to wonder, is anyone out there losing weight?
In fact, we know 4,500 people who are: The men and women enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry have each lost 30 pounds or more--and kept it off for at least a year. Obesity experts James O. Hill, PhD, and Rena Wing, PhD, founded the registry in 1993 to study what works and what doesn't when it comes to weight loss. The participants' average weight loss is 67 pounds. And the average length of time they've maintained it is an equally impressive 5 1/2 years.
How did they do it? Holly Wyatt, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a frequent research partner of Hill, reveals the registry's been-there, trimmed-that secrets. Read up--and slim down. For good.
Get Physical
By far, the registry's biggest predictor of weight loss success is a high level of physical activity. "You can be very successful at losing weight by changing or restricting what you eat," says Wyatt, who is also a Prevention advisor. "But studies like ours show that the only way to keep that weight off is through exercise."
The reason: When you diet, you tend to pare muscle as well as fat. Muscle loss slows down your metabolic rate (meaning you burn less food for energy and possibly store more of it as fat). To rev up your metabolism--and maintain your weight loss--you have to maintain muscle mass through exercise.
Registry participants burned an average of 2,800 calories a week, or about 400 calories a day, through exercise. That's equivalent to about 4 miles daily of fitness walking, which is the activity chosen by the majority of the participants (although an increasing number of female participants also supplement their walking with strength training). "It takes, on average, between 60 and 90 minutes of activity every single day to maintain weight loss," says Wyatt. "Thirty minutes most days of the week--the message most of us remember--is what you need to do to improve your heart health, but it's often not enough to prevent you from regaining any weight that you've lost."
Eat Breakfast:
Most of the registry's losers have a morning meal. The scientists can't say for sure why eating breakfast helps, but a study recently published by Wyatt showed that it isn't because breakfast eaters consume fewer calories throughout the day than breakfast skippers do. The two groups reported eating about the same amount, but the breakfast eaters said they exercised more.
"Maybe the eaters had more energy than the skippers," says Wyatt. "Maybe eating breakfast and exercising daily are just two health-promoting behaviors that tend to cluster together. Whatever the reason, though, eating breakfast is definitely linked with maintaining weight loss. I recommend a lean, 200- to 300-calorie breakfast to my patients."
Wyatt suggests mixing a low-fat protein source and a carbohydrate, such as scrambled egg whites wrapped in a low-fat, high-fiber tortilla, or oatmeal made with low-fat or fat-free milk. "European studies are showing that if you boost your protein intake a little bit, lower your carbohydrate consumption a little, and keep your fat intake low, you may lose more weight than you would if you ate the same number of calories but had a higher carb intake," she says.
Stay Tuned:
Seventy-five percent of registry participants weigh themselves at least once a week. By keeping track of your weight and what you need to do to maintain it, such as stepping on a scale, keeping a food journal, or recruiting an exercise partner, you won't be surprised by "mysterious" and discouraging weight gain.
Last Update: 12/15/2005
4,500 men and women who have lost weight and kept it off share their proven strategies.
By The Editors of Prevention
The good news on getting slim can sometimes seem alarmingly thin. According to an article in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, more than 30% of adults in the United States are on a diet, yet the number of overweight children and adults has never been higher. You have to wonder, is anyone out there losing weight?
In fact, we know 4,500 people who are: The men and women enrolled in the National Weight Control Registry have each lost 30 pounds or more--and kept it off for at least a year. Obesity experts James O. Hill, PhD, and Rena Wing, PhD, founded the registry in 1993 to study what works and what doesn't when it comes to weight loss. The participants' average weight loss is 67 pounds. And the average length of time they've maintained it is an equally impressive 5 1/2 years.
How did they do it? Holly Wyatt, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a frequent research partner of Hill, reveals the registry's been-there, trimmed-that secrets. Read up--and slim down. For good.
Get Physical
By far, the registry's biggest predictor of weight loss success is a high level of physical activity. "You can be very successful at losing weight by changing or restricting what you eat," says Wyatt, who is also a Prevention advisor. "But studies like ours show that the only way to keep that weight off is through exercise."
The reason: When you diet, you tend to pare muscle as well as fat. Muscle loss slows down your metabolic rate (meaning you burn less food for energy and possibly store more of it as fat). To rev up your metabolism--and maintain your weight loss--you have to maintain muscle mass through exercise.
Registry participants burned an average of 2,800 calories a week, or about 400 calories a day, through exercise. That's equivalent to about 4 miles daily of fitness walking, which is the activity chosen by the majority of the participants (although an increasing number of female participants also supplement their walking with strength training). "It takes, on average, between 60 and 90 minutes of activity every single day to maintain weight loss," says Wyatt. "Thirty minutes most days of the week--the message most of us remember--is what you need to do to improve your heart health, but it's often not enough to prevent you from regaining any weight that you've lost."
Eat Breakfast:
Most of the registry's losers have a morning meal. The scientists can't say for sure why eating breakfast helps, but a study recently published by Wyatt showed that it isn't because breakfast eaters consume fewer calories throughout the day than breakfast skippers do. The two groups reported eating about the same amount, but the breakfast eaters said they exercised more.
"Maybe the eaters had more energy than the skippers," says Wyatt. "Maybe eating breakfast and exercising daily are just two health-promoting behaviors that tend to cluster together. Whatever the reason, though, eating breakfast is definitely linked with maintaining weight loss. I recommend a lean, 200- to 300-calorie breakfast to my patients."
Wyatt suggests mixing a low-fat protein source and a carbohydrate, such as scrambled egg whites wrapped in a low-fat, high-fiber tortilla, or oatmeal made with low-fat or fat-free milk. "European studies are showing that if you boost your protein intake a little bit, lower your carbohydrate consumption a little, and keep your fat intake low, you may lose more weight than you would if you ate the same number of calories but had a higher carb intake," she says.
Stay Tuned:
Seventy-five percent of registry participants weigh themselves at least once a week. By keeping track of your weight and what you need to do to maintain it, such as stepping on a scale, keeping a food journal, or recruiting an exercise partner, you won't be surprised by "mysterious" and discouraging weight gain.
Last Update: 12/15/2005
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by San on
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Good article! My sister was diagnosed as having Type II recently after being borderline for 3-4 years. This is what I've been trying to drill in her head to keep from having to take a pill every day for the rest of her life! Last Monday, we went for a walk and she almost passed out on me. After that scare, all of sudden she's listening to me. I'm sending this to her right now. Probably for the first time in her adult life, she now eats breakfast every morning, a snack, lunch (a real lunch), a snack and a real dinner. She's lost 7 lbs in a month! It works! She's adopted the lean protein and the good carbs. I'm working with her on the veggies. As far as fitness, due to SS, I'm stronger. So when I get her to the park to walk, I stretch her out! This is a very good article.
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Yes it is. I need to work on my lower body strength. May help with this fight with the elliptical.
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Permalink Reply by Emma Joseph on -
"Thirty minutes most days of the week--the message most of us remember--is what you need to do to improve your heart health, but it's often not enough to prevent you from regaining any weight that you've lost."
That is soooooo true, when I put back on the weight I was exercising 30 or so minutes a day or at least 3-4 times a week and couldnt understand why I kept gaining rather than losing!!!!
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Permalink Reply by KatCarney on -
Emma, I was the same way. I think that 'myth' is why so many people do the 30 minutes 3-4 days a week, and then quit with the attitude, "exercise doesn't work" or worse, "because I have pcos, I have to work SO much harder than 'normal' women to lose weight.'
I know I get on cysters' nerves at SC when I have to say, "Ummm, no. Baseline for fat loss exercise is 300 minutes per week." Most non-pcos women trying to lose weight, don't even put in that kind of time.
And once you get to looking for weight/fat loss of 1% of one's body weight (which for a 200 pound woman would be 2 pounds per week), you're looking at closer to Dr H Rx which is 720 minutes per week - for NORMAL women. (The mid-line, per the article above of 90 minutes/6 days a week, would be 540 minutes.)
GOOD: 300 minutes
GOOD-ER: 300 minutes (split into 2 a day workouts)
BETTER: 540 minutes
BETTER-ER: 540 minutes (split into 2 a day workouts)
MUCH BETTER: 600 minutes (split into 2 a day workouts)
MAX EFFORT: 720 to 900 minutes (split into 2 a day workouts)
So to those who believe that they have to work 'that' much harder because of PCOS? First show me your workout calendar detailing 12 weeks of Dr H fitness and 1200 to 1500 daily calories. That's the ONLY way I'll believe that it doesn't 'work' for you.
At the end of the day, as this article points out - it's what you actually DO that counts (when it comes to successful, sustained, and healthy weight loss.)
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Permalink Reply by am0rcita on -
"because I have pcos, I have to work SO much harder than 'normal' women to lose weight.'
I think a lot of women would be surprised that the 'normal' women are silently working their booties off via intense exercise in their free time. I was always under the impression that my friends were casual exercisers until I started bonding with them over our love of fitness and discovered that they are putting in hours and hours of hard work to stay fit.
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