In today's calorie-dense, ultra-processed, movement-restrictive, chronic stress-inducing, so-called "toxic" environment, weight loss is a difficult task. However, it is even more difficult to execute a healthy, long-term approach to weight loss.
Long-term weight maintenance can be more difficult than short-term weight loss.
The majority of people can successfully lose weight in the short term. Those who switch from one fad diet to another, however, frequently experience the metabolic roller coaster known as yo-yo dieting, which increases our hunger hormones, decreases our metabolic rates, and produces a vicious cycle of weight loss and regain. Even the majority of medical treatments for obesity result in the traditional pattern of early weight loss, followed by a plateau, and then increasing weight regain. In a meta-analysis of 29 long-term weight loss studies, more than half of the weight lost was recovered within two years, and more than 80% of the weight lost was regained by five years. This indicates that, according to our best estimates, only one in five obese persons achieves long-term weight loss success.
What makes weight loss maintainers so special?
Based on research from the National Weight Control Registry, a database of more than 4,000 people who have sustained at least a 10-per cent bodyweight decrease for at least a year, we have insight into some tried-and-true strategies. These include minimizing calorie-dense foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, portion control and a regular eating pattern throughout the days, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, as well as engaging in at least one hour of daily physical activity.
This is consistent with the scientific literature and makes sense. Successful weight loss requires maintaining a balance between increased energy expenditure and decreased energy consumption (a net negative energy balance). But how can these individuals truly sustain these weight loss-promoting activities over time in order to construct a lifestyle that does not leave them feeling continuously deprived, tired, and hangry?
The most influential variables of weight loss maintenance are those that solidify behaviour changes. Recent research reveals that the correct psychology for weight loss is essential for managing the physiology that supports weight loss.
Self-control and self-efficacy are crucial to long-term achievement.
We all have personal experiences from family, friends, and coworkers. However, it is challenging to properly collect, organize, and analyze the qualitative experiences, tactics, and obstacles of successful weight loss maintainers.
The available findings confirm the significance of self-regulation and, more specifically, self-monitoring of the daily behaviours that determine energy intake and energy expenditure, particularly eating habits. Those with a high self-efficacy (belief in one's ability to perform particular actions) for exercise are more successful at maintaining weight loss. And more lately, researchers have been decoding parts of the correct mentality that fosters high self-efficacy for the greater constellation of essential weight management activities.
Using machine learning and natural language processing, a recent study identified the major behavioural themes — motivations, strategies, struggles, and successes — that were consistent across a group of over 6,000 individuals who had successfully lost and maintained over 9 kilograms (about 20 pounds) of weight for at least one year. As crucial behaviour strategies, this big sample consistently recommended tenacity in the face of failures and consistency in meal recording and monitoring eating behaviours. And the majority of them remained motivated by considering their improved health and attractiveness as a result of their weight loss.
Studies on successful weight loss omit a large number of participants.
According to the findings, age, gender, and socioeconomic level are not major predictors of weight loss maintenance. However, the majority of weight loss trials are oversubscribed by white, educated, middle-income ladies. Given that the prevalence of obesity and its associated comorbidities is disproportionately higher in more socially disadvantaged and historically marginalized populations, we require richer, more representative data to paint a comprehensive and inclusive picture of a successful weight loss psychology. We must gain a deeper understanding of the lived experience of all individuals in order to identify the most potent and distinctive motivations, effective behavioural strategies, and likely obstacles and setbacks, including the environmental determinants that dictate the opportunities and obstacles for engaging in and maintaining a healthier lifestyle.
Multiple tools, training, and assistance are required for weight maintenance.
Maintaining weight loss requires growing familiar with discomfort — the discomfort of occasionally feeling hungry, of exercising instead of stress eating, accurately distinguishing reward-seeking hunger from actual hunger, and refusing the constant lure of ultra palatable foods. This is not a simple task, as it frequently conflicts with environmental cues, cultural norms, family traditions, social influences, and our genetic wiring. In order to assist one another in achieving health and weight loss in the modern world, we must acquire and employ the psychological tools that enable us to not just accept but eventually embrace, this inevitable discomfort.
