March Health IQ Question of the Month
What is the #1 factor that determines if people who have lost weight
will keep it off long term?
The “Biggest Re-Gainer”?
The popularity of TV reality shows like The Biggest Loser tap into our nation’s obsession with weight loss and dieting. Many of us identify with the struggles of the everyday people featured on the show who, like us, are trying to lose unwanted weight.
Although many of these contestants manage to lose significant amounts of weight by the end of the show, what viewers don’t see is how they’re doing a few months, or certainly years, after the show. Sure they lost weight under extreme, artificial conditions, with the whole world watching and a deadline with cash incentives making it a top priority in their lives, but what about when the cameras stopped rolling? How many of them have kept it off long-term?
Back to Reality…and Re-Gaining!
The sad truth is, within a short period of time, almost all of the reality show participants regain all the weight and then some!
This trend of losing weight only to regain it soon after is all too common. Many of us can identify with the weight loss rollercoaster of gaining, losing, regaining and re-losing the same 5, 10 or 15 pounds over our lifetimes.
The Key to Keeping It Off
So what is the difference between the people who lose weight for a little while and those who actually manage to keep it off long term?
The National Weight Control Registry has tracked the habits of over 5,000 people who have lost weight. Consistent with the national average, their research shows that barely 20% of the dieters were able to maintain their weight loss after one year. Yet the common denominator of the people who did manage to keep the weight off was that almost all of them exercised regularly, averaging at least one hour per day.
It’s a Lifestyle Thing
So if you’re interested in not only losing weight in the near term, but in actually keeping it off for good, make sure exercise is on your weekly, if not daily, to-do list or calendar so you too can start to feel how good health looks on you!
