The Next Hurdle: Keeping Weight Off
Most people regain lost pounds, sometimes more, in five years

(HealthDay News) -- Most everyone, at one time or another, has tried to lose weight. But more often than not, weight-loss efforts are a losing battle.

At any given moment, about one-third of all Americans are trying to take off extra pounds. Even if they succeed, most will have regained nearly all of the weight within five years. And after five years, statistics show, they may end up weighing more than before they started dieting.

However, some people do succeed, and researchers are uncovering more about what works and what doesn't when it comes to weight loss.

The number one cause for failure "is setting too unrealistic of goals, losing too much too fast," Barbel Knauper, an associate professor of psychology at McGill University in Montreal , told HealthDay .

A healthy goal is to lose one or two pounds a week. It's just unrealistic to expect to drop 15 pounds in a month, experts say.

Lack of planning is another big problem for people trying to lose weight, especially when it comes to getting through social events.

"If people were making 'when, where, how' plans, they would be more likely to adhere to their goal," Knauper said. For instance, she suggests that before going out to eat with friends, people who are trying to lose weight could look up the restaurant menu online and choose what they'll be having for dinner -- and then stick with it, even if their friends order large portions.

Socializing is one of the biggest factors in weight-loss failures, according to Dr. Michael Dansinger, an assistant professor of medicine at Tufts-New England Medical Center .

"Feelings of deprivation or boredom with the current eating plan" also can spell disaster for weight-loss efforts, he said.

Dieters also routinely underestimate the number of calories they're consuming and overestimate how many calories they work off through exercise, according to Knauper.

Consistent eating and daily weighing were found to be helpful for people participating in the National Weight Control Registry, a group of dieters who've managed to maintain their weight loss. More than 90 percent also exercise regularly, and about 66 percent of them watch less than 10 hours of TV each week. Limiting fast food to less than once a week and eating out no more than three times a week also has helped these successful losers stay slim, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Sticking with a weight-loss plan, such as Weight Watchers, Ornish or the Zone, also may help people shed pounds. In a study Dansinger published in the Journal of the American Medical Association , he found that sticking to a plan -- any plan -- helped dieters lose a few more pounds.

On the Web

To learn about proper nutrition for weight loss, check out information online from the American Academy of Family Physicians.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Michael Dansinger, M.D., assistant professor of medicine, Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston; Barbel Knauper, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; Jan. 5, 2005, Journal of the American Medical Association ; National Institutes of Health (www.nih.gov)
Author: Serena Gordon
Publication Date: Feb. 29, 2008
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