Staffdieter
Full Member
I reached my goal weight on CD in November, and am now keen to maintain it.
I have read that only 5% of people keep their weight off for a year, and 1% keep it off for 5 years, so I know that the odds are stacked against me, and fellow minimins dieters.
In order to give myself the best chance of succeeding, I ordered a small fortune worth of books on various aspects of dieting and have been steadily working through them. They ranged from books on emotional eating, books on what tempts us to over eat, books on GI and GL.
Although I've been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of advice, and the fact that some of it is contradictory, I thought the main conclusions may be of interest to fellow maintainers.
In terms of who know's best, there is a national weight registry which maintainers can register on when they have maintained their weight for a year. Research is regularly done with this group to identify what habits help people succeed at maintenance. The vast majoirity of those that succeed eat breakfast every day, regularly weigh themselves, control calorie intake, and tend to eat consistently at weekends and holidays. If they start to put on weight, it is very rare for them to remedy this, and hardly any manage to do this, so the suggestion is that you should remain vigilant at all times!
In terms of the 'tricks of the trade'. It would appear best to focus on eating, ensuring the TV is turned off, and every mouthful savoured. It would appear to be a good idea to assess how hungry you are before the meal, and how much it satisfies you, and to give yourself a minute of contemplation before eating anything. There are suggestions that you eat half your meal then reflect on whether you really want the other half, or leave it 20 mins and see if you still want it then. There are suggestions that you eat off smaller plates, and use slim glasses, making sure that the only food in sight is healthy food.
In terms of what to eat, the general consensus appear to be to eat foods as near to nature and as far from the processing plant as possible. There is a lot of support for the low GL approach, with harsh words about the previous obsessions with low fat and low carb diets of the past!!.
In terms of extremes on book suggests that carbs are absolutely banned in the evening, and no eating should take place after 9.00. Another effectively bans milk and bread.
I intend to give all these ideas house room, and try them over coming months- wondered if any of the succesful maintainers on minimins have found any of these ideas succesful?
I have read that only 5% of people keep their weight off for a year, and 1% keep it off for 5 years, so I know that the odds are stacked against me, and fellow minimins dieters.
In order to give myself the best chance of succeeding, I ordered a small fortune worth of books on various aspects of dieting and have been steadily working through them. They ranged from books on emotional eating, books on what tempts us to over eat, books on GI and GL.
Although I've been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of advice, and the fact that some of it is contradictory, I thought the main conclusions may be of interest to fellow maintainers.
In terms of who know's best, there is a national weight registry which maintainers can register on when they have maintained their weight for a year. Research is regularly done with this group to identify what habits help people succeed at maintenance. The vast majoirity of those that succeed eat breakfast every day, regularly weigh themselves, control calorie intake, and tend to eat consistently at weekends and holidays. If they start to put on weight, it is very rare for them to remedy this, and hardly any manage to do this, so the suggestion is that you should remain vigilant at all times!
In terms of the 'tricks of the trade'. It would appear best to focus on eating, ensuring the TV is turned off, and every mouthful savoured. It would appear to be a good idea to assess how hungry you are before the meal, and how much it satisfies you, and to give yourself a minute of contemplation before eating anything. There are suggestions that you eat half your meal then reflect on whether you really want the other half, or leave it 20 mins and see if you still want it then. There are suggestions that you eat off smaller plates, and use slim glasses, making sure that the only food in sight is healthy food.
In terms of what to eat, the general consensus appear to be to eat foods as near to nature and as far from the processing plant as possible. There is a lot of support for the low GL approach, with harsh words about the previous obsessions with low fat and low carb diets of the past!!.
In terms of extremes on book suggests that carbs are absolutely banned in the evening, and no eating should take place after 9.00. Another effectively bans milk and bread.
I intend to give all these ideas house room, and try them over coming months- wondered if any of the succesful maintainers on minimins have found any of these ideas succesful?