Tuesday fitness fun fact

Regarding my current fixation with long-term weight maintenance, I found this 2008 study from the American Diabetes Association which provides the "KEYS" to long-term weight maintenace.

According to the study, the causes for regaining weight are:

1. binge eating (loss of control while eating);
2. "all or nothing" thinking;
3. perceived barriers to exercise, including "too tired," "too hard," "not enough time," 
4. "no companion or support"
5. perceived barriers to diet, including "high cost of healthy foods" and "eating away from home too often";
6. lacking self-efficacy, motivation, realistic weight loss goals, and a strong body image.

The way to keep the weight off over the long haul are:

1. Physical activity
2. Diet low in calories, fat and sugars
3. Consistant eating habits
4. Regular consumption of breakfast
5. Catching slips before large weight regain
6. Limited TV viewing
7. Regulated emotional eating
8. Support
9. Direct coping of stress and behavioral issues

 

Weight Regain Prevention

Christina Garcia Ulen, Mary Margaret Huizinga, MD, MPH, Bettina Beech, DrPH and Tom A. Elasy, MD, MPH

 

Using myself as an example, I think a missing key to gaining weight after WLS is snacking or grazing.  None of the keys that you list apply to me.  But, I start to snack from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep.  And, if I wake up during the night, I know I'll have a snack.  I try to limit the amount of my snacks but I just can't stop grazing.  Weirdly enough, I  can even snack about 1/2  hour after a meal.  I can't overeat the pouch--I get the full feeling and I can't eat another bite.  But, give me 1/2 hour and I can be snacking again.  It's insidious.  I know it doesn't make any sense because I know that I am not physically hungry.  But, knowing doesn't stop snacking.

As to the second list, the only one that I consistently do is eat breakfast.  I'm trying to get in more physical activity and I guess I could say that using this forum is my support.  My regular meals follow #2 but not my snacks.  #6 is totally foreign to me.  I've been watching TV from the moment I woke up for as long as I can remember.  I remember waking up and watching the farm reports (I grew up about 40 miles w of NYC and there weren't any farms around.) It was just what was on TV.  I mus****ch about 12 hours of TV per day now--I don't always pay close attention--but it's on.  My wife and I have always had the TV on during our meals.  If I want to stop that I'd have to find a different place to eat.  And, we're usually watching the news at dinnertime.  I can't even imagine giving up emotional eating.  I've tried and since I've tried for about 40 years, I just don't think I can do it.  I do know that I tend to eat more when I'm depressed and to lose weight when I'm manic.  Believe me, there's no temptaion there for me to go off of my meds.  Before I was on them, the manic periods were relatively short and the depressions were long.  Plus, the crash from manic to depressive was severe.  One of my biggest fears is that I miss more than one dose for any reason;  I know there's enough residual med in my blood to not worry about missing one dose.

Yipes!  Am I condemned to a life of not being able to fully cope?  I can cope with life using some bad habits.  I know that, when I was at my worse state, that I would just go bang my head against a wall.  I would soon stop because it didn't help.  I've pounded my fists on walls too--but never through them.  And, for anyone who's concerned, I only have outbursts against inanimate things.  I haven't slapped or punched anyone since I was a kid--and that was usually my bro.

So, I do take life one day at a time.  That's all I can do.  Oh, and sometimes I remember to pray.  That's another thing I should do more often.  Bob

I've found that "Organized Eating" to coin a phrase is the key. Let me explain, I look at food intake or appetite control much like pain control. If you eat at regularly scheduled times whether hungry or not you stay ahead of the hunger, once hungry then you have a tendency to over indulge, eat to fast or eat the wrong items. Much like pain control if you take your pain med's let's say post surgery at the prescribed intervals you stay ahead of any pain. If you skip a dose then you play heck catching up and usually take more then needed. Now this doesn't control the head hunger which is usually emotional or habit driven. Just one guys opinion.. Rocky Top

Great post, RockyTop. Words of wisdom to be sure. Thanks

Boner