Has anyone kept >100 lbs off for 5 years or more? page 5

[Donnn]

Just to be clear I'm not saying I believe that permanent improvement is hopeless. Just that will power needs to be used towards fixing the underlining problem, not resisting eating. Of course with no agreement on the problem (or even if there is a dominant problem) that's not an easy thing to do.

[marthat]

Talking about a chronically calorie-deficient diet is a totally different thing than talking about a calorie-neutral, whole-foods, no-crap WOE such as PB. I have a friend who has lost 80 lbs on Weight Watchers. She is forever hypervigilant about her diet, bringing her own food to every church function, often leaving events when the food comes out. She has aged greatly with the weight loss (she's in her mid-50's) and her skin is dry and crepey. She has way more energy than she did 80 lbs ago, but still not what I would consider "energetic". In my mind, she is at great risk of regaining, as she is trying to maintain a calorie-deficit as her maintenance state and the body will fight to the death against that.

The beauty of the PB and the whole philosophy (and science) that Gary Taubes is reporting on and pushing, is that you don't need to be hypo-caloric to achieve "leanness", that it is a normal state, and if your eating habits support a return to our evolutionary optimal hormonal status, then leanness follows automatically. Of course, as other posters have mentioned, there are possibly complicating factors (emotional and/or biological) that may need to be addressed in order to let the body restore itself to rightness.

[KestrelSF]

i read somewhere that it takes the body 2 years to reach a new weight set point. basically that means if you can lose 100 pounds and keep it off for 2 years you are much less likely to gain it back

no whether thats true or not i dont really know

I'd really like to see the original source, if you can find it. From my experience, 87.949% of all health and diet related statistics are just made up.

[Jenny]

Here's an interesting review about body set points: Is there evidence for a set point that regulates human body weight? - F1000 Medicine Reports - F1000

Nothing in there about X years to reset though. I can't find anything along those lines other than claims on various weight-loss Web sites.

[jsa23]

Added:
I think that it's just more difficult than people expect to make a real permanent "lifestyle change". No matter how you look at it, looking solely at the act of eating, for most people anyways, it's much easier to eat whatever you want. People at work eat crap, your family and friends eat crap, you go to parties and there's crap, etc. It's everywhere.

So, that coupled with the fact that so many people set their "goal" as reaching a certain weight rather than having their "goal" be permanent overall health, when people hit their weight goal, they think they can relax a little bit, and subsequently change the way they've been eating and often unknowingly changing the "lifestyle" that got them there in the first place.

I agree on both these points:

1. It can't be a "diet", it *has* to be a lifestyle change. In order for a lifestyle change to work, one of two things has to be true: Either the new lifestyle has to be sufficiently enjoyable that it becomes second nature and the individual isn't tempted by old habits, or there has to be a motivating factor sufficiently strong such that the less-enjoyable aspects of the new lifestyle(or missing the better aspects of the old) isn't as important as the motivator.

Topic-relevant personal history #1 - I lost a little over 100 lbs, it was slowly over the course of 4 years, and it's only been a year since I finished losing. I was initially sustained by the motivation factor - a couple of different sources of motivation at different times, but as a younger individual, vanity did play a major role Over time I came to enjoy some of the physical activty, tolerate the rest, and developed much more of a taste for vegetables than I used to have, which has made things more sustainable.

2. I definitely agree regarding weight being just a number. It's up to the individual to decide what they want, but feeling healthy, being strong, and looking good should supercede some number that the scale spits out. Of course, what constitutes "healthy", "strong", and "good-looking" is up to you, and you alone.

Relevant bit of personal history #2: After breaking my arm in a bicycle accident, and a digestive illness through which I dropped 8-10 lbs, I decided that I had gotten too thin, and was not strong enough - so I am currently(slowly) working on gaining weight via diet and Lifting Heavy Things. My goal weight will actually put me somewhere around 80-85 lbs net loss from my highest weight, but I expect to be much stronger, and still quite lean when I get there.

Short version: Know WHY you're doing what you're doing, find a way to make it enjoyable, and realize that there are much better measures of success than the number on the scale.

[Mike Gager]

I'd really like to see the original source, if you can find it. From my experience, 87.949% of all health and diet related statistics are just made up.

ill look and see if i can find it

[Kenzington]

I’m a gastric bypass patient of about two years and I keep losing weight by refining my lifestyle and choices. My journey is a whole ‘nother can of worms so I’ll just get to the point:

I think when you’ve had eating/food relationship issues, you have to treat yourself like an addict and be vigilant about your health just like any other addict would be. I get on the scale every week. It’s a lot easier to kick a one or two pound regain in the butt than it is 10. It all comes down to holding yourself accountable for your health and wellness and not getting sloppy once you’ve reached your goal.

[Grumpycakes]

I think Dr. Kruse is going on 5 years...how about Jimmy Moore?

I think Jimmy Moore lasted a few months. The guy just can't give up his zero-carb frankenfood.

[Apex Predator]

I’m a gastric bypass patient of about two years and I keep losing weight by refining my lifestyle and choices. My journey is a whole ‘nother can of worms so I’ll just get to the point:

I think when you’ve had eating/food relationship issues, you have to treat yourself like an addict and be vigilant about your health just like any other addict would be. I get on the scale every week. It’s a lot easier to kick a one or two pound regain in the butt than it is 10. It all comes down to holding yourself accountable for your health and wellness and not getting sloppy once you’ve reached your goal.

I was just going to post that.

[KestrelSF]

I think Jimmy Moore lasted a few months. The guy just can't give up his zero-carb frankenfood.

Well, of course do we really know why Jimmy put a good bit of weight back on. It goes to my original question of how hard is it really to keep significant amounts of weight off. I personally have yo-yo'ed 3 times between 150 and 300ish and have to tell you it is REALLY easy to put weight back on VERY fast. In a 2 month period last winter, I managed to get back up to 175 by eating 'completely primal', but was eating things like almond flour 'paleo cookies', dates and walnut 'paleo balls', some dried fruit, nuts and tons of meat. But I really did take a pass on pies, cakes, anything that wasn't technically paleo ... and still put on 20 pounds.

Reading this week's Gnolls: When Satiety Fails: Why Are We Hungry? Part IV he cites and interesting study that backs up lot's of people's N=1 experiences:

It turns out that:

• The obese have impaired metabolic flexibility.
• The obese have impaired mitochondrial capacity to turn nutrients into energy in the muscles.
• The obese have an impaired ability to oxidize fat for energy, which we can objectively measure.
• Both the formerly obese and the soon-to-be-obese also suffer these impairments.

Ranneries, C., Bulow, J., Buemann, B., Christensen, N. J.,
Madsen, J., & Astrup, A.
Fat metabolism in formerly obese women.
AJP – Endo January 1998 vol. 274 no. 1 E155-E161

“…Fat mobilization both at rest and during exercise is intact in FO [formerly obese], whereas fat oxidation is subnormal despite higher circulation NEFA levels. The lower resting EE [energy expenditure] and the failure to use fat as fuel contribute to a positive fat balance and weight gain in FO subjects.”

• Normal subjects are burning 30% more calories at rest than the formerly obese.
• Normal subjects are burning 7% carbs and 78% fat at rest, whereas formerly obese subjects are burning 49% carbs and 34% fat at rest!

So yeah, I think it is fair to say it's gonna take a lifelong effort to have any hope of maintaining where I am now at 165. In another of J. Stanton's articles, Regaining Your Metabolic Flexibility which suggests from the studies he cites that exercise is the key to regaining the ability to burn fat:

It turns out that exercise is important after all…not because of the calories you burn by exercising, which you usually replace right away because you’re hungry, but because it helps you regain metabolic flexibility. Exercise stimulates your body to burn more fat, both during exercise and at rest.

So, sorry Griff, it seems that just eating low carb and plenty of fat isn't enough to fix a broken system and get your body into fat burning mode.

To this end, I've been going to CrossFit Oakland and feel like I'm moving in the right direction again. I haven't been on the scale for a while, checking now ... 161.4. My weight hasn't changed that much since starting, but since starting at the beginning of the year, my body fat percentage, measured in a submersion tank that BodyFatTest.com sends out to CFO every few months, has gone from 19.9% at the start of the year to 17.8% on 7/12/2011. I'm shooting for 16% by October.