The Secrets Of Their Success

Monday, Jun. 07, 2004 By CHRISTINE GORMAN

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After reaching their goal, most long-term losers followed a single general strategy toward nutrition: limiting the calories and to a lesser extent the amount of fat in their diet. (It will be interesting to see if this observation continues to hold as high-protein diets become more popular.) That doesn't mean that they necessarily count each calorie or weigh every portion, but they often started by looking up the calorie content of their favorite foods. "I was surprised at how calories can sneak up on you," says Gregg Fields, 44, a college professor in Delray Beach, Fla., who lost 35 lbs. and has kept them off for eight years. Fields quickly determined he needed to get rid of what he calls junk calories. "All fried foods are gone--particularly French fries," he says.

Finally, almost all the registry's long-term losers eat breakfast and weigh themselves regularly, usually once a day. Eating breakfast--particularly one that emphasizes fruits, vegetables or cereals rich in fiber--seems to be a natural appetite suppressant. And there is nothing like stepping on the scales each morning to figure out whether you need to boost your physical activity or push back a little sooner from the table.

No one is saying that any of this is easy--the folks in the Weight Control Registry appear to be working harder at maintaining their weight than those who have never had a weight problem. But the conventional wisdom among experts that 95% of all dieters are doomed to regain their lost weight may be too pessimistic. One reason researchers have such a bleak view of dieting is a famous study of 100 people conducted in the late 1950s by Dr. Albert Stunkard, now a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. Only two of his subjects were able to maintain their weight loss for two years. "That was a period when we had no treatment for obesity," Stunkard says. "The medical profession thought it was either a psychiatric issue or a metabolic problem that couldn't be solved. We've done much better since then."

The experience of registry participants suggests that your best chance for success is to develop--and stick with--an eating and exercise plan you can follow over the long run. Indeed, many registry members say losing weight was not as hard as keeping it off. There is less positive reinforcement once you've stopped shedding pounds and too many opportunities in our land of plenty to overindulge. Often, as with smoking cigarettes, it seems to take more than one attempt to get it right.

"You have to make it a priority," says Chris Stock, 51, a 6ft. 2-in. clinical pharmacist in Salt Lake City, Utah, who lost 70 lbs. seven years ago after suffering a heart attack and adopting a vegetarian diet and a daily exercise routine. Stock runs at least an hour each day, keeps himself busy and leaves encouraging notes for himself around the house, on the refrigerator and on the computer as a way to deal with frequent thoughts about food. "Every diet is designed to be short term," he says. "But this has got to be a commitment for the rest of your life."