You’ve Lost Weight. Now How Do You Keep It Off?

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Losing weight is hard enough. Keeping it off is even harder. Now a new study by researchers at Penn State suggests that the techniques that work for losing weight aren’t necessarily the same as those that help keep you slim.


Then the researchers conducted a national telephone survey of overweight people (with a BMI of 25 or higher) who had tried to lose weight and keep it off with varying success: about 11% reported successfully losing weight, defined as losing at least 10% of body weight, and 21% were able to maintain that loss for at least a year. The researchers asked them how frequently they employed the 36 previously identified techniques: “often or very often” or “seldom or never.”

The survey found that people who lost weight successfully did so by participating in weight loss programs, cutting back on sugar and carbs, eating healthy snacks, not skipping meals and participating in different types exercise.

Not all techniques that led to initial weight loss were associated with weight maintenance, however. Continually switching up an exercise regimen helped people lose weight, for instance, but those who kept weight off tended to stick with a consistent exercise program. That may be because experimenting with a variety of workout routines may help people as they’re trying to lose weight, but once they’ve found what works for them, they tend to stick with it for maintenance.

The study noted four strategies that were associated with weight maintenance but not loss:

  • Eating a diet rich in low-fat proteins
  • Following a consistent exercise program
  • Rewarding yourself for dieting and exercising
  • Reminding yourself of why you need to keep weight off



But what may shift between weight-loss and maintenance phases is a person’s mindset: rather than focusing on actively losing weight in the short term, people have to start focusing on long-term, permanent lifestyle changes and behaviors, if they want to maintain the weight that’s been lost. The key to success, experts agree, is motivation, not necessarily the particulars of your weight-loss program.

The study had some limitations, including the fact that respondents’ weights and behaviors were all self-reported. The study appears in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.


Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight. And if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you lose weight.

Since 3,500 calories equals about one pound of fat, if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you'll lose approximately one pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories). Simple, right? Then why is weight loss so hard?

All too often, we make weight loss much more difficult than it needs to be with extreme diets that leave us cranky and starving, unhealthy lifestyle choices that undermine our dieting efforts, and emotional eating habits that stop us before we get started. But there’s a better way! You can lose weight without feeling miserable. By making smart choices every day, you can develop new eating habits and preferences that will leave you feeling satisfied—and winning the battle of the bulge.