Dieting may not be the answer in the long term (research)
Hello:
I usually just lurk, but I saw this article today and it gave me a lot to think about....I'm wondering what others might think....?
Heather
Dieting Does Not Work, UCLA Researchers Report
Will you lose weight and keep it off if you diet? No, probably not,
UCLA researchers report in the April issue of American Psychologist,
the journal of the American Psychological Association.
"You can initially lose 5 to 10 percent of your weight on any number
of diets, but then the weight comes back," said Traci Mann, UCLA
associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study. "We
found that the majority of people regained all the weight, plus
more. Sustained weight loss was found only in a small minority of
participants, while complete weight regain was found in the
majority. Diets do not lead to sustained weight loss or health
benefits for the majority of people."
Most of us chicks & roosters restrict our food intake and increase our activity. But people regain weight when they don't make a permanent lifestyle change. Once the diet is "over," they go back to their old eating and inactivity habits. Those habits are what made them fat.
Successfully keeping weight off is a challenge in itself, and that's why we have a Maintainers forum!
Thanks for posting this. It shows the importance of not just losing the weight and thinking we're all done.
Yup, those of us that have lost weight and maintained it know that the lifestyle changes you make need to be for life. A great book on this is Thin for Life which actually talks about habits of those who have lost weight and kept it off.
Old news, and certainly something that most of us could have told them without funded research!
I lost about 30% of my body weight starting about 6 years ago. Initially, I used a "diet plan" (SugarBusters), but it was painfully obvious to me that if I went back to living the same lifestyle that got me fat in the first place, of course I'd just get fat again.
If you've spent time lurking here, you've noticed that most of us are constantly talking about lifestyle changes and Way of Eating, not necessarily a diet. A diet is the sum of the food you eat, as in "my diet consists of lean proteins, unprocessed fruits and vegetables, and complex carbohydrates with an occaisional treat". My lifestyle includes eating that diet and exercising to maintain my current weight and fitness level. It's all about changing your lifestyle and maintaining those changes- not achieving a number on the scale and going out for ice cream to celebrate!
Read the Maintainers Forum, read the Goal Stories Forum. There are plenty of us maintainers. Those people who haven't yet reached goal here are quite aware that this is for life.
We'd love to have you take an active part in 3FC, so welcome! If you are trying to lose weight, don't talk yourself out of it with defeating articles. There are many people here who HAVE suceeded in losing and maintaining.
Heather, please don't be discouraged by that study! The meaningful research on weight loss and maintenance is coming out of the National Weight Control Registry, a study group of more than 4000 people who have lost weight and are successfully maintaining their losses. More than eleven papers have been published by the NWCR detailing the lifestyle changes that successful maintainers have made. Doesn't it make sense to focus on what does work instead of studying other studies to make broad and sweeping generalizations that 'diets' (unspecified) don't work?
Please do check out our Maintainers Forum here. We'd love to have you and you'd have the opportunity to meet and interact with our many members who are successfully maintaining weight losses.
I, for one, want to thank Heather for the article, as it MAY be what most of us already know, but it may also be news to some other people.
I truly believe that if I had NEVER gone on my first 'diet' then I would never have reached the weight that I did. I was one of those people who not only regained the weight they lost, but also gained some more on top each time. I didn't 'diet' too many times, but this was the pattern each time.
This time around I have not 'dieted', but have changed my lifestyle to include a healthy intake of foods and a LOT more movement in my everyday life, including planned exercise sessions on most days of the week. I have confidence that I have made changes that I can live with forever.
I believe that the authors of the article are talking about 'going on a diet', as opposed to changing your lifestyle. By "diet" they are talking about structured programs that are often too difficult to keep up for life, and people never really look upon them as something they plan to do for the rest of their lives. Most of us here have come to the realisation that we MUST make changes for LIFE and there is no short-term 'fix', however I do believe that articles like this one at least give others something to think about and put the idea in the back of their consciousness somewhere that they should really be looking at making changes to their lifestyle that they can maintain for life.
Maybe I have gone on a little here, but I think sometimes we forget that other people may not have the same background/understanding that others do and it doesn't hurt to give them as much information as possible to help them on their own journey.
I'm a member of the American Psychological Association and get that journal, so I'll check out the original to see how they defined "diet"
In the meantime, in the article linked above they do make a distinction between "diets" and "lifestyle changes" with eating in moderation and especially exercise. They discussed a second study, which seemed to find that DOES work.
The article in the APA journal didn't look at lifestyle changes, only 'diets'.
Boobear -- I sympathize with your feelings that you can't trust experts. As a researcher and educator, it is a big part of my job to teach my students how to evaluate research on their own, so that they do feel they can understand the research apart from "the spin".
I think it's a shame that our schools devalue this kind of "scientific literacy" -- it creates a society where no one feels they can understand the research, which is really a shame, because taken in context you can learn a lot from it, over time.
Wow, that article has to be one of the scariest, most depressing things I've read in a long time.
It's articles exactly like this that discouraged me from trying to lose weight in the first place. I would read stuff like this and think that losing weight was hopeless and that I was doomed to be overweight my entire life. Even now, the article is frightening to me. I'm so scared I'm going to gain the weight that I lost back; I just pray that the article isn't correct or that there is more to it than what is said in the article. Thank goodness for the maintainers' forum so I can reassure myself that there are people who have lost weight (more than me, in many cases) and been able to successfully maintain that loss for a long time. I hope to be one of them one day; right now I always feel like I am one brownie and one missed workout away from my old overweight self and this article seems to confirm that!
One thing that annoys me about the article is that there is no indication as to why the people in the studies gained the weight back. Did they maintain their healthy eating habits or go back to eating the way they had before? Did their body somehow adjust to their lower calorie intake and begin gaining weight at that level or did they gain weight because they were eating more again. I can control what I eat but I can't control whether or not my body somehow adjusts to gaining weight at a lower calorie level (except maybe by exercise--which I do like a mad woman and this article is exactly why I do it).
I think this is a great example of why we shouldn't try fad diets. I think Wyllen made a good point when she said she wanted to see how they defined "diet". If they looked at 'diets' intended for temporary use, like liquid diets or other extreme diets, or crazy diets like the cabbage soup diet, then they make a very valid point. We've even noticed, through our own surveys, that the South Beach diet and Atkins diets are not successful long term because they are harder to stick to for life. I think it was the NWCR that showed that people who lost weight initially on low carb diets were only successful in keeping it off after they switched to a regular diet which was calorie controlled. Many other diets had the same result.
I read about a study ages ago that showed people that lost weight by practicing moderation (without following a "diet") were more likely to keep the weight off than by any 'diet', including Weight Watchers.
I don't think the article is depressing, I think it's exciting in a way that lets us take a closer look at what we are doing right now and make positive changes to ensure that we reach our goals and stay there. Out with the unrealistic diets that we can't stick to, and in with real life moderation
I think so many people think that what is needed to lose weight is a "temporary" solution. In other words I'll try this and this for so long until I get the result I want. THEN everything will be hunky dory. Nuh uh. It really is a difficult and hard to accept concept that you must do this for life, forever and ever. In fact it can be overwhelming to many. I know for me I always knew that that was the case. I just was not ready to make the necessary changes. I knew that once I started changing my "diet" that there really would be no turning back, no stopping - just continuing - forever. It took me years to be able to accept this and then implement the changes. I think we all here know that the only way for a "diet" to work and continue to work is if we "stick" to it. So naturally we have to find something we can "stick to" forever and ever. That's a long time.
Wow,
I was just talking about this. It's a mental thing. My mindset is different and to echo what you all have said, it's a lifestyle. My Dh just asked me the other day if I thought I would have to keep exercising and eating like i am once I reached my goal and I was like Oh yes! It's a new way of life, not just for the moment. I am now to the point where I feel it when I don't exercise or eat right and I am really listening to my body during those time. Even when I got sick, I did a little something. I don't want to go back to feeling the way I did before my journey. Mentally I even feel better. Diets are difficult to follow cuz what do you do after. If you haven't established the right kinds of eating or exercise habits you just go back to what you were doing which got us in the boat we were in to begin with.
Sory for the rant, I just am soo excited to finally "get it" that I just go on and on. Healty eating to you all.
I feel like Barbara too, i know that everything that goes in my mouth finds a place on my body. That one cheese it, or cookie could take me over the edge, so I just don't do it and you know what, I don't even feel deprived for it. I love nelllies sig:
Eat for the body you want, not for the body you have.
Exercise for the body you want, not for the body you have.
i have many thin friends and if you watch how they eat, for the most part they don't eat they way I did. And I try to think like an atlete now. Exercise is just like breathing, I gotta do it
Wow, I appreciate all the thoughtful comments. My own take on "dieting" is that I associate it with restriction and hunger. So it is not surprising that, according to this review of 31 studies, dieting is doomed to failure.
What really struck me is the idea that, contrary to promoting weight loss, dieting can actually cause weight gain in the long term. If, as an adolescent, I had not thought, "My thighs are fat" and gone on my first diet, perhaps I would not have triggered years of yo-yo dieting (with successively larger weight gains). If only we could prevent this generation of adolescents and teens from starting that cycle....
What really struck me is the idea that, contrary to promoting weight loss, dieting can actually cause weight gain in the long term. If, as an adolescent, I had not thought, "My thighs are fat" and gone on my first diet, perhaps I would not have triggered years of yo-yo dieting (with successively larger weight gains). If only we could prevent this generation of adolescents and teens from starting that cycle....
Heather
IMO, it's not the "dieting" itself that causes the weight gain. It's the going off the diet that does it, the not continuing it, the not sticking with it. The "idea" that is is NOT forever. The wrong mentality. To say that "dietiing" causes weight gain, and again this is just my little ole' opinion - is nonsense. The only thing that causes weight gain, aside from some meds and some other rare circumstances, is eating too much and moving too little. Eating more food then your body needs. Period. (IMO)
I'll echo what folks have said about a lifestyle change as being different from dieting. I'm primarily interested in reducing my risk of diabetes and other health problems through changes in my eating and physical activity. This time, anyway. Any weight loss--that's totally a bonus.
In the back of the mind is the thought "I want to eat like a normal person." I'm not saying there's *really* some archetypal normal person out there, but I know there are people out there who do not have the problematic relationship with food that I do. They really do live a life of moderation (not perfection) and are happy and healthy. I'm trying to fake it til I make it, I guess; until it really is a part of my everyday thinking that food is not magical. It's not going to make me forget about my problems, or take away boredom, or any of those extraneous things. I have the feeling that when I can experience food as both health-building and as a pleasure, I'll be way further on the path toward moderation.
Mel Said: It's all about changing your lifestyle and maintaining those changes- not achieving a number on the scale and going out for ice cream to celebrate!
This was me in my old life! Clearly Mel, you caught me one too many times at that Concordville Friendly's when you were at Happy Harry's getting your vitamins! lol I mean this was so totally me, I can't count the number of times. (BTW, the Salad Gallery next to HH's is great if you've never tried it)
Dieting may not be the answer in the long term (research)
We'd love to have you and you'd have the opportunity to meet and interact with our many members who are successfully maintaining weight losses.
I'm so scared I'm going to gain the weight that I lost back; I just pray that the article isn't correct or that there is more to it than what is said in the article. Thank goodness for the maintainers' forum so I can reassure myself that there are people who have lost weight (more than me, in many cases) and been able to successfully maintain that loss for a long time. I hope to be one of them one day; right now I always feel like I am one brownie and one missed workout away from my old overweight self and this article seems to confirm that! 
