[Meg]

Hey Maintainers! The topic of maintenance made today's Washington Post! (click here to read the complete article) Our Karen (MrsJim) will be delighted that it emphasizes how maintenance gets easier over time, since that's what she's been telling us from her very long range perspective. Me -- I'm thrilled with the statistic that if you can keep the weight off for two and then five years, the chances of regain get smaller and smaller. I'm now into Year Four of Maintenance, so woo hoo!

Not surprisingly, the research cited in the article comes from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a study group that a whole bunch of us maintainers have joined.

The article is well worth reading in its entirety, but there are several key points that I want to highlight:

• 20 percent of overweight people not only manage to lose pounds but maintain a healthier weight long-term (that statistic beats the dismal '95% of losers regain their lost weight' one we usually hear)
  
• Weight maintenance gets easier with time
  
• Achieving a healthier weight takes focus and commitment
  
• Nearly half of successful losers weigh themselves daily (I'm one of them)
  
• Successful losers still experience slips but appear to be better than others at identifying them and making quick course corrections
  
• The study found that successful losers continue their efforts for many years after they have trimmed their waistlines (it's a lifestyle, folks!)

Probably nothing in the article is news to any of you. But in another post, I mentioned that I feel like we maintainers are the orphans of weight loss research and the vast and profitable diet industry, so I was delighted that the media is catching on to the fact that maintenance is a (the?) key component of weight loss.

[MrsJim]

well jeez Meg...I was just coming here to post the same link, only from MSNBC.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8705658/

a couple of quotes that popped out at me:

Not that maintaining weight loss is easy. As many of the Lean Plate Club's successful losers note below, achieving a healthier weight takes focus and commitment. The registry members report that, too.

We know that they are working very hard to keep off the weight," Phelan said. "They're exercising very hard. They eat fewer calories. They're monitoring their weight. I think it may be kind of akin to brushing your teeth. Once you have the habit, you wouldn't think of not doing it." Successful losers, she said, "just do these things and have adopted them as part of their lifestyle. Maybe it doesn't take as much conscious effort over time."

That's exactly what I think - practice - over a long period - makes perfect. I don't have to psyche myself into going to the gym - I 'just do it', just like brushing my teeth. When I go grocery shopping I don't really have to think about 'what is the healthiest thing for me to buy'? I have my mental shopping list, and I just use that (unless I'm planning on making a special recipe or something).