First of all, CONGRATULATIONS for losing weight and keeping it off.

I am finally at the tail-end of my college experience and need your help. I am doing a study on people who have lost weight and have been able to maintain it.

Would you please answer the questions below and send them to me in a private message or you may copy and paste these into an email and send your responses to [email protected]. Also, let me know if you would like to get a copy of the final study.

All information gathered will be used for my study purposes only and will not be shared with others.

Thanks in advance !!!

1. How many diets/weight loss plans have you tried before you found one that worked for you?

2. Why did your previous attempts at weight loss fail?

3. What was your motivation to lose weight?

4. Why did you succeed this time?

5. What is the total amount of weight that you have lost?

6. How much time did it take you to lose the weight?

7. How long have you kept the weight off?

8. How did you lose the weight?
• Weight loss center (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc.)
• Weight Loss surgery
• At-Home weight loss program (Atkins, South Beach, etc.)
• At-Home structured plan (calorie counting, carbohydrate counting, etc.)
• Nutritionist or dietician supervised plan
• Other

9. Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before your weight loss.

10. How has your weight loss changed your professional life?

11. How has your weight loss changed your personal life?

12. How have friends/family reacted to your weight loss?

13. How has your weight loss affected your self-esteem?

14. How has your weight loss affected your body image?

15. Are you the same person that you were before you lost weight?

16. How are your eating patterns different now versus before you lost weight?

17. How are your exercise patterns different now versus before you lost weight?

18. To what extent did you use food to change how you were feeling before weight loss?
• How has that changed?

19. Do you participate in any weight loss support groups either in person or online?
• If so, how does this help you?

20. How much “grace” do you allow yourself on the scale?

21. How do you maintain your weight loss?

22. How do you view maintenance - as an endless battle? A state of continuous vigilance? A path of moderation? A pleasant place to be, having lost the weight?

23. Studies show that most people who lose weight put it back on within a year –
a. Why are you different?
b. How are you beating these odds?
c. Why is maintaining your weight loss important to you?

24. What else would you like to share?

Would you be willing to share the results with us? Without names, of course

Of course I will share the results - also, I am the only one who will be looking at the data and I will be shredding it as soon as I am done with it.

I'll just post mine here - I would like to read other people's! Most of my lovely maintenance buddies know my story anyway

1. How many diets/weight loss plans have you tried before you found one that worked for you?

At least 3 major diets in my life, beginning at age 15. I changed my life when I was 35 years old. I lost/gained weight for 20 years before succeeding. I started as a 140 lb high school sophomore (I thought I was SO FAT) and ended up a 200 lb 35 year old woman. Dieting made me fat. It sounds so cliché, but ultimately I had to stop dieting to lose weight and keep it off. I would never call how I did it a “diet.”

2. Why did your previous attempts at weight loss fail?

I always quit dieting and went back to eating normally. I was great at LOSING weight, but two things always happened:

• I would reach a goal weight and then stop dieting, resume normal eating and regain weight
• I would just give up and stop dieting, resume normal eating and regain weight.

3. What was your motivation to lose weight?

To lose weight and keep it off. Honestly, that was my goal this time to lose weight AND keep it off. My old goal was always just to “lose weight.” It made a huge difference.

4. Why did you succeed this time?

Decided to change how I eat forever, no diet to start and then stop. Dramatically and permanently changed the way I eat – eliminated fast foods, most processed foods, sugary soda, most “white flour” products, packaged baked goods. Limit cheese, creamy sauces, fried foods, baked goods and booze. Increased healthy whole foods like fresh fruits, vegetables, lean protein, low fat dairy, healthy fats, complex carbohydrates.

5. What is the total amount of weight that you have lost?

Around 70 lbs.

6. How much time did it take you to lose the weight?

I started in July 2004, weighing around 200 lbs. By Sept 2004 I weighed 165 and I was around 155 at Christmas 2004. I hit a huge plateau at 140 in March 2005 and stayed there until the summer when I dropped to 138 sometime in July 2005. I stayed there until November 2005 when I dropped to 135. I hit my final weight of 127 around February 2006 and have stayed there within 5 lbs ever since. I lost the first 60 lbs very quickly – in about 7 months. It took me another 9 months to lose the last 10.

7. How long have you kept the weight off?

I start counting since my plateau of 140 in March 2005, since that is when I decided to maintain my weight loss – so 3 years, 5 months.

8. How did you lose the weight?
• Weight loss center (Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, etc.)
• Weight Loss surgery
• At-Home weight loss program (Atkins, South Beach, etc.)
• At-Home structured plan (calorie counting, carbohydrate counting, etc.)• Nutritionist or dietician supervised plan
• Other

My plan was a combination of calorie counting, whole foods and volumetrics. I am a huge fan of portion control and measuring. I am also very very interested in KNOWING about nutrition – I read a lot of books.

9. Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before your weight loss.

I wanted to be perfect. I wanted to diet for a short time and be absolutely perfect. Any time I messed up, I was devastated and either had to give up or start over. If I messed up during the day, the day was “ruined” and I would just eat whatever. I expected diets to be unpleasant, restrictive, I thought if I were hungry/miserable I was doing it right. I had this idea that if I could cut calories and lose some weight, I could cut MORE calories and lose MORE weight. Of course, my body could only handle starvation for so long, then it would force binges and I would feel so so awful. Out of control, weak, a loser. I couldn’t figure out why I couldn’t stick to a diet, I honestly thought I had tried EVERYTHING and diets just didn’t “work” for me. I told myself a lot of lies – I was genetically destined to be fat, I was big boned (neither of which is true).

My weight was an emotional roller coaster ride.

10. How has your weight loss changed your professional life?

More confidence. I got a promotion right after I hit my first maintenance goal, I definitely think it was related to my weight loss.

11. How has your weight loss changed your personal life?

More happy in the boudoir

12. How have friends/family reacted to your weight loss?

Very positively.

13. How has your weight loss affected your self-esteem?

I used to NEVER look at myself. Not in mirrors, not in pictures, not down at myself in the shower. I never wore make up. I had 1 pair of shoes. I didn’t cut or color my hair. I wore the same pair of jeans every day. I felt fat, ugly, bloated and like a loser. I didn’t like myself very much.

14. How has your weight loss affected your body image?

It’s weird, objectively I KNOW that I am slender, almost thin in my upper body, but I still sometimes have “fat” days. I have a lot of loose skin and some days it bothers me more than others. Overall, I am MUCH MUCH happier with my body image and think I look VERY good in a cute outfit. I have a lot more confidence than I did.

15. Are you the same person that you were before you lost weight?

Yes, but happier.
16. How are your eating patterns different now versus before you lost weight?

Night and day.

Old typical day: breakfast was a huge muffin and venti caramel latte with whip, lunch was pizza or a cheesey Panini or anything that looked good from the cafeteria, I had an afternoon snack of yogurt pretzels or M&Ms everyday, I had another huge venti latte in the afternoon, sometimes I had a pastry since the cafeteria did a buy 1 pastry get 1 pastry free everyday after 2. A typical dinner was a HUGE plate of pasta with 5 pieces of sourdough bread, dessert was a bowl of ice cream (big cereal bowl) with chocolate syrup. I was deliberately BLIND to the calorie counts of food – I didn’t want to know. A portion was “when the bag is empty.”

New typical day: breakfast is a measured ½ cup of granola and fat free Trader Joe’s Greek yogurt with honey. Morning snack of berries. Lunch is a salad with grilled chicken and lite dressing or a salmon salad sandwich on whole grain bread with a side of soy chips or a bowl of non cream based soup and a roll. Afternoon snack of fruit. Another afternoon snack of a skinny latte. Afternoon snack of carrot sticks or dill pickles or a cheese string (lots of afternoon snacks to combat restless afternoon boredom eating). Dinner is vegetable stir fry with shrimp over a measured portion of brown rice or home made pasta sauce over 2 oz of whole wheat pasta or something like that. I am rarely hungry after dinner, so I rarely have dessert. I still carefully measure all the high calorie foods which are hard for me to eyeball – pasta, rice, nuts, cereal, salad dressing.

I am also very aware of my “trigger” foods and try to avoid them. For example, most cold cereals are very tough for me to keep in the house, I have a hard time STOPPING or being satisfied with a single, measured portion. Like ice cream, a ½ cup serving of ice cream isn’t very satisfying. For some reason, I’m cool with having a small portion of ice cream out of the house, as long as I’m not tempted to return to a container/package, I’m usually okay.

I do have at least nice dinner out in a restaurant once a week. I drink a glass of wine (never more than 2), order a nice entrée and split dessert. I still try to stick to my “forever” nos – watch the bread basket, no fried food, no cream based sauce.

Ultimately, I made some really tough decisions on what I was willing to live without and what I wasn’t (and I think these decisions are deeply personal and individualistic and there is no wrong or right answer). I can easily live without fast food without a struggle, it isn’t even a blip on my radar. I can not live without the occasional nice dinner in a restaurant or glass of red wine or decadent chocolately dessert. If I am going to eat “extra” calories, they are going to be delicious and WORTH IT.

17. How are your exercise patterns different now versus before you lost weight?

I am still an indifferent exerciser, much to my chagrin. When I was actively losing weight I worked out 5 times a week. Now I’m lucky if I work out 2 times a week.

18. To what extent did you use food to change how you were feeling before weight loss?
• How has that changed?

I was never really an emotional eater, so this doesn’t apply to me. I did eat out of boredom a lot, particularly in the afternoons but I have a few tactics in place to minimize this habit (drinking a lot of herbal tea, scheduling meetings in the afternoon, planning healthy snacks every 2 hours). I was used to use food to CELEBRATE a lot – I would celebrate anything with food. This was just an excuse to eat, though. This has probably been the toughest behavior to change, I could rationalize ANYTHING as a reason to celebrate. My biggest weakness is still social occasions.

19. Do you participate in any weight loss support groups either in person or online?
• If so, how does this help you?

I am a huge fan of 3 Fat Chicks, it’s great to have a place where other people just get it – and want to talk about food/dieting as much as I want to talk about it.

20. How much “grace” do you allow yourself on the scale?
5 lbs.

21. How do you maintain your weight loss?

Exactly like I lost weight – counting calories, food journaling, eating healthy, whole foods.

22. How do you view maintenance - as an endless battle? A state of continuous vigilance? A path of moderation? A pleasant place to be, having lost the weight?

All of the above

Seriously, I do occasionally get tired of the constant vigilance or not being able to eat whatever I want, whenever I want it. I keep reminding myself that when I did eat whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted- I wasn’t a happy person. A lot of people post they are unhappy having to record/measure/plan etc for the rest of their life and they find it an onerous burden, personally I don’t feel that way at all. When I think of the endless hours I used to spend thinking about being thin, hating being fat, uselessly daydreaming about what I do when I was magically thin, I am amazed at how much brain power I wasted on….nothing. All that thinking, wishing and hoping and I didn’t accomplish ANYTHING. Now, I do spend a lot of time planning meals, prepping meals, food journaling but it is all VERY PRODUCTIVE. It accomplishes something – a thin, happy, healthy me.

I definitely think maintaining a weight loss is much harder than losing weight. Sure, I have a lot of healthy habits in place to make it easier, but it never ends. It is constant vigilance – 98% of the time I am perfectly okay with it, but that other 2%!

23. Studies show that most people who lose weight put it back on within a year –
a. Why are you different?

As someone who has lost weight and gained it back in a year previously, I think I am different this time because I absolutely didn’t want that to happen again, it’s so heartbreaking. I really sat down and LOOKED at my weight loss history and asked myself honestly and clearly and openly – “why can you lose weight and not keep it off?” It was quite clear that I gained weight back because I wanted to eat normally. I viewed dieting as a short time punitive, restrictive phase that I would endure and then it would END and I could eat normally. It took me 20 years to finally come to my senses that my “normal” way of eating made me FAT. I had to change normal. So I did. I was overweight because I ate too much crap and didn’t exercise. Now that I eat carefully, I am thin.

b. How are you beating these odds?

Just working at it every day.

One of the big things I changed was forgiving myself and accepting the fact that life is messy and complicated and I will eat offplan. Previously, offplan eating meant I was a failure and I should give up. Now I realize that offplan eating means I am human, and I should get right back on track at the next opportunity. Luckily, I do have healthy habits in place that make it easy to fall back into my routine.

c. Why is maintaining your weight loss important to you?

I was a miserable, depressed, unhealthy sluggish person who didn’t like myself that much. Now, I’m a healthy, energetic person with a fabulous wardrobe. I would never go back.

24. What else would you like to share?

After years and years of fantasizing and daydreaming about being thin and feeling hopeless and powerless and out of control, it is like a miracle every day. Most of my binge eating was based around sugar/empty carbohydrates. I never realized I was sugar’s ***** until I cut way back and I was suddenly, unexpectedly, blissfully free of most cravings. I thought I was an out of control, willpowerless loser, but I was just really susceptible to sugar and empty carbs.

1. How many diets/weight loss plans have you tried before you found one that worked for you?
Two. South Beach and Atkins.
2. Why did your previous attempts at weight loss fail?
Wrong diets for me. Too hard to stick with.
3. What was your motivation to lose weight?
I wanted to lose the weight after my baby and about 15 extra pounds that have been haunting me since high school.
4. Why did you succeed this time?
I decided to do Weight Watchers. I don't attend meetings or anything. I think I succeeded this time because began to see results in a short amount of time.
5. What is the total amount of weight that you have lost?
53 pounds.
6. How much time did it take you to lose the weight?
I lost 20 pounds within a month of having my baby. I didn't actively try to lose the rest until April 7, 2008. I weighed 184 pounds on April 7, 2008. I now weigh 147 pounds.
7. How long have you kept the weight off?
Still in the process of losing it.
8. How did you lose the weight?
At-home WW. No meetings, no online stuff. I do it on my own.
9. Describe your behavioral and emotional battle with weight control before your weight loss.
I felt like I was out of control, and I was binging every night on cookies and other sweets. I ate way more food even though I was full. I had no energy and would be exhausted after walking up our flight of stairs. I didn't think I looked as bad as I really did. I felt like life was too short and, therefore, I should eat the food that made me happy.
10. How has your weight loss changed your professional life?
I am a stay-at-home mom right now, but I am able to do so much more with my baby and can play with him until he gets tired out. I was a court reporter before. I think it would affect me positively in the way that I would feel a lot more confident wearing nicer clothes and just feel more attractive in front of a client.
11. How has your weight loss changed your personal life?
I have my confidence back. I used to be the life of the party before I gained all the weight. I'm very happy to have positive attention again.
12. How have friends/family reacted to your weight loss?
Very proud of me.
13. How has your weight loss affected your self-esteem?
In a very positive way. My confidence has sky-rocketed.
14. How has your weight loss affected your body image?
I love to shop again, don't hate what I see in the mirror when I am naked, and I am going out and doing more things.
15. Are you the same person that you were before you lost weight?Just a sleeker, more vibrant version.
16. How are your eating patterns different now versus before you lost weight?
I rarely eat out. I used to eat out once or twice a day about three times a week. I fit my workout in around the way I eat. If I go for a long run at night, I refuel by eating a high caloric dinner afterwards. If I have a very light workout, like a softball game, I eat earlier in the evening and then just snack lightly before bed.
17. How are your exercise patterns different now versus before you lost weight?
I think I just explained what my exercise patterns are like now. Before, they were very sporadic and not very often. I exercise every night. I jog for about 45 minutes to an hour about four nights a week, anywhere from 3 miles to 5 miles. I have always played lots of softball.
18. To what extent did you use food to change how you were feeling before weight loss?
I gave in to every little craving. I would drive an hour just to get some really great Chinese food. I don't think I can explain it better than that. It was very instinctual.
• How has that changed?
I just feel a lot more in control. I run instead of stuffing my face with chips, pizza, or cookies.
19. Do you participate in any weight loss support groups either in person or online?
Just 3FC, and I love it.
• If so, how does this help you?
Just sharing my experience and reading about everyone else's. I really stay on course much better when I am thinking about diet and exercise.
20. How much “grace” do you allow yourself on the scale?
About three pounds.
21. How do you maintain your weight loss?
Running, diet, and weighing myself every day.
22. How do you view maintenance - as an endless battle? A state of continuous vigilance? A path of moderation? A pleasant place to be, having lost the weight?
A pleasant place to be, having lost the weight.
23. Studies show that most people who lose weight put it back on within a year –
a. Why are you different?
I was really only overweight for about a year and a half. I actually enjoy exercise, and have always been involved in a lot of group activities.
b. How are you beating these odds?
As I inch closer to my goal, it just makes me that much more of a stickler to eat right and exercise more.
c. Why is maintaining your weight loss important to you?
I don't ever want my physical shape to stop me from doing anything -- ever.
24. What else would you like to share?[/QUOTE]
I know that all the odds and percentages seem like they are against dieters; those cannot be excuses to not get healthy. If it is something you want bad enough, then you can do it. It is really a learning process -- every day is. I learn more about food, my addictions, about myself.

Glory and Mamaspank - Thank you SO much for your responses. I appreciate the time you spent filling in the information and your honesty.

Blessings.
Christine