Maintaining one’s new figure after losing weight is challenging, with studies showing dieters regain more than 80% of lost weight within five years. Successful maintainers, tracked by the National Weight Control Registry, exercise regularly and weigh themselves weekly. Experts recommend managing emotions, resisting food pushers, planning ahead and embracing a sustainable lifestyle for lasting weight-loss effects.
Losing weight may be hard , but keeping it off can be even harder. Studies show dieters regain more than half of their lost weight in just two years, and by five years they’ve gained back more than 80%. Some people even end up heavier than they were before.
It’s a similar story for those who use weight-loss drugs . Once they stop taking the pills, research shows they regain about two-thirds of their lost weight in just one year. “There are many reasons why we regain the weight we lose.
First, maintaining weight loss is less rewarding than seeing the number on the scale decrease while losing weight. Second, it’s often difficult to maintain the lifestyle changes we made to lose weight, and third, weight loss can trigger increased production of hunger hormones – and can even slow your metabolism,” says Dr Claire Madigan, a senior lecturer in the School of Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences at the UK’s Loughborough University whose research focuses on helping people manage their weight. Yet despite the odds stacked against us, it is possible to sustain w.