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According to the CDC, in 2009, obesity rates varied from a low in Colorado of 18.6%, to a high of 34.4% in Mississippi (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). To make matters worse, obesity has been proven to contribute to heart disease, type II diabetes, stroke, and even some kinds of cancers. On top of that, heart disease, cancer and stroke are the top three killers of Americans. It is no mystery that America is overweight, and that this trend seems to be getting worse with each subsequent generation of Americans. To help combat this issue, and to make some profit along the way, different organizations have developed different dieting techniques. Some diets, like the Atkins Diet, promote the idea of a low-carbohydrate / high-protein diet, designed to burn fat cells quickly by essentially starving the body of its usual carbohydrate intake. On the other hand, other diets require you to buy only the food they create for you, such as Nutrisystem. However, once a person becomes involved and devoted to such diets, how long will she or he stick with their program? When will the excitement wear off? When will the energy to continue the diet become too great? What can we do as a society to change our overweight culture?
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The truth is, diets change people’s lifestyles so drastically that they usually tend to be temporary. It is all too common to hear of someone losing a ton of weight and then six months later gaining it all back. Then how do we get Americans to lose weight permanently? We need to find a way to promote weight lose in a manner that is long-term. The changes to one’s lifestyle should happen gradually, so as to ensure long-term success, rather than a “big-bang” approach to dieting that throws a person into a drastically different lifestyle right away. An analogy would be someone trying to quit smoking. If the person decides to stop “cold-turkey” they may go into withdrawal much quicker and more intensively than had she or he gradually cut down on their smoking with the help of nicotine gum or patches. When you cut something out “cold-turkey” that used to be part of your daily routine, you are bound to fall back into that old, comfortable routine.
An interesting study that is being conducted in Minnesota addresses the maintenance of weight loss (Sherwood, et al., 2011). In this randomized clinical trial, researchers from the University of Minnesota and the HealthPartners Research Foundation allocated subjects either into a “guided” treatment group, or a “self-directed” control group, with 209 and 210 subjects respectively. Both groups, which each consisted of subjects who had lost at least 10% of their weight before joining the study, were then enrolled in two different weight loss maintenance interventions. Thus, for this study the exposure would be involvement in the “guided” treatment group, while the disease or outcome would be the maintenance of weight lose. Each intervention consisted of a weight-loss guidebook and log, and a series of phone calls with weight-loss coaches. Whereas the “self-directed” control group had limited access to their coaches, the “guided” treatment group had more extensive and frequent communication with their coaches via the “Keep It Off” program. In the “Keep It Off” program, participants had biweekly calls from their coaches, followed by monthly and then bimonthly phone calls for a total of 24 months. Activities of the “Keep It Off” program include: physical activity review, menu planning, relapse prevention, body image and weight goals, and group sessions while all being integrated with continuous communication with a coach by phone, email and their website (Sherwood, et al., 2011). Since the final version of this article is not yet published, the results cannot be confirmed at this time. Nonetheless, this study proves how important it is to look at dieting, as a component of weight loss, and how it needs to be transcended from a short-term activity to a long-term activity.
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As someone who lost 48 lbs one and a half years ago, I know how important it is to keep the weight off once you lose it. It is very easy to fall into old habits because they are comforting and well known. However, I have made a pledge to myself that I would maintain my weight loss and continue my exercise routine as well as my improved eating habits. I am now to the point where I enjoy eating healthy foods. I try my best to keep my meals well-balanced, while avoiding sweets, creams, and soft drinks. In fact, it has been so long since I’ve had any sweets that I don’t crave them anymore. Nowadays, I never tell anyone that I am on a diet, because that sounds temporary to me, but rather I tell others that I made some permanent life changing decisions to improve my health…after all, my life depends upon it.
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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). U.S. Obesity Trends. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta.
Sherwood, Crain, Martinson, Hayes, Anderson, Clausen, et al. (2011). Keep it off: A phone-based intervention for long-term weight-loss maintenance. Contemporary Clinical Trials , 10.
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