The Weight Maintenance Predictors:
13 Behaviors and Attitudes That Keep Fat Off Forever
This is probably the best check-list of weight maintenance advice I have come 
across this year - if not ever.

This is straight from peer-reviewed obesity research journals, not from pop 
fitness websites, so you can trust that this advice is rock solid and accurate.

The data came from obesity researchers at the University of Surrey (UK). They 
didn't conduct a new study, however - they did an exhaustive review of 152 other 
studies (Basically, ALL the major research that's ever been done on weight 
maintenance).

What I've done is to summarize the most important weight maintenance factors for 
you (psychological traits and physical behaviors) and then translate that into a 
lesson or actionable step.

The more of these strategies you use, the more likely you'll be not only to lose 
fat, but to keep it off for good. A person who is 13 for 13 (or even close to 
it) is simply NEVER going to have a weight problem.

1.  Self-monitoring

In the words of the authors, tracking calories eaten, workouts performed, body 
weight change, progress achieved, and so on, are "cardinal behaviors of 
successful weight maintainers." Maintainers monitor everything. They are 
journalers, trackers, and counters. Remember, you can't improve it if you're not 
even measuring it.

2.  Self-responsibility / Internal locus of control

People who attribute (blame) their body fat on medical conditions are LESS 
successful at maintenance. This is most likely because they don't believe 
they're in control of their results. A person with an internal locus of control 
believes that outcomes are under their own control. A person with an external 
locus of control believes outcomes are controlled by outside forces such as 
environment, genes or chance. High internal locus of control strongly predicts 
successful fat loss and long term maintenance.

3.  Self-motivation

External motivation is helpful, but no motivation is better than self 
motivation. Research confirms that being SELF motivated predicts successful 
weight loss from both exercise and diet programs.

Self motivation vacillates a lot for most people and the research has found two 
major reasons why: (1) Small lapses in compliance cause a drop in motivation, 
and (2) self criticism causes a drop in motivation. Successful maintainers are 
kind to themselves, they avoid critical self-talk, and they understand that 
they're going to have lapses, they simply bounce back quickly.

4.  Self efficacy

Self efficacy is the conviction that you can successfully execute the behavior 
required to produce the results you want. Differently stated, this is believing 
in yourself, and specifically, believing in your ability to follow the program 
("I can do it" attitude).

5.  Weight cycling (yo yo dieting)

Multiple previous attempts at weight loss followed by weight regain (yo yo 
dieting) predicts poor success at future attempts. This may seem discouraging to 
chronic dieters, but the good news is that the research said this was only a 
correlation. If you've lost and regained many times, you CAN succeed. The key is 
that you must learn from past mistakes.

6.  Proper Diet

Proper nutrition is one the strongest predictors of weight loss and weight 
maintenance. Most experts consider diet the #1 key to success at the outset of a 
weight loss program. Though there are thousands of diet programs, the one thing 
the successful ones have in common is that the diet is low in energy density.

Most people now understand there are healthy and unhealthy fats, but because fat 
has the highest energy density, a common finding among maintainers is a low fat 
diet. Also, over and over again, studies associate higher fruit intake, higher 
vegetable intake and eating breakfast with better weight loss and maintenance.

7.  Exercise

Experts still argue about how important exercise is at the beginning of a weight 
loss program but it's unanimous when it comes to maintenance - exercise is VITAL 
for keeping the weight off (to the point that you are almost doomed to gain back 
weight if you think you can be totally sedentary). Recent research has 
emphasized that it's important to reduce sedentary behaviors, not just increase 
exercise. For successful maintenance, the activity and exercise also has to be 
something you can maintain as a lifestyle.

8.  Attendance

Not even remotely surprising, attendance (aka "compliance") is one of the most 
consistent predictors of ongoing weight loss success. This should go without 
saying, but this confirmation should be a reminder that you are fooling yourself 
if you think skipping workouts, skipping meals, or skipping anything that's an 
integral part of the program won't matter. Every workout and every meal matters. 
Discipline and consistency are everything.

9.  Caring about Body Image

People with more concern for their shape and appearance successfully maintain a 
lower body weight. One research team called this a "healthy narcissism." Another 
researcher said that pride in appearance is one of the four main factors 
predicting maintenance.

Some people are concerned about when healthy narcissicm becomes unhealthy. 
Cognitive psychologists say that when you evaluate your self worth as a person 
based on your body image (weight and shape) alone, that is unhealthy. It's 
important to disassociate you as a person from your weight and body shape. As I 
wrote in The Body Fat Solution" "body fat is not a person, it's a temporary 
condition."

10. Early weight loss

Getting off to a good start and getting momentum going is a predictor of future 
success. This doesn't mean that crash diets and induction programs are a good 
idea, but there's little doubt that good early results correlates with lower 
dropout and with finishing strong. Going for the first few weeks with no results 
correlates highly with dropout. Conventional wisdom says take it slow and steady 
or you may burn out - and while that's still good advice, don't tip-toe through 
your first few weeks - start strong!

11.  Coping Strategies

People with good coping strategies have better weight loss and maintenance 
results. Research shows that weight regainers tend to eat in response to 
stressful or negative life events and negative emotions. Maintainers use food 
for fuel and building material for the body and have other ways to cope with 
stress. The most effective strategies involve confronting problems and resolving 
challenges. Avoidance, passivity or emotion-based coping (eating, sleeping more 
or wishing problems would go away), leads to failure and relapse.

12.  Social support

Social support falls under coping strategies, but it's so important, on so many 
levels, it stands alone as one of the biggest predictors of better ongoing 
weight loss AND long term weight maintenance.

Here's one of the keys: You need support from LIKE-MINDED people who are in or 
have been in your shoes before. That creates a bond or rapport ("these people 
are like me"), which creates confidence that you can do it too. The researchers 
confirmed it:

"An individual's degree of success is likely to be heavily influenced by their 
capacity to construct linkages and alliances with people sharing the same 
problem, and the quality of the social network available."

Here's another key to finding quality support: The researchers found that when 
support was viewed by the recipient as promoting autonomy as opposed to being 
controlling, the participants got much better results.

For fat loss support - quality support, from like-minded people - you CANNOT do 
better than the Burn the Fat Inner Circle support community: Burn The Fat Inner 
Circle (unmatched support and much more).

13.  Outcome expectancy

On one hand, unrealistic expectations lead to disappointment and correlate to 
high dropout, but on the other, you can only rise as high as you set the bar. 
Researchers say that the best results come from a combination of realistic and 
positive expectations. My philosophy is: be realistic, especially on goal 
achievement deadlines / time frames, but set big goals and always EXPECT 
SUCCESS!

Summing it all up

One of the major conclusions of the researchers was that people who combine 
multiple strategies are far more successful at weight loss and weight 
maintenance than those who use only one strategy, such as diet alone or exercise 
alone, or positive thinking/psychological approaches alone. They wrote,

"The more dimensions or modules of behavior change and mental attitude that a 
person can fit in their lives, the greater the chance of success" they said.

Successful body composition can be divided into four primary elements:

1. Nutrition
2. Weight training
3. Cardio training
4. Mental training

We also agree completely with the research findings about support and support 
groups. We call social support "the 5th Element." 
When you've got that too, 
you've got a permanent fat loss system that's almost fool-proof.
  
Come to our Nutrition Coaching Sessions starting September...
Wednesday  and Saturday mornings after class at about 10am.
You can get support from the group, get measured, weighed and ask questions.
Set deadlines, goals and work towards them...
  
See you soon  Jax Allen   follow me @miclubtweets   for daily health and fitness hints
FACEBOOK  like and subscribe to our Miclub oage on facebook... xx
 




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