Maintaining Weight Loss: Keeping an Eye on the Pounds

Oct. 11, 2006 — -- People who lose weight can't just sit back and bask in the glory.

They need to check their weight on a daily basis to keep off the pounds, a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine shows.

The study found that a "self-regulatory" maintenance program in which patients weighed themselves daily and made appropriate adjustments to their diet and exercise helped keep off the extra pounds.

Patients who weighed themselves daily and attended face-to-face meetings with therapists and other program members regained an average of 5.5 pounds after 18 months, compared with 10.8 pounds regained by patients who weren't enrolled in a similar maintenance program.

The face-to-face meetings were found to be better than Internet messages and chat rooms in keeping off the weight.

Patients in maintenance programs who were followed through Internet contact regained an average of 10.3 pounds, not far from the 10.8 pounds regained by patients not in any maintenance program.

Checking daily weights may be the way to go in keeping off the extra pounds.

"It obligates the patient's continuing attention to the task. It enables patients to make multiple small adjustments rather than face large changes, which may be noted if they assess their status at less frequent intervals," said Dr. Arthur Frank, medical director of the George Washington University Weight Management Program.

"If you do this every day as part of your usual routine, you will notice any weight gain and be able to take early action, rather than getting a wake-up call after you've gained 5 [pounds] or 10 pounds," said Dr. George L. Blackburn, S. Daniel Abraham associate professor of nutrition and associate director of nutrition at Harvard Medical School.

For dieters, losing weight is only half the battle.

Once the weight is lost, they have to keep the pounds from reaccumulating.

Most dieters regain a third of the weight lost during the next year and are typically back to baseline in three years to five years.

"People always recognize that losing weight is a transient phenomenon," Frank said. "An effective maintenance program has to be sustained indefinitely."