What do you consider the hardest part about losing weight? Some might say it’s the need to give up junk food. Others might bemoan the increased physical activity and exercise. But when it comes down to it, the hardest part about weight loss may not be in losing the pounds, but rather in keeping them off.
Anyone who has lost weight knows that amazing feeling when you reach your goal. It’s like crossing the finish line tape, arms raised in victory. You’ve worked so hard and now it’s time to rest, right? It’s a mistaken belief that has gotten many weight loss achievers into a lot of trouble. The truth is the race will continue for the rest of your life.
But research is shedding some light on how the rate at which you lose weight in the initial stages can actually boost your chances of long term overall weight loss and healthy weight maintenance.
In a two-year study of 177,743 people suffering from obesity, researchers first analyzed the amount of weight participants lost in the first six months of their chosen weight loss approaches. They split them into four groups based on their percentage weight loss:
Weight Loss Months 1-6:
Stable: less than 5%
Modest: 5% to less than 10%
Moderate: 10% to less than 15%
High: 15% or higher
After two years, while there was weight regain among a percentage of participants across all groups, it was those in the High weight loss group that showed the greatest long term gains:
Weight Loss & Maintenance Months 7-24:
Stable: No continued weight loss or maintenance
Modest: 2% continued weight loss; 23.1% maintained
Moderate: 4.1% continued weight loss; 14.1% maintained
High: 11.1% continued weight loss; 19.4% maintained
Additional research is necessary to determine why rapid weight loss at the start of a program yields substantially greater long-term benefits, but intuitively we might assume that it has something to do with motivation levels to engage in behaviors associated with a healthy weight. If you have that drive to succeed from the start, it is likely to stay with you for a lifetime.
