A survey of my colleagues

I am fortunate to work with a team of physicians, nutritionists, and exercise consultants who are most certainly in the know when it comes to weight loss. As I am blowing the dust off this blog, I thought it worthwhile to sample their expertise about what they think is important with regard to sustained weight loss.  Specifically, I asked them, "If you have 5 minutes, would you share with me what you think are the 3 most important factors in promoting weight loss, from what you have seen?"  

The most common theme that stood out was the importance of eating mindfully.  Karla recommended "avoiding mindless eating" and instead, eating in a way where you stop when you are satisfied, rather than full. Rhonda added to this by suggesting the importance of reducing distractions when you are eating. So, you may want to consider turning off the television, turning off your cellphone, and not eating while you are on the Internet. Another suggestion along the same lines was to intentionally slow down. Tracie has been suggesting that her patients eat with their non-dominant hand because it not only slows them down, it forces them to be more aware of their eating. 

Sticking to healthy eating basics was also well represented. You need to be aware of what you are eating.  Different foods have different nutritional values and a successful loser will remain diligent about this information, but as Tracie said, won't obsess about it. Ginny pointed to the themes identified by the National Weight Control Registry, which include, among other things, the continued monitoring of what you eat. Rhonda mentioned the importance of food records and hunger/satiety rating scales to aid in keeping track.  Further, Molly also suggested that successful people eat a lower fat diet, fill half their plates with non-starchy vegetables, and drink more water.  At the same time, she was careful to point out that "all foods need to fit", in other words, don't intentionally cut certain foods entirely from your lifestyle.  Avoiding certain foods leads to binges along the way, so find a way to make them a part of your life. Ginny said, "I often tell people not to do things for weight loss that they are not ready to do for the rest of their lives." 

Exercise was also a consistent theme.  Your exercise should be fun, and can even start out at 10-15 minutes per day, according to Molly. In fact, according to the information Ginny shared, about 90% of the successful maintainers in the NWCR exercise daily, often at about an hour per day.  Start somewhere and work your way up.  Even if you hit a wall in the beginning, work through it and keep on going. As Deb noted, you should "have a vision as well as specific short term goals." She added that accountability is often important in helping people to stay on track, so get a partner or someone you can check in with regularly. 

One of the areas I am most interested in, the eating environment, was mentioned.  Often, people are unaware of the way their environment affects their eating patterns.  Brian Wansink has done a lot of work looking at the psychology of eating and the work is frankly fascinating.  Tracie pointed out, and Wansink's research demonstrates, that using smaller plates, bowls and cups may help you to eat less.  She added that it is a good idea to keep tempting food out of the house and to keep it out of sight.

Finally, the emotional side of eating must be mentioned. Often, we develop a diet mentality and become frustrated when we don't lose quickly.  Molly recommended that people aim to lose 2 pounds per month (yeah, you read that correctly). Over a year, for many people this may lead to losing 10% of their weight.  She suggested that it is important to change your mindset to healthy eating rather than just weight loss.  Karla also drove home the point that people need to learn to deal with the emotional side of their eating, often by identifying alternative outlets. Rhonda suggested the work by Geneen Roth on emotional and compulsive eating as a resource. 

In summary, the people in the know aren't sharing anything new with you. They are sharing their combined decades of experience in helping people to lose weight and keep it off.  Be aware of what you eat. Eat Healthy. Exercise. Change your environment if you need to. Deal with your emotions. Think about what you are eating, but think about other stuff too.  When you start to slip, which you probably will, pick yourself up and start again.