Guys, I hope it's ok to share links to things I read with you that I find motivational. I have no connection to the authors other then having read his books and find them good (in this case). It's in relation to the Biggest Loser posts and he also send an email to his subscribers saying he is disappointed of the negativity
http://www.burnthefatblog.com/burn-it-off-and-keep-it-off-10-keys-to-lifelong-maintenance.php
It's little long but worth a read
some of quotes
1. Maintainers have a plan for transitioning into maintenance phase
The worst thing you can do at the time you reach your weight goal is to abruptly end a diet and make sudden changes to totally different foods or a dramatically different quantity of food. The stricter your diet has been, the more important it is to include a gradual transition plan to take you from your caloric deficit level to your new maintenance level. If your calorie reduction and food restrictions were conservative, you won’t need much of a transition period; you should be able to safely bring your calories right up to maintenance without a problem.
A transition phase might take place over the course of a week or two, or it might stretch out as long as three to four weeks or more if your diet was very restrictive and know you are prone to sudden weight gain. Your objective is to slowly establish energy balance so your weight stabilizes. As you bring your calories back up to maintenance, use the weekly feedback method and continue to monitor your weight and body composition.
Remember that body weight is not the same as body fat, so don’t be alarmed if there is a small weight gain, provided your body fat percentage does not increase significantly. Sometimes you’ll gain two to three pounds as you raise calories back to maintenance (especially carb calories), but it’s usually lean tissue, water and muscle glycogen, especially if you had reduced your carbs during the fat loss phase. When your weight is stable and you’re neither gaining or losing week-to-week, you know you’re in energy balance and you’ve officially entered the maintenance phase, or if you prefer, the “lifestyle phase.”
7. Maintainers follow the 7 lifestyle eating habits
The eating habits that help to keep the weight off are almost identical to the nutrition habits that take the fat off. However, in virtually all of the long term studies about weight maintenance, 7 habits in particular show up at the top of the list over and over again.
Successful maintainers:
- Eat at least five fruits and vegetables per day. You can never hear this often enough: Eat more fruits and vegetables. They’re great for burning the fat off, great for keeping the fat off.
-Eat a high fiber diet. Successful maintainers report a high fiber intake from their high fruit and vegetable intake as well as from other natural starchy carb and whole grain sources such as beans, oats, legumes, brown rice, sweet potatoes, barley and so on.
-Eat breakfast every day. It’s no surprise that maintainers are breakfast eaters because strong correlations have been found between skipping breakfast and overeating or bingeing later in the day.
-Eat at fast food restaurants two or fewer times per week. A report on dietary practices and dining out behavior published by the Center for Disease Control found that adults who ate no more than two times per week at fast food restaurants were more successful at maintenance.
-Eat less dietary fat. Most maintainers report eating between 20% and 30% of their total calories from fat, significantly less than the national average of 35%. It’s important to consume enough of the healthy fats, but maintainers are aware that high fat foods are high calorie foods so quantities are controlled.
-Eat consciously. Long term maintainers are not mindless eaters. Even though healthy eating behaviors become habitual after years of repetition, successful maintainers are always vigilant and aware.
-Eat the same healthy foods all year round. Maintainers eat a wide variety of foods, but they are consistent all year round. There’s no dramatic difference between the foods eaten for maintenance because no weird or different foods are eaten for fat loss. To hold their weight steady, maintainers simply eat a little less of the same healthy foods during the fat loss phrase.
3. Maintainers continue diligent self-monitoring
Research has proven over and over again that people who monitor their progress have a higher chance of succeeding at reaching their body fat goals. What clinches the deal is that self-monitoring of body weight and other measures of progress increases your chances for successful maintenance as well.
Among maintainers, the most five common self-monitoring methods include:
• tracking body weight
• tracking calories
• planning meals
• tracking dietary fat intake
• measuring the amount of food
I find it both ironic and scary that all five of these methods are among the behaviors that both weight loss “professionals” and dieters rally
against! “(Throw away your scale, don’t count calories,” etc etc).
Among the NWCR maintainers who lost 65 pounds or more and kept if off for at least 5 years, 75% of them reported weighing themselves at least once a week. Many weighed themselves daily. Once you hit your target weight, don’t put that scale away just yet! Weighing yourself not only helps you take the weight off, it helps you keep it off.
I am very jealous! Have a great time
