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Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia. And today I want to chat about sustaining weight loss, some challenges that people have and some strategies to help overcome those challenges. Now as a caveat, this is on the back of a podcast I today have recorded with Brandon from Brandon D'Cruz from Chasing Clarity, one of my great mates and just such a thinker who you know has been on Micropedia.

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times to sort of get some insights and some really specific knowledge from him. What a powerhouse, what a wealth of information. And so to prepare a little bit for his podcast, I just did a dive into the literature. I popped in a number of key studies and then just pulled some highlights out from them. And of course, as it happens when two mates jump on and talk about a topic, we go down rabbit holes and tangents and really

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go deep on some concepts and then other concepts we don't even touch on. So I thought that I would use this mini-Micipedia to go through this little sort of briefing document that I put together with the help of my AI friends to go through what is super important and some of those main themes and sort of insights. As you know, maintaining weight loss is actually the critical part of any fat loss program and it's something which people really don't nail.

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In literature, it certainly is seen as a significant challenge. There is a high rate of weight regain after initial success. However, research does demonstrate that long-term weight loss maintenance is achievable for a substantial portion of individuals. And so what I want to do is sort of synthesize findings from several sources, highlighting the key psychological, behavioral, physiological, and environmental factors differentiating successful weight loss maintainers.

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from those who regain weight. A central theme here is the critical role of self-regulation, including continuous monitoring, personalized goal setting, and effective coping strategies for dietary lapses. It's important to chat about the fact that exercise is consistently linked to weight loss maintenance, but the modality of the energy depletion diet versus exercise does impact appetite regulation differently, with diet-induced deficits posing a greater challenge to appetite control.

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personality traits, conscientiousness and the overall positive experience of lifestyle transformation also contribute to sustained success. am going to kick this off and I've said this before, we'll say it again, that a lot of what the literature reports is that sort of conventional approach to weight loss, which in best practice isn't used by people who know what they're doing. So high levels of cardio, aggressive calorie deficits, or the

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Recommendation to avoid exercise altogether will always result in a rapid weight loss, as you see from those amy type diets, TVA, I think it is, over in the States, but they really result in long-term successful outcomes. And so I think if we look at the obesity literature, two things sort of come to mind for me. One is that weight loss in of itself can be highly underwhelming with not a whole lot of weight that is actually lost, despite it being sort of

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statistically significant amounts of weight being lost clinically, they're not that big. But also a lot of that recidivism, the propensity to regain weight is because the strategy used to lose weight was sort suboptimal to begin with. But anyway, let's go over some main themes and key insights. What it's important to remember is that research, and this is from Wing and Phelan in 2005,

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shows that around 20 % of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss, as defined by losing at least 1 % of initial body weight and maintaining that loss for at least one year. We also know that the duration of maintenance is super important as well. So after individuals have successfully maintained their weight loss for two to five years, the chance of longer-term success greatly increases. So it does suggest that

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maintenance may become easier over time as the new behaviors become habitual. And we know this to be true. Like the more that you have reps on the board and you have that day in day out experience of executing these habits and behaviors and they become the norm, the easier it is to let go of other unhelpful habits and behaviors that keep you stuck for so long. Part of this is mindset, but part of it is literally just having these new found behaviors become

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habit and become your default. That takes time. The literature suggests two to five years. So it isn't something that beyond an eight week program, you're going to just always be able to sort of nail. And I think that's really important to manage your expectations around that. Interestingly, and just so you know, what is success isn't at least 10 % of initial body weight. Also, some studies also consider a 5 % sustained loss for a year is moderately successful.

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to those metabolic improvements. we know this to be true as well. For some people losing 5 % of their body weight massively improves metabolic outcomes like fasting glucose, longer term blood sugar control as measured by HbA1c, a change in the lipid profile to be more favorable, uh a reduction in that waist circumference which is associated with visceral adiposity. These things can be greatly improved even with a smaller amount of fat loss. So it's good to acknowledge that.

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as well. There is a critical role of self-monitoring and self-regulation. This is where I feel a lot of people go wrong. Brandon and I definitely talk about this in his upcoming podcast. That people think once the diet is done, then they can either wing it or go back to what they previously were doing. You do need that consistent self-monitoring. So more than 44 % of people report weighing themselves at least once a day and 31 % report weighing themselves at least once a week.

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So this frequent monitoring helps individuals catch small gains in weight and hopefully initiate corrective behavior changes. Weighing yourself more than once a day is pretty pointless, to be honest. So I'm not suggesting you need to do that, but certainly keeping an eye on the trend and the direction of the scale weight is super important and it can help you catch that initial weight gain. Now, chasing and staying at that sort of lowest weight of your weight

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loss journey isn't the goal here. Brandon and I talk all about this is that your lowest scale weight is not your maintenance weight, but staying within about 3 % of that, that is, and your weight will always be arranged depending on how those scales are fluctuating. However, if you trend month on month, and you're trending up and you know this, then you're able to course correct if you like, and that's a really important part of it. The other thing is tracking and planning.

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All of those behaviors you put in place to make sure that those foods you wanted to be eating were accessible and available, you have to continue to do that. These don't magically appear just because you're maintaining weight. Successful maintainers frequently use tools like food scales, food diaries, calorie tracking apps, and they remain mindful of portion sizes. They also instigate meal planning and pre-planning for events, such as checking menus, preparing food in advance.

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these are also crucial strategies. This isn't about being perfect, it is about being consistent. Weight loss maintainers, they rely heavily on clear routines for their everyday lives. That includes clear eating times as well as limiting food choices. In that, you can't just eat whatever you want once you get to weight maintenance because that'll just quickly get you back to the position you were in where you were requiring to lose weight in the first place. Some level of cognitive restraint with that

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flexible mindset and I've definitely talked about this in previous podcasts is absolutely required when you are trying to maintain the loss that you've had. The other thing which can be really important is having a relapse protocol. So these include approaches such as acceptable weight ranges and I talked about sort of staying within 3%, also thinking about how your clothes fit and then potentially having a bit of a plan of attack.

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If you do go for extended periods of time where you are a little looser with your food, maybe you go on a six week European holiday or you you're, you're skiing or you're doing whatever you're at a beach for two weeks and you are, you know, it was, we all deserve to sort of let, loosen the reins and let our hair down. mean, hopefully you don't go all gung ho on that holiday, but let's say you do, you've got to come back with a clear plan of action. And this isn't to look for some sort of shiny new diet.

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that will allow you to lose that weight quickly, it is to get back into those habits and behaviors that you know to be important. And I talked about this in my sort of holiday mini-miketevia episode actually about having a plan of attack when you get back home and you can get back into routine as quickly as possible. You need a routine to fall into. So many people who do my Mondays Matter program, they're on a membership.

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whereby I just give them a meal plan week on week so they know they can drop back into that, put in those protein-spearing days, know that it'll be a little bit hard, but ultimately after getting back into the groove for a couple of weeks, they'll feel so much better. And in fact, it's control which is the big piece of the puzzle here, feeling like you're in control of your situation, that's actually such a superpower, because ultimately you are, and sometimes the overwhelm of weight gain, however small,

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does make people, sort of, it's like a possum in a headlight for some people. And it's like, literally can't think clearly. Whereas having that mindset of knowing you know what to do really does change the game and that sort of confidence that you can get back to where you were. Because if you've done it for any length of time, you absolutely can. Just think about it a little bit like muscle memory. Importantly, it's having a consistent maintenance diet across the week. Those people who

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they were consistent, were one and a half times more likely to maintain their weight within five pounds over the subsequent year than participants who dieted more strictly on weekdays. So this is just saying that don't be on your diet from Monday through Thursday and then completely off the reservation from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Being consistent, making Saturday as consistent as a Monday will help you in your long-term weight loss maintenance efforts. So,

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How you cope with dietary lapses is a key differentiator for some people as well. How individuals respond to a dietary lapse is significant predictor of weight loss maintenance. Direct coping versus help seeking. This is a great concept. Maintainers, as compared to regainers, reported being more likely to use direct coping and less likely to seek help. This does imply that seeking help from others may be an ineffective way of coping with a dietary lapse, and it suggests a positive

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sort of a possible dearth of self-sufficiency or self-efficacy. So you do have to remember, this is that don't go chasing a shiny new object. It's remembering the tools that you have and the skills that you have. They are there, you've just got to get back to doing them. Active coping responses also help people deal successfully with diet relapse, including getting back into that self-monitoring, performing an alternative behavior, getting back into the gym, thinking positive thoughts.

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more like writing them down, think, more than just thinking about them, but really getting back to that positive behavior, acting as if you're back to where you want to be, make the decisions that the best version of yourself makes and having that in your head. I think this is a really important piece of the puzzle because if you think, oh, I'm such a loser, I've just regained weight, I mean, that's super unhelpful and it's not going to drive positive behavior. If instead you're like,

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I know what to do, I've got the plan here, I just have to execute it and I'm gonna start next meal. Then you're in action, take it, you're doing what needs to be done. And also just the big picture thing really is, is to avoid those potential lapses in the first place. Because they're the things that make someone much more likely to sort of regain and rebound hard, is when they're not accountable to those small relapses when they occur. And this is why self monitoring is super important. From a behavioral strategy,

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We know that high levels of physical activity are actually really important. Eating breakfast regularly, self monitoring weight and maintaining consistent eating pattern across weekdays and weekends. These were all behavioral strategies and diet and exercise that helps someone lose weight, of course, but also keep it off. So isn't it interesting, right? Eating breakfast daily, increasing vegetable consumption, decreasing sugary and fatty foods, no surprises. Limiting certain foods, reducing fat in meals,

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home cooking as opposed to eating out all the time. This not only helps people learn about ingredients and prepare appropriate portions, it does prevent that added oils and sugars that come into restaurant foods that we wouldn't even realize are there. So actually getting to know what's in your food, preparing it yourself, you don't have to be some sort of five-star chef to be able to make food. I am certainly not a great cook by any stretch of the imagination, but I have

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up with some simple strategies to help make food tasty and keep it aligned with my goals and for the goals of my members. Interestingly, acute energy depletion by dieting alone represented a greater acute challenge to appetite regulation than exercise, as demonstrated by a greater appetite ad libertum. So what this means is if you're just relying on the calorie deficit and you're not exercising, you're much more likely to be hungry and much more likely to overeat.

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I can't help but think of AMWAY when I think of this. Acute calorie restriction leads to rapid changes in appetite that result in compensatory eating, which may initially dissuade potential success in weight loss efforts. So the energy loss created by exercise is not compensated as much by change in energy intake in the first days to week. really, exercise is so important from a weight maintenance perspective, but also is really important from a fat loss perspective as well.

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and you can have an uncoupling of appetite if you're not at all active and you're just relying on that calorie deficit. So making an effort to be active helps you regulate your appetite and tune into your satiety signals much more. And the last thing I want to touch on are these psychological factors and motivation. Intrinsic motivators are super important and linked to success. So the desire to improve someone's health is that they're self-confident.

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image improved significantly and they felt that they regained control of their life. These are all important motivators for people who have lost weight and kept it off. And certainly the weight loss itself does enhance self-esteem and this goes into that sort psychological transformation that is just so important. That reinvention of self and self-identity is another huge one. Participants often describe a sense of reinvention and an identity shift to a new lifestyle after successful weight loss.

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So this newfound identity and sense of purpose can be profoundly motivating. And I encourage this right from the word go, that you cannot adopt a new identity if you're carrying your old habits and behaviors and self-limiting beliefs behind you. And this is where the work is because following a diet and exercise program for eight weeks is relatively simple compared to making lasting change. And that lasting change comes from a shift in your mindset and literally

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believing that you can do it. And so you really have to uncover some of these self-limiting beliefs that hold you back. And once you do, that sort of self-esteem really sort of skyrockets. Self-control and self-efficacy. Obviously, as I mentioned, weight loss maintenance is positively correlated with high levels of self-control and cognitive restraint, but with a flexible mindset. And understanding that you've got control is a huge piece of the puzzle. And interestingly, for some people, medical triggers

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are often associated with less regain over a two year follow up. So this isn't every one, but actually if you do have a bit of a health scare for some people, this is a driver for long-term change. I'm not saying this is what we want and it's a desirable piece of a puzzle, but it's certainly um interesting to note that health, particularly as we age, is a huge motivator for some people. So what are some challenges and barriers? The first one are

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intrinsic challenges. So every day stress, lack of time to engage in weight loss maintenance, associated behaviors like exercise, emotional eating, life events such as pregnancy, illness or injury, social isolation, over-reliance on a support system around weight loss, a lack of structure, major life events, trigger foods and temptations, all of these things can create some intrinsic challenges. knowing that they

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I think managing expectations around this is a really big part of the puzzle because being able to deal with those challenges and having a system and a structure set up that you can lean on is really critical. That's why I really like programs that give you structure because there's somewhere to go when things get a bit tough. There are extreme challenges as well though, such as work and personal stress, holidays, celebrations, obesogenic food environments.

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due to the ever presence of hyper palatable, hypercaloric, inexpensive foods. Unsupportive peers who would discourage, tempt and pressure weight loss maintenance to eat and also cultural and social norms around alcohol. These are all these external challenges that people face. Again, having a plan and a structure can really help overcome this. Believing in yourself is a big one. Fear of regain is a real challenge for people who have lost the weight and it's ever present.

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in the literature as well. And it does make that journey of weight loss maintenance feel like an ongoing challenge and burden that needs to be continuously combated. this isn't about never, like all of these things I'm talking about are really important to help you stay structured and you need that cognitive restraint, but you have to go in believing that, you know, this is in fact a new identity for you. You are a different person now to where you were at even, you know, eight weeks ago, 16 weeks ago, six months ago.

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You've got to have that self belief so you know that any small challenge can be overcome because you've got the tools. If you're constantly in fear of weight gain, that is going to drive some potentially unhelpful behaviors and restrictions that will blow up later on down the line. So what does this mean then? It means that the implications for practice are that there are no one size fits all. And even when you do a plan like Monday's matter or other plans, then

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I give you guidelines and I give you structure and I'm in there coaching to help tweak it, to make it your own, essentially. We definitely need to emphasize these self-regulation skills. So weight loss programs should incorporate coping skills, training, help individuals develop active, effective behavioral and cognitive responses to dietary lapses. This is why we get you to reflect. This is why we focus so much on mindset. And we also need to really focus on that self-monitoring.

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like food scales and planning and the daily tracking and things like that, and problem solving when things go wrong and understanding that it's not a catastrophe, it's just a blip and it's to be expected. Fostering that intrinsic motivation is key. Knowing that the longer term benefits of weight loss maintenance is, you know, it's improved self-image, self-confidence, better health and new social opportunities. And all of these hopefully help strengthen that intrinsic motivation.

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and then promoting consistent behavior. Everything you did to help you lose weight, a lot of it should become part of your everyday new identity and lifestyle, such as regular weighing, consistent eating patterns, and continuous physical activity. These are all strongly associated with long-term success. And if you know that you struggle with strategies such as emotional eating and stress, then actually doing the work to develop strategies to manage these is,

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big part of significant intrinsic challenges for regainers. And so for some people, this will mean chatting to a therapist or a counselor about coming up with strategies, reading books on it, reaching out to other people that can help. For some, this is critical. Having external support systems is another thing which is recommended. Peer support groups, external monitoring, the community in Mondays Matter is brilliant for that as well.

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And also think about sort of functional role of body composition changes, especially fat free mass loss using more advanced methods, better understand its impact on appetite and energy balance. And Brandon and I talk about the fact that when you lose more muscle mass, then it's harder for you to regulate your appetite. This is a key part of it too, which I didn't really go into on this little podcast here. So a little bit to think about, this is one of my favorite topics. So I do like to delve into it.

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Let me know your thoughts. I'm over on Facebook @mikkiwillidennutrition, Instagram threads and Twitter @mikkiwilliden, or head over to my website, mikkiwiliden.com. And on the note of Monday's matter, I have my accelerator program coming up mid October. It's not that long jump on the wait list. You'll get early notification. And that is just before we kick off our Christmas program as well. 99 % of what we do on Monday's matter is

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geared towards this evidence-based approach, setting you up for success. All right, team, and enjoy the rest of your week. See you later.