Q&A with 'Refuse to Regain' author Dr. Barbara Berkeley, Part 2

January 20, 7:30 AMWeight Loss ExaminerGail Gedan Spencer

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Dr. Barbara Berkeley, author of Refuse to Regain! 12 Tough Rules to Maintain the Body You've Earned! has been talking with us this week about keeping off lost weight. Yesterday she discussed why people often fail at weight maintenance. Today we're infused with the audacity of hope so we'll discuss how successful weight maintainers do it.

(Berkeley also writes the Refuse to Regain blog with Lynn Haraldson Bering, who lost 168 pounds and has kept every pound of that off for nearly two years.)

Q. How are weight-maintainers successful?
A. Over the past eight months or so, since Lynn and I started the Refuse to Regain website, I've had the opportunity to hear from many more successful maintainers than I'd known previously. What they say has alot in common with the data collected by the National Weight Control Registry. Most of them are very serious about the process of maintenance, yet they get a great deal of enjoyment from their success. They exercise religiously (the average maintainer in the NWCR walks about 4 miles per day or equivalent). They stay interested in learning about the process, often through reading, subscribing to websites or conversing with other maintainers on line. They pay alot of attention to the foods that they eat and to how these foods affect them. I believe that often it is their public commitment to maintaining, either by becoming bloggers, participating in on line groups or mentoring others that helps keep them focused.

Q. For the people who successfully maintain their weight loss, did they use a particular diet or way of eating?
A. If you mean did they lose weight is a particular way, the answer is no. It doesn't matter how you lose. In terms of maintaining, most people eat what I would characterize as a mostly "natural" diet. They report eating very few processed foods and try to stick to basic, low fat choices. (the NWCR reports that most registrants eat a low fat diet). Most of the people who write into our website say that they are very sensitive to eating carbohydrates and certainly avoid the more modern versions. While some maintainers say they still allow themselves to eat treats here and there, others are much more controlled and rarely deviate.

Q. Is there a particular type of diet that is best for maintenance?
A. Well, the answer is: the diet that allows you as an individual to keep the weight off. There will certainly be individual variation. However, I believe that a diet that's closest to the ancient human diet is best, not only in maintenance but for all people because it's the diet our genetic structure is familiar with. Ancient foods are easily figured out: they are the foods that could be hunted, gathered, picked or fished in the outdoors. Basically: lean meat, poultry, fish, seafood, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, berries and some root vegetables. Notice that grains are not included. They are recent additions to the human diet and contribute to the load of sugar in our blood. I do include low fat dairy as it appears to be relatively weight neutral. Having said this, each individual can add back as tolerated. It's a fascinating science experiment that each maintainer can enjoy figuring out.

Q. Is diet or exercise more important for weight maintenance?
A. Recently, within a period of about a month, two studies were published on exercise in maintenance. One showed that you can maintain perfectly well without any exercise. The other concluded that you need even more exercise than the hour a day that is currently recommended. Who knows? I can only tell you that I and most other successful maintainers can't stay at goal without working out. Having said that: I still believe that the foods you choose are the more important of the two elements.