Why Weight Maintenance is
Different from Dieting
Studies suggest that almost all the people who lose weight will regain some or all of it within a few years.
Losing weight and keeping it off are not the same. Losing weight is usually rule or process based. The motivation you need is time-limited: you follow a set of instructions, take medication or have procedures and see results on the scales.
Maintenance is different. Once the “rules” or medicine disappear, you’re in charge – and everyday life comes back into play. The challenges, temptations, stresses, and situations. That’s when old habits can sneak back, and the scales can start creeping upward.
And most unfairly the body actually sets out to make you put the weight back on.
Why Most People Regain Weight
Common reasons include:
- Ending or reducing medication that you’ve used to lose weight.
- Relying on strict diet rules without learning how to adapt them.
- Losing motivation without the “buzz” of weight loss progress.
- Returning to old food and activity patterns.
- The body is actually working against you to try to put it back on. Scientists believe that every one of us has a weight set point, which is the weight at which our body will do everything it can to return to. What that set point is is determined by your biology and external/environmental factors. Some research suggests it may well even be set when we are in the womb.
But there are things we can do to keep the weight off. Weight Off Life is focused solely on what happens after losing weight– the long-term strategies that keep you steady and in control.
The Truth About Responsibility, Blame & Body positvity
It’s Not Just About Willpower
The old “calories in, calories out” message oversimplifies a complex reality, as you will find out during Weight Off Life. Weight is influenced by biology, environment, psychology, and more.
Factors outside your control – from genetics to global food supply chains – also play a significant role.
Indeed, our bodies and brains make it really easy to regain weight but make it harder to lose it again. They actually work against us, making us pile the pounds back on.
Having said that, most of us who gained weight in the first place didn’t have healthy diets beforehand. Most likely too much processed, sugary and fatty food. And we probably didn’t move enough.
Why Society Makes managing our weight Harder
We have institutionalised obesity in society and made it hard for many to stay slim. Global trade deals and economic policies make healthy food more expensive and processed food more common.
- Processed, high-calorie food is cheap and easy to find.
- We don’t learn to cook at school anymore.
- Healthy, fresh food can be more expensive and less accessible.
- Work and family life leave little time to cook from scratch.
Fattening and unhealthy food is everywhere – in workplaces, social events, shops, and even healthcare settings.
It’s not your fault – but you can change it
It’s too easy to ‘blame’ people who put on weight. We know that is not the case, as our biology and life circumstances play such a role. And that’s also the case for putting weight back on.
Governments – and wider society – have wanted us to see being overweight as purely an individual fault and responsibility. To blame us. That way, they do not have to take action themselves.
We are not to blame for having put on weight or struggling so far in keeping it off. But it is up to us individually whether and how we manage our weight. And the decisions we make.
So being totally honest with ourselves about our habits and day to day food and lifestyle decisions is the first step to keeping weight off. Being realistic, knowing what you can change, and not blaming yourself for the things you can’t. (Because stress actually makes you put on weight!)
The Role of Body Positivity
The body positivity movement challenges the idea that smaller is always better. There is so much pressure to achieve and maintain unrealistic bodies, especially as we grow older. It’s impossible even to know these days in photos and film what is real and what is not.
Weight Off Life loves the body positivity movement. Maintaining weight loss or being smaller is a personal decision – not an obligation. You can value health and self-acceptance at the same time.
