The Secrets Of Their Success

By Christine Gorman

Olga Arias, 46, knows what it's like to be obese. "Ever since I was a kid, I was probably always chunky," she says. "Every year I would just gain weight." By the time the 5-ft. 5-in. San Francisco city worker was 34, she tipped the scales at 260 lbs. "I was self-conscious about everything--getting on a bus, sitting in an airplane seat," she recalls. "I would put off seeing doctors, I was so embarrassed."

Like millions of other plus-size Americans, Arias had tried a couple of times to lose weight--only to regain every pound she shed and then some. Finally, one August day in 1992, she says, "something just clicked. I knew I had to do something." Arias started swimming at a local pool and limiting what she ate. At first, she didn't tell anyone what she was doing because she feared she might fail again. But after the first month, when she lost 25 lbs., people at work started to notice and compliment her efforts. After two years, she had lost more than 100 lbs.--and she has kept the weight off.

What is Arias' secret? She didn't undergo gastric-bypass surgery. She didn't do Atkins, South Beach or any other diet plan. What she did was buy a couple of books that listed the nutritional value and calorie content of the foods she ate, including prepared items. Then she gave up fried foods and alcohol, began preparing her own meals and loaded up on fruits and vegetables. Finally, she started moving--first by joining a swimming pool, then walking, hiking, biking, even surfing for a while. To this day, she limits what she eats, exercises at least an hour a day and steps on the bathroom scales every morning to make sure her weight doesn't creep back up.

Arias' success story qualified her to join the National Weight Control Registry, a study of men and women who have lost at least 30 lbs. and kept them off for at least a year. The registry was founded in 1993 by James Hill, an obesity researcher at the University of Colorado, and Rena Wing, a behavioral psychologist at Brown University, and although it's a self-selected group of self-described "successful losers," it has taught researchers quite a bit about how to achieve long-term weight loss. Today there are 5,000 Americans listed in the registry, and their stories are an inspiration to anyone who has ever struggled with a weight problem. "On average they have lost 70 lbs. and kept it off at least six years," Wing says. What are the secrets of their success? Some of them may surprise you.

Probably the most unexpected result is that there is no consensus about the best way to lose weight. Half the registrants shed the pounds on their own; the other half enrolled in a program or went to a nutritionist. Some participants emphasized protein, others a low-fat diet. But most chose some combination of limiting what they ate and increasing their level of physical activity.

Clear trends emerged when it came to maintaining that weight loss. The first thing they all did was get off the couch. Even after they had reached their target weight, participants continued to spend an hour a day--often more--most days of the week, in some type of vigorous physical activity. Walking was the most popular, but practically everyone added at least one other sport or activity.

After reaching their goal, most long-term losers followed a single general strategy toward nutrition: limiting the calories and to a lesser extent the amount of fat in their diet. (It will be interesting to see if this observation continues to hold as high-protein diets become more popular.) That doesn't mean that they necessarily count each calorie or weigh every portion, but they often started by looking up the calorie content of their favorite foods. "I was surprised at how calories can sneak up on you," says Gregg Fields, 44, a college professor in Delray Beach, Fla., who lost 35 lbs. and has kept them off for eight years. Fields quickly determined he needed to get rid of what he calls junk calories. "All fried foods are gone--particularly French fries," he says.

Finally, almost all the registry's long-term losers eat breakfast and weigh themselves regularly, usually once a day. Eating breakfast--particularly one that emphasizes fruits, vegetables or cereals rich in fiber--seems to be a natural appetite suppressant. And there is nothing like stepping on the scales each morning to figure out whether you need to boost your physical activity or push back a little sooner from the table.

No one is saying that any of this is easy--the folks in the Weight Control Registry appear to be working harder at maintaining their weight than those who have never had a weight problem. But the conventional wisdom among experts that 95% of all dieters are doomed to regain their lost weight may be too pessimistic. One reason researchers have such a bleak view of dieting is a famous study of 100 people conducted in the late 1950s by Dr. Albert Stunkard, now a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania. Only two of his subjects were able to maintain their weight loss for two years. "That was a period when we had no treatment for obesity," Stunkard says. "The medical profession thought it was either a psychiatric issue or a metabolic problem that couldn't be solved. We've done much better since then."

The experience of registry participants suggests that your best chance for success is to develop--and stick with--an eating and exercise plan you can follow over the long run. Indeed, many registry members say losing weight was not as hard as keeping it off. There is less positive reinforcement once you've stopped shedding pounds and too many opportunities in our land of plenty to overindulge. Often, as with smoking cigarettes, it seems to take more than one attempt to get it right.

"You have to make it a priority," says Chris Stock, 51, a 6ft. 2-in. clinical pharmacist in Salt Lake City, Utah, who lost 70 lbs. seven years ago after suffering a heart attack and adopting a vegetarian diet and a daily exercise routine. Stock runs at least an hour each day, keeps himself busy and leaves encouraging notes for himself around the house, on the refrigerator and on the computer as a way to deal with frequent thoughts about food. "Every diet is designed to be short term," he says. "But this has got to be a commitment for the rest of your life."