When I started in private practice 22 years ago my mentor told me that my biggest challenge will be in working with the “human being” behind the diet. As dieticians we are trained in the science of nutrition – the interaction between the food that we eat, and the physiology (the working of)  the human body. I like to refer to a dietician as an “eating engineers”. A case of 1 + 1 = 2 (diet based on science = result).

Soon did I realize what she meant. One huge frustration in my professional career as is that most people regain all (or more) of the weight they lost after reaching goal weight!  If this is you, – don’t feel alone! I can tell you today that over 80% of the thousands of people I consulted with regain their weight after following a weight loss diet  – this is in line with medical research on the long-term success of weight loss diets).

But my BIGGEST frustration in practice is, that I have observed one common demeanor, and that is that people DON’T know why they regained the weight in the first place!!!!

Let me give you an example: I followed up with a client 8 weeks after achieving goal weight:

Let’s call her “Jane Doe”: In the 8-weeks Jane regained a whopping 6kg (she lost a total of 30kg to start with).

She explained that they went on holiday. She goes into detail how “really bad” the eating was. She did not make better choices, she did not think about the consequences of the “rebel” eating!

BUT, and this is a BIG BUT:  when she climbed on my scale and observed the 6kg weight gain she inflicted upon herself, she turned to me and asked – “How in heavens did this happen?

So, over the 22 years, I came to the conclusion: People, either by ignorance, rebellion or “the problem will fix itself” simply DON’T know how to maintain their goal weight!

I always reiterate that on a healthy, scientifically proven weight loss diet you are “rebooting” your computer. By this I mean that you are getting rid of “bad” eating habits (viruses) and acquiring good habits (upgrading software) that will (hopefully) become second nature (the old way of doing things is gone, and not part of your thinking and behavioural processes anymore).

In my personal opinion, the biggest reason for this dilemma is that people only focus on “losing the weight”. After dieting and achieving goal weight they simply revert back to the old “really bad” habits.

To better explain this, I am going to use a metaphor: The weight loss diet is the colour “white” and the usual way of doing things (before dieting) is the colour “black”.  After achieving goal weight people “move back into the black zone”.

To maintain your weight loss, you must “merge” black and white and “move in the Grey zone”.

By this I mean, you MUST apply your “weight loss diet guidelines” for at least 80% of the time. This equates to being really good with your diet for at least five and a half days of the seven days a week!

The FAT Honest Truth is:

It is (“maybe for some unfortunately”) ALWAYS and FOREVER BETTER to:

• Choose a Coke lite over a regular Coke.
• Read labels on food packaging to actually know how much kilojoules you are consuming, especially with “what is perceived as “healthy foods”.
• Avoid ALL fried foods, ALL the time.
• Cater for a salad or vegetables with at least one meal a day.
• Not to eat the visible fat on your lamb or pork chop, beef steak, bacon, pork roast and so on…….
• Avoid fruit juice – rather choose the fresh fruit.
• Avoid adding sugar to anything
• Not to skip meals (there are easy to do meal replacement options)
• Avoid cream (very high in kilojoules).
• Include at least two fruit portions per day (fruit can be added to smoothies to “joosh” up the fun in having a fruit!)
• Limit Alcohol (very high in kilojoules).
• Take a walk or exercise at least 3 times a week.
• Get at least 7 hours of quality sleep.
• Not have “Take aways more than ONE MEAL (not one day!) a week. Then – you still have to choose the Coke Lite – or leave your Chips if you want your Coke!)

Always Remember: A weight loss diet (or miracle drug) only worked if you kept the weight down in the long run (basically for ever)!  You must be able to follow the principles of your weight loss diet “for ever, for five and a half days a week”. Scary thought – but the truth!

And that is the 1 + 1 = 2 of maintaining a healthy goal weight!

Liz-Mare Lusardi RD(SA)