Two Percenters' Know How to Keep Weight Off:
Study on those who have kept weight off

Executive Director The Center for Counseling & Health Resources, Inc.
A Place of Hope

In counseling clients who were 20 percent or more overweight and wanted to lose it permanently, those at The Center for Counseling and Health Resources in Edmonds found that roughly 2 percent succeeded.

Dr. Gregory L. Jantz, director of The Center, did a little research. Interestingly, he found that the national percentage of those who lose weight and keep it off for more than a year was exactly the same - 2 percent. Those who keep it off for more than a year generally keep it off for good, he added. Jantz, who specializes in counseling people with eating disorders, decided to probe the secrets of those 2 percent to see how they did it, and to write a book about it. He and his staff set about contacting 6.000 former clients, going back 14 years, many of whom are cited as case studies in Jantz's book "Losing Weight Permanently".

The predominant, common theme among them?

"Food became a non-issue," said Jantz. Rather than focusing on food, the successful 2 percent focused on the inner factors that led to their overindulging in food. One of his clients, named "Kim" in the book, wrote:

"I suppose the most important principle I discovered at the outset was that the whole-person approach was not about food or weight. Instead, it was about dealing with my fears, guilt and anger."

Successfully handling those "three deadly emotions," as Jantz calls them, was one of the characteristics of the "2 percenters." Constant anxiety, resentment, bitterness and ongoing frustration are often characteristic of overeaters, who use food to avoid facing these emotions, he said. Then, when they try dieting and fail, they fall into a negative cycle and the guilt mounts.

Another common characteristic of those who kept the weight off: "They didn‘t count calories, or grams of fat," said Jantz. They weighed themselves only once a week, and didn't eat like rabbits. Their food was high in fiber, low to moderate in fat, and they generally ate some form of protein for breakfast - which research shows boosts metabolism, said Jantz. They also drank at least a liter of water and most took vitamin supplements.

The group did not binge one day and diet the rest of the week: "They were consistent, not perfect," said Jantz.

During the holidays, they allowed themselves to enjoy treats without going overboard -instead of having five or six cookies, they'd have two or three, and instead of eating sweets every day, they'd have them maybe two or three times a week.

The group also avoided special weight loss foods and formulas and shunned weight loss drugs such as Redux.

There is no magic pill," Jantz said, "so they stopped looking for it."

Other elements shared by the 2 per-centers included:

• On average, those who kept the weight off had tried seven different diets. When they finally lost the weight for good, it took 12 to 18 months.
• "They learned to make exercise fun again," Jantz said. Many who were unsuccessful tended to view exercise with guilt, as a chore, while many of the 2 percenters didn't even use the term "exercise," said Jantz. "They'd say, ‘I'm an active person and I enjoy being active.‘ " Most of them engaged in two or three different physical activities."
• The 2 percenters also placed a priority on creating healthy, intimate relationships, according to Jantz. "They learned to become more intimate with people than food," he said. Many overeaters substitute food for human contact or closeness - "they go to food instead of people."
• The successful pound-shedders practiced forgiveness, both of themselves and others, and tended to live free of regret. Jantz said. The 2 percenters also practiced impulse control, "instead of being a pure pleasure seeker - in all areas of their life, not just with food," said Jantz. Many overeaters or people with eating disorders "have a history of being compulsive in one way or another," such as with alcohol or drugs as well as food, Jantz said. Many clients who overcame eating disorders, or lost some weight but not all of it, generally had lingering problems related to-sex, anger, fear, guilt or shame.
• Many of those who kept the weight off, especially women, became more confident with attention from the opposite sex. Some decided, ‘‘ ‘It's OK for me to feel good and look good - I don't have to punish myself,' " Jantz said. He said some who are overweight think, '‘ ‘If I become attractive, I don't know what I might do.' ".