Ghost Stories

Well, I’m back from good old Tas, and Easter is approaching rapidly. Thanks to my recent discovery that it is possible to make my own chocolate, I’m not worried about feeling like I'm missing out on treats this Easter. And let’s be honest, commercial Easter egg chocolate is pretty awful: bland, sugary and gritty (unless you get the really expensive chocolates of course). Surely they are just re-using the same unsold eggs year after year?

Mmmm last year's chocolate...

Egg pic by luigi diamanti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net. I added the recycle symbol though. Wasn't that clever?

Anyway, I started thinking about the way I’ve handled Easter in other years, and from there, it was a natural step to musing about the Ghosts of Diets Past. When I think Diet (with a capital D ie, a structured diet program, as compared to just ‘trying to be good’ with what I eat), I think Weight Watchers. I specifically remember doing the old WW at Easter time one year because I had calculated that I could have two Red Tulip ‘bird eggs’ Easter eggs (candy coated with solid chocolate inner) for 2 (or maybe 3, I can’t remember) WW points. I would save up my points during the day so that I could savor a couple of bird eggs after dinner. 

With these and similar tactics, I’ve ‘succeeded’ with WW twice- both times I lost around 10kg. This is about the same amount I need to lose this time, so why am I not doing this again? The clue is that it worked for me twice. Twice. Meaning that I regained the weight. Meaning that it doesn’t really work, unless my definition of success is to be looking trim and feeling gorgeous for a month or two before slowly regaining what I worked so hard for. Unless I want to pay the WW monthly fee and count points for the rest of my life (I don’t), then I need another answer, and hence I'm trying the whole quitting sugar thing.

Is it just me, though? Am I just too greedy or just not motivated enough, or [insert shortcoming here]? There is evidence that Weight Watchers and similar calorie restricted programs work (for example, here and here. However, the research into these programs is usually very short term. The outcomes they measure are usually after 6 or at the most 12 months. What happens in the longer term? Well here’s a chart from this study which looked at weight loss maintenance up to 5 years after dieting:

Weight loss maintenance years 1-5 post diet. From: Anderson, Konz, Frederich & Wood, 2001

The bottom trend line shows the weight loss over time of people using calorie restricted diets which use normal foods (programs like Weight Watchers, although this program wasn't specifically studied). While they initially lost an average of around 9kg, just two years later they had regained more than half of this amount, and 5 years later they were only 2kg lighter than when they started. This is an average, remember, so for some the weight regained was more than this, for some it was less. The top line shows the trend for people using more extreme diets (very low energy diets usually involving meal replacement with a shake or similar and a very restricted calorie intake). For these guys the initial weight loss was much greater (around 24 kg) but two years later they had also regained more than half of what they lost, and 5 years on the average dieter had regained 13kg.

So, it seems that the diet success story is pretty short-lived for the average weight-loser, it’s not that long before they are in a position where they will probably need to diet again. While there is a lot of research into the reasons behind weight-regain after ‘successful’ dieting, there are few helpful answers. Some studies (here and here are examples) suggest psychological factors, such as satisfaction with the new weight, body/self-image and ability to handle stress as important. But there are also internal metabolic factors to take into account, for example these guys hypothesise that the body’s internal systems are more geared towards gaining weight than losing weight. Neither answer is all that encouraging, but it’s clear that we don’t know the full story, either way. There’s a lot more to learn about how to lose weight and keep it off.

I’m wondering if a key part of the secret (for me anyway) is not to Diet (with a capital D) at all. I’ve found that all this does is make me focus more on food. I spend all day (well, a lot of it anyway) thinking about my next meal, or snack, planning how many points I have, deciding whether I can sneak in a birds egg or not. Weight watching is all well and good, but food watching is counter-productive, in my experience. Then there’s the problem of what happens when the Diet stops.  

I really, really don’t want to say it because it’s so clichéd, but you know I’m leading up to the word lifestyle. As in 'this is a lifestyle, not a diet'. I can’t live with counting calories (or points), watching what I eat all the time, negotiating with myself to keep away from X so that I can have Y, but...turns out I can live without sugar. At least, so far. It may sound strange to anyone who feels that giving up sugar would be a major hassle, but the sugar free thing has been far, far easier to live with than WW or any other Diet I’ve tried. I’m past craving sugar now. I don’t find that I am looking for snacks between meals or after dinner. I’m not actively watching my portions but I’m sure I’m eating less. Even with the chocolate and coconut cake and the full fat milk and the cheese (oh, the cheese!), yada yada, I’ve lost a few kilos in a few weeks. I’m not dieting (sorry, Dieting), I’m just living sugar free.

Can I lay the Ghost of Diets Past to rest forever? I don’t know, but I’m hopeful.