Study: 'Self-Regulation' Keeps Weight Off

It's very common and very disheartening for dieters to gain back all the weight they lose, and sometimes more. Frequently, it's harder to maintain weight loss than to shed pounds in the first place.

Now, reports The Early Show medical correspondent Dr. Emily Senay, researchers may have hit on a way to keep the pounds off — but it's not easy. It involves what the researchers dub "self-regulation," and daily vigilance.

Senay says a new study stands out somewhat from others in the weight loss category because this isn't about losing weight.

"Everybody in this study was a successful (weight) loser," Senay told co-anchor Rene Syler. "They had lost an average of 40 pounds. This is about keeping it off. That's really the trick, to keep it off.

"So, researchers at The Miriam Hospital and Brown (University) Medical School, of which Miriam is a major teaching affiliate, devised a study to test different ways to help people keep it off. That's where you want to be if you want to have a healthy weight for the rest of your life: You've gotta figure out ways to keep it off."

The researchers, Senay continued, "took three different groups. One was a control group. They received a pamphlet every so often. Another group received Internet interaction with researchers, where they were told to send in their weight on a monthly basis and then received feedback from the researchers. A final group received face-to-face interaction with the researchers. They weighed themselves weekly and, either through a meeting with researchers or a telephone call, received feedback.

"Based on how much weight the people had gained in the previous week, they were given certain directions. If they … didn't gain more than three pounds in the previous week, they were just given encouragement. (If they'd gained) three to four pounds, they were instructed to think about maybe cutting back (on their caloric intake) and upping their exercise. Those in the (third group) were instructed to take out a tool kit they'd been given that re-established many of the habits they had when they lost large amounts of weight."

How'd they do, after all was said and done?

"Obviously," Senay observed, "the group that got just the pamphlet didn't do as well as the other two groups; we all know that doesn't work. … About 72 percent of those people gained back much of the weight they had lost, or at least five pounds. In the Internet group, only 55 percent regained five or more pounds. And in the face-to-face group, and this is really important, 46 percent, a very big difference from the other two groups, only 46 percent of those people gained five or more pounds."

Senay pointed out this all centers around self-regulation: "The face-to-face group did better than the Internet group. What's important is that all these groups were instructed in how to self-regulate, when to re-establish those habits they were using when they lost the weight, so they don't get above a certain level, and they were always sort of getting back down to that weight they started at."

According to the Miriam Hospital Web site, the research "shows that stepping on a scale every day, then cutting calories and boosting exercise if the numbers run too high, can significantly help dieters maintain weight loss. … (Participants were taught) how to keep those pounds from coming back — regardless of what method they used to lose the weight in the first place. … With the goal of maintaining their weight within five pounds, participants were taught to weigh themselves daily and to use the information from the scale to determine if they needed to adjust their diet or exercise routine. The intervention worked: Significantly fewer participants regained five or more pounds during the 18 month long program. The program was most successful when delivered in face-to-face meetings, although the Internet also proved a viable delivery system to help participants maintain their weight loss."

For more from Miriam Hospital about the study, click here.

To see the study as it appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, you can click here.