One of the Secrets of the 5pct who keep their weight off.

[Strawberry Roan]

They enjoy themselves. There’s a reason that a healthy lifestyle sticks around for this small minority. They make weight loss a positive experience and have fun with it. Because they feel good about their goals and their new habits, they also feel good about themselves and what they’ve accomplished. Programs based on negative messages, dread, resignation, or criticism are doomed to disappear. Optimists are proven to reach more goals than pessimists. They also live healthier, longer lives.

Credited to Spark People

[wosnes]

I believe it. I would imagine they also don't have unrealistic goals in either how much can be lost or how quickly it can be lost.

[Who Me?]

Amen to that!

[oolala53]

Let's see if we can help up that 5 percent with better, sustainable habits.

[NoSnacker]

Let's see if we can help up that 5 percent with better, sustainable habits.

You've got that right!!! I think the 5% that succeed eventually stop counting calories and obsessing about food and probably are in line with No S by then...

Strawberry Roan On Spark, I have seen too many people close to goal and start to fail at keeping control over their counting calories and start losing the battle. I think the pressure of counting like Reinhard says, will eventually cause us to hang up our accountant hats....and the obsession about food is very obvious there as well.

p.s. I know I was on spark for 3 years...

[Who Me?]

I only ever last about a week on Spark. I always hear how great it is, but the constant number juggling drives me insane.

[oolala53]

Gotta say, though, that I lurk on a team of maintainers over 50 years old. The majority of them are still tracking their food even after a few years. These people have really got themselves down to some low weights. I'm surprised by the calorie spread. Some are eating darn low. Others have generous allotments, even without very intense exercise, though most are also faithful exercisers. What's interesting to me is that they actually don't talk about food much. They are much more focused on what exercise they do and on sharing other things going on in their lives. It reinforces my hunch that it's also very important to concentrate on having other things going on in your life that sustain you. A lot of them are grandmas and are quite involved in their offsprings' lives.

[Kelbel]

I've never found any sort of diet to work, because I never stick to anything. The only two times in my life I've lost weight is:

1) When I moved out of home and started to walk to work every day, plus a bunch of other lifestyle changes unrelated to weight loss

2) Right now, when I have become an avid runner, and am training for a half marathon.

Diets don't work. Find a lifestyle that works.

[oolala53]

Traditonal dieting doesn't work. But finding a balance of eating and exercise does, absolutely. Most obese people need more than exercise, but eating habits often change for the better with consistent exercise. May not get thin; will improve health outlook, and mental outlook, too.

[Clarica]

By traditional dieting, do you mean calorie counting or ??

I have a couple of friends who diet successfully with WW and calorie counting. In the WW cases some seem to be keeping it off, and as for calorie couning, she hasn't reached goal yet, so who knows.

I personally prefer the passive restriction of NO S, but I know some people can stick to these other methods, though I guess it's about 5%, obviously.

What percentage of people who try NO S stick with it? Is there any way to tell?