Empowered Health Course · Lesson 16 · 4:39
Long-term weight maintenance is really challenging — otherwise we'd all just lose weight and keep it off, and this wouldn't be such an issue. It turns out the brain is very good at defending against weight loss. That's not to say lifestyle is futile: with proper support, good motivation, and the right circumstances, about a quarter of people can lose more than 10% of their body weight and keep it off. We should applaud that — it's fantastic — and a few percent will lose even more dramatically.
But that's not the norm. Those who succeed had some good fortune — a cooperative brain — along with strong values, intentions, discipline, and supportive life circumstances. There's also likely some genetic or biological factor that helped them be "super responders."
On average, by five years after a successful weight loss, about 75% of the lost weight returns. Year after year, weight tends to creep up. That's a combination of things: the deep brain defending against weight loss through increased appetite and decreased energy expenditure; the ongoing challenge of sustaining lifestyle changes; and the durability of our habits.
The brain has learned all these things over time — like a supercomputer running its programming. Most of the time that works in our favor, but some old habits are very durable and hard to rewire. We're also wired to conserve energy. Back in the day, running for no reason made no sense; we ran to escape animals or to hunt. We conserved energy and ate as much as we could when food was available. That's the hardwiring we've inherited.
So weight regain is almost to be expected for most people after weight loss, and we shouldn't see it as a personal failure — it's biology. This is why, even with great lifestyle change, we should check in and monitor weight over time. If there were medical complications from living with weight, and weight is being regained, those symptoms will re-emerge — and we can address that with a shift in lifestyle or by considering medical therapy, which can help maintain weight loss for longer.
This transcript has been lightly edited from the video for readability. For the complete experience, please watch the video above.