Such research has disclosed that people who maintain weight loss over the long term are those who develop methods of incorporating healthy, low-calorie eating and regular physical activity into their daily lives. They are also highly motivated to continue doing so over the long term. Some are motivated by an experience that frightened them -- for example, finding out that they were at high risk for a serious illness. Others reported feeling extremely unhappy with the way they looked and felt.
Their diet plans and physical activities differed widely, but one thing that these individuals had in common was that they chose strategies that they liked, that fulfilled some personal goal, and that they could stick with. For example, one man reported that, as a teenager, he was able to lose 75 pounds, reducing his weight from 240 to 165 pounds, because he wanted to make himself more attractive to girls. Over the next 19 years, he gradually regained 24 pounds, reaching 189 pounds. In 1994, however, he decided to prevent further weight gain by committing himself to regular exercise on a treadmill. Since then, his weight dropped to 185 pounds and he has maintained this weight for two years.
