Daily Weigh-Ins and Green Gum

Karin on a Rant — a departure from our usual blog fare, where I take dastardly pleasure in bringing up one maddening little diet-culture idea and prosecuting the case.

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"Not everything that can be counted counts
and not everything that counts can be counted ."
~ Albert Einstein

A study reported in the New England Journal of Medicine tells us how to keep weight off:  Weigh ourselves daily. Then make the following adjustments.

If we start to regain, have someone tell us about weight gain prevention techniques that focus on “adjusting” eating and exercise behaviors, and then advise us to “re-start active weight loss efforts” with calorie and fat gram counting or maybe a liquid meal replacement product.

At check-ins, if we are within three pounds of our successful weight loss goal (the “green zone”), have someone give us something green, like green gum. (“You go girl, here’s your green gum!”).

According to the study, the "daily-weigh-in-and-get-told-what-you-should-do-and-get-green-gum" group averaged an overall regain of only five pounds less than the control group. Five pounds! Is that how we want to live? Constant daily monitoring and weigh-ins, and tedious nutrition and exercise advice. For a return of five measly pounds? Hmmm.

The study also concluded that individuals in the "daily-weigh-in-and-get-told-what-you-should-do-and-get-green-gum" group were 82% more likely to keep the weight off, compared to the control group. What is noteworthy is that the "green gum groups" met regularly, either in person or online. The control group, in contrast, simply got a quarterly newsletter telling them what to do (and no green gum!). Hmmm.

So, was it really the constant monitoring, weigh-ins and tedious nutrition and exercise advice that kept the weight off? Or, could it have been the nourishing connections the participants formed at the group meetings? Could it have been that these supportive relationships bolstered participants’ efforts to care for and appreciate themselves? What do you think?

Do we benefit most from constant monitoring? Or nourishing relationships?

And, please, make sure you read weight loss studies and articles with a grain of salt (with or without green gum).

So, was it really the constant monitoring, weigh-ins, and tedious nutrition and exercise advice that made the difference? Or could it have been something else entirely?

The “green gum” groups met regularly, either in person or online. The control group got a quarterly newsletter telling them what to do.

Maybe what helped wasn’t more surveillance.

Maybe it was connection.

Maybe being seen, supported, and encouraged did more than another round of calorie counting ever could.

And yet somehow the takeaway becomes: weigh yourself every day.

Really?

Daily weigh-ins. Constant monitoring. More rules. More vigilance.

For five measly pounds?

Give me the nourishing relationships.

You can keep the green gum.

And please, read weight-loss studies—and the conclusions drawn from them—with a very large grain of salt.

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Amy Tuttle, RD, LCSW, a dietitian from Philadelphia who specializes in helping people heal eating struggles, is co-author of this blog. From Stay Attuned Ezine, 2012.