About six years ago, I reached my goal weight,
and now for all of that six years, I’ve been working
to maintain my body at that normal weight.

Here in the DietHobby Archives you can find many articles
that talk about how I do this, my own experiences and viewpoint.
The recent LA Times article quoted below
confirms that my own individual experiences are generally true.
I can personally testify that this hunger persists…even after 6 years.

"Dieters face a long battle with hunger.
Study finds weight loss triggers hormones that tell you to eat,
making it clear why it is so difficult to keep those lost pounds off.

As if people needed a reminder that losing weight is hard
and maintaining weight loss is even harder,
a study has found that for at least a year,
subjects who shed weight on a low-calorie diet
were hungrier than when they started and had
higher levels of hormones that tell the body to eat more,
conserve energy and store away fuel as fat.

The report, published Wednesday in the
New England Journal of Medicine, helps explain
why roughly 80 percent of dieters regain lost pounds
within a year or two of losing them -- and, sometimes, regain more.

After weight loss, "multiple compensatory mechanisms" spring to life,
the study shows, and work together to ensure that weight loss
is reversed quickly and efficiently.

The researchers, led by Joseph Proietto of the University of Melbourne's
Department of Medicine, write that
more than one solution to obesity will likely be necessary:
"a combination of medications" that will have to be safe for long-term use.

Two-thirds of Americans and a growing proportion of the developing world's population
are overweight or obese, and though obesity rates in the United States have begun
to stabilize, there's been no significant decline.

The Australian study paints a "very comprehensive" and "really discouraging" picture
of the breadth of the body's response to weight loss, said Dr. Daniel Bessesen,
an endocrinologist and obesity researcher at University of Colorado's
Denver Health Medical Center.
It captures just how many resources the body musters to ensure that weight is restored
-- a long list of hormones that regulate appetite, feelings of fullness after eating
and how calories are used.

The study enrolled 50 obese men and women without major health problems
and put them on a strict low-calorie diet for eight weeks. Within two weeks
after that diet, and again a year later, researchers measured subjects' blood levels
of nine distinct hormones that affect appetite and metabolism, and asked subjects
about feelings of hunger after meals, between meals and as mealtimes approached.

The challenges quickly became evident.
Thirty-four of 50 enrolled subjects made it to the one-year mark.
Four withdrew during the eight-week period of dieting
-- a rigorous 550-calorie per day regimen.
Seven failed to lose 10 percent of their body mass,
which had been set as a condition of continued participation.
And five withdrew during the yearlong "weight maintenance" phase,
when subjects got regular counseling on a diet-and-exercise plan
to stay at the new weight.

Of those who remained,
the average weight loss at 10 weeks,
when hormone levels were first measured, was just short of 30 pounds.

One year out, those subjects had gained back
an average of just more than 12 pounds.
But after and between meals, their appetites
-- and the hormones that influence hunger -- rebounded even more robustly.

The hormones -- including leptin, ghrelin, amylin, cholescystokinin and insulin --
vary widely. Some are secreted from the gut,
others by the pancreas or fat cells themselves.
Some increase appetite, some tell the brain that enough food has been eaten
and others help regulate how calories are used.

And for the dieters,
those hormones were sending a single message a year later:
 ".Eat more".
The subjects said they were just as hungry
as they had been upon completion of their crash diets
and significantly hungrier than they had been before their diets had begun.

"The high rate of relapse after dieting is not surprising," the authors concluded".

Article by: MELISSA HEALY, Los Angeles Times October 26, 2011

Recently I posted another cooking video, Strawberry Banana Smoothie,
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES, Sweet Tastes.
This is a low-calorie, recipe, and eliminating the banana will make it also low-carb.

 
        
Update on my recent mini-crisis.

I am back home again
after my absence due to the Plumbing Rerouting.
I looked upon it as an adventure,
which is a very positive way to see things that I'd rather didn't happen.

My cat Boodie, could not tolerate being in the hotel away from home,
and after the first night, was boarded by our vet in his little office kennel.
She is also really, really glad to be home.

During the next few weeks, I will be dealing with construction people
coming in to repair the holes in some of my walls, which will include
replacing the wallpaper in both bathrooms, and painting the entire master bedroom.
But, I won't have to leave home for that.

So far, I've been able to stay on my food plan during all this.
 I'm very tired, and am minus any other inspirational thoughts today,
except for the Words of Wisdom video that I uploaded today.

Recently I posted another cooking video, Cranberry Breakfast Cookies,
which is located at DietHobby, under RECIPES, Sweet Tastes.
This is a low-calorie, reduced-carb food when eaten in small amounts.

I've noticed over time that it is common
to feel that Life gets in the way of one's Goals
and keeps us from reaching them.

Life is full of unexpected events.
Some of them are pleasant, and some are not.

Weekends, Holidays, Vacations, Celebration Events
happen for us all.

Everyone experiences Crisis Situations.
Things like health problems, financial problems,
relationship problems, family problems,
We go through changes in our environment, our homes, our jobs,
our daily routines.

Sometimes a crisis involves us on a personal and physical level,
other times it involves us emotionally because
it is happening to the others we care for.

The Point is, that even in such difficult times,
it is up to each of us to keep our ultimate goals in mind.
If weight-loss or maintaining weight-loss is an important goal for us,
then we need to work to keep our eating behavior off a roller-coaster
in these Life Situations.  
  We need to work to stay steadfast,
and learn not to use these "unusual" times
as "Exceptions" which give us permission to eat in a manner that won't  
keep us directed toward our goals.

Right now I'm experiencing a small and very minor "life crisis".
The hot water pipes under the concrete foundation of my house broke,
and early next week, all of the hot and cold water plumbing
will be re-routed through my attic
and down my walls to my sinks, tubs, toilets etc.

We have been living with only cold water for the past week,
and in a couple of days we will have to leave our home
and stay in a nearby hotel for several days while the work goes on.
Our 10 year old moody cat....who has never left my house and yard
(except for brief visits to the vet) will be coming with us.

Upon our return it will be up to me to deal with contractors who will
be repairing our walls. This will also involve painting walls,
as well as a strip on the front of my house
from the water source to the ceiling,
and new wallpaper in both bathrooms,

 I am very fond of my home. I've owed this house for 37 years,
I raised my children in it, and I'm finding this emotionally difficult,
as well as being a big time nuisance.
This is also a large and unexpected expense, although
I am fortunate enough to have homeowners insurance
that will pay about half of it.

So, this is one of the times that I could use to justify
Life getting in the way of my eating goals.
However, I am working very hard to keep from doing this.
Although there are routine things my situation keeps me from doing,
there are other things I can do to balance that.

I am working to avoid that mentality of throwing the baby out with the bath water.
that natural tendency that many of us have to say,
"oh well, I'll just eat what I want and deal with it later".
If I dent my car, I don't ram it into that obstacle over and over again.
But that is the kind of thinking we dieters often justify.

 So it goes. 
Maybe I'll be offline here a few days,
and maybe I won't.
But for certain, I'm going to be working really hard
toward eating behavior that will help me
toward my ongoing goal of maintaining my current weight.