Do Small Changes Add Up to Big Weight Loss?

Last week, Michelle Obama encouraged Americans to cut out that cookie or can of soda, in order to combat childhood obesity. Her message: even small changes can lead to big weight loss. Personal experience told me, this was not true.

Yes, it is a good idea to cut out too many sweets, and I personally think drinking soda as a thirst quencher idiotic. And sure, it's a step in the right direction to cut back on calories if you want to lose weight, indeed, it's mandatory, unless you start training like a freak.

But I have never successfully lost weight by skipping a cookie. It's only been with solid and long-term regimens that I have seen my weight budge. Earlier this week, I read a NY Times article that explained and confirmed what my body already knew:

Numerous scientific studies show that small caloric changes have almost no long-term effect on weight. When we skip a cookie or exercise a little more, the body’s biological and behavioral adaptations kick in, significantly reducing the caloric benefits of our effort.

This has been my experience, losing and gaining the same six or seven pounds over the past two years. Part of the reason is, I don't need to lose weight. At 5' 8", my body is very content being 141 pounds. It seems to be a set-point that it wants to continually maintain without much effort on my part. Being semi-athletic and enjoying the look and feel of being lighter, I prefer to be 134, which I have been able to reach several times in the past two years, but never when I just avoided dessert and whatnot. Once I break through the 138 ceiling, I can lose the rest, and stay there with relative ease, until, well, until I don't.

In the hopes this is useful to others, the only regime that works seems to be:

• Daily (or near to it) exercise, an hour each time
• Very little booze
• Regimented eating, meaning, I pretty much eat the same thing for breakfast and lunch, small and sensibly for dinner.

I like being on a regime; it leaves me time to think about other things, and we cook in the house so we're eating well, not prepackaged diets foods.

Do others have the same experience, of having to sledgehammer through the plateaus, then finding the next plateau easy to reach? Is exercise for you key? And what are your favorite regimes?

Comments

[Jackie]

Yes and no.

Nancy knows this, and I've mentioned it before, but: I lost a great deal of weight over the past eight (wow!) years. In my experience, and in the experience of many others I've spoken to who have lost a lot of weight, there is an "all or nothing" mindset. This is also part of what led us to be so fat in the first place. "Ugh, I had pancakes for breakfast. May as well have these nachos for lunch since I blew it already." We forget - or ignore - that one can start the day over at any point.

For the last several weeks, I've been using livestrong.com to record my eating and exercise meticulously. (I'm now addicted to doing this. It's so good for being mindful of what one is doing. Some days, I will go out of my way to walk an extra couple of miles just so I can have the bonus calorie allowance.) Livestrong.com told me how much I should weigh, and also how many calories per day a woman of that weight has to eat just to maintain that number. So now I eat that many calories. It's a slower, more sustainable way of losing weight - and I love it. One thing all the tracking has shown me is how little things add up. It's a bit like the old "Don't buy your daily latte and save the money instead, at the end of the year you'll have several hundred extra dollars" line. It doesn't seem like something so small can make any difference, but it does. Ditto when it comes to food and exercise, WHEN it is paired with the right attitude and resolve.

[harriet]

I don't know if this counts as a small change or not, but last spring I started run/walking for 30 minutes 2-3 times a week. It required me to get up an hour earlier -- so I could dress, stretch, go out, shower after and dress for work -- but that's it.

My only real motive was to get out, get some sunshine and try to relax before the craziness of work kicked in for the day. I ran in shoes and clothes I already owned, listened to an old iPod, wore a baseball hat to keep the sun out of my eyes. In the beginning, I was running for 30 seconds, walking for 2 minutes. Gradually I increased to 1 minute running, 2 minutes walking; these days I'm up to 3:1, but it's never been a goal of mine to up my speed. I just move up whenever my current pace starts to feel too easy to keep my interest.

The change in my fitness and energy level has been dramatic. I am completely addicted to the rush of endorphins from longer runs. Parts of my body -- the backs of my legs, my shoulders -- are unrecognizable. In 10 months, they've taken on a lean, muscular quality I have never before seen in the mirror.

Hard to say exactly how much I've lost -- in my cowardice, I had not weighed myself for probably a year before I started running, and didn't get on the scale until I'd been at it for 3 months. Going from my weight then, I'm down about 15-20 lbs.

Every piece of clothing I own fits, which is a nice treat. Well, my pants are all now hilariously big, but I'm cinching them in with new belt, biding my time before I commit to smaller clothes. (I had no choice but to buy smaller bras, because there's nothing worse than a too-big bra.)

The first day on the scale was daunting: The number I saw was depressingly high (and a strong hint that I had been much heavier than I ever realized before I started running.) For a few months after that, I avoided bread, pasta and flour obsessively -- with good results -- but then I started training for a marathon, and had to start eating complex carbs again or face a crushing lack of energy mid-run.

Actually, I am weirdly aware of my own energy levels. I realized after a couple months that I didn't need to drink coffee before a run; then I noticed that I felt better if I lost an hour of sleep and ran than if I slept in. A planned run will even keep me from drinking alcohol for the previous 24 hours, because I know it makes for an easier and more enjoyable run. And I *really* dislike sugar crashes, so my sweets tend to be a little dark chocolate or a small, very rich truffle. I absentmindedly ate a gummy red piece of Valentine's candy last month and had a strong urge to spit it out before it could screw with my blood sugar.

I do have my limits. I took up some strength training in December, but after a small injury forced me into physical therapy, I had to table my existing regimen. With running, PT and strength training, I can do two out of three, but no more than that. (In fairness, PT is not without its strength training elements.)

Honestly, it's a little weird. It doesn't feel like I've really taken on some big life changing plan, and yet I am in the best shape of my life.

I don't believe in suffering needlessly and love pleasure, so it doesn't make much sense to me when I read about people doing nine mile runs and saying it sucked so bad. I did a nine mile run and was high out of my mind for the last third. Maybe it was the gelato stop at the half way point?

[ellie]

I lost a ton of weight by eating a low carb diet, not only did I feel so much better, but I only lost straight body fat. After trying all the mainstream diet tips, I realized they are all myths. I was so happy with my success on low carbs.

[Alice Bachini-Smith]

I have EXACTLY the same problem as you, Nancy. Even with about the same numbers. What makes it really annoying for me, though, is I have a scoliosis and a non-curvy figure, which means it all goes on round my middle, and heavily emphasises the mis-shapenness, which means most of my clothes only work if I am at my lower weight. Even though things still button up, 80% of everything just looks awful unless it's a smock-dress when I'm 140.

Sorry about the rant. Feeling it right now!

I also can't lose weight from small changes. It usually goes from being in a creative phase and too distracted to think about meals. Not that I can recommend that... but I'm going to try your regimentation approach now. Not thinking about food sounds great, in fact it's probably why I gain weight- when uninterested in cooking (which is also my job), it's easier to grab chips & sandwiches than to grill chicken. Plannning my new menu now!

[Nancy Rommelmann]

I think what both Jackie and Harriet cite are, little changes that led to more little changes that led to more that led to big. Which is probably a lot wiser and more organic than one big change all at once. But still, big change.

Like Alice, I drop weight without trying when I am very busy. That's because the brain, while only two percent of your body's weight, requires about 15% of your calories, meaning, the harder you think, the more calories you burn. As for the regimen: for me of late, that means a lot of high-protein bars, for breakfast and/or lunch and snacks; I like Clif Builder's Vanilla Almond.

As for low-carb: I believe it. I recently read an article about some old-line society ladies, the Babe Paleys and the like, and how they stayed so slim: no potatoes, no bread, no pasta.

[aishwarya gulati]

well cutting a cookie or a sip of soda a day might help you lose a few pounds if you have two three years on hand.the only way to lose weight successfully (in a reasonable amount of time)and maintain it is by sweating it out and having an occasional dessert.dont need to starve yourself,but lets face it,to get a fab body minor changes in your dietry pattern will bring about just that,,minor changes in your waist size!