# In their own words: Topic analysis of the motivations and strategies of over 6,000 long-term weight-loss maintainers



## Eddy Edson (Feb 11, 2022)

New US survey of 6,139 Weight Watchers participants who have maintained > 9.1 kg weight loss for > 12 months.






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_Modest weight loss can reduce long-term risk of cardiometabolic disease, but these improvements are attenuated with weight regain, which affects most individuals. Biological, behavioral, psychological, sociocultural, and environmental pressures promote weight regain. Nevertheless, about 20% of individuals who have lost weight in the US population are able to keep it off long term and experience ongoing improvements in quality of life and health status ((1-3)).

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The purpose of this study was to identify major themes in the responses of a large cohort of long-term weight-loss maintainers in a commercial weight-management program who answered open-ended questions about their motivations, strategies, and experiences. Machine learning and topic modeling were used to analyze responses of more than 6,000 long-term weight-loss maintainers.

This is the first study, to our knowledge, to use machine learning and topic modeling to analyze the written responses of more than 6,000 weight-loss maintainers who described their motivations, strategies, struggles, and successes with long-term weight management.

Weight-loss maintainers in WW International, Inc., (formerly Weight Watchers) advised perseverance in the face of setbacks, consistency in food tracking, and looking back at experiences of life at higher weight and described improved health and appearance as motivating factors in their weight-loss journeys._

Might be worth a look at eg the "Strategies" section for how people have done it. I think WW stresses food tracking so I guess not surprising that this comes up as one of the most important things.  But it certainly fiuts with my experience: like most people, I'm crap at getting an accurate sense of how many calories I'm taking in without close attention to tracking, even though my eating pattern is far more stable & boring than most people's. I don't understand experts in the field who advise not to count calories ...


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