I’ve been thinking about weight-loss drugs and long-term weight-loss maintenance. If you’re curious about how these two pair together, you’ll want to watch this video.
Last weekend, I submitted the completed first draft for my fifth Bright Line Eating book, called Maintain. It’s about the shift needed to sustain lifelong weight loss. In it, I wrote about weight-loss drugs. It’s clear they are not going to solve the obesity pandemic.
Why? Because people aren’t staying on them. 85 percent of people go off them within two years. People see them as a short-term fix, and then regain the weight when they stop using them.
The way to keep weight off is to lose it, and then keep doing whatever you did to lose it.
This relates to the first of three identity shifts I talk about in the book. You’ve got to become someone who is not dieting, but instead is devoted to a lifestyle change. Diets are a temporary quick fix. But with a lifestyle change, you’re looking at a new way of life. It’s the difference between giving up meat for Lent and becoming a vegetarian. You’ve got to become devoted.
The second identity shift is that you’ve got to become resourced, meaning that you’re not using food as a crutch. You’re not eating for every emotion, or getting into food when life becomes lifey. You’ve developed other resources for coping with emotions.
Finally, you’ve got to become liberated, meaning you are willing to face what your life will be like without the food and weight struggle, and fill that space with beautiful, Bright pursuits.
People generally don’t think of weight-loss drugs as a long-term thing. I assembled a couple of hundred people on Zoom recently who were on or considering weight-loss drugs. I asked the people who were currently on a GLP-1 medication how many planned to stay on them, and 76 percent said no.
These people had not crafted a long-term program. Which ultimately means they’re on a diet.
Here’s what works: a three-pronged system: food, habits, support.
- You need a food plan. If you take the Food Susceptibility Quiz, at foodaddictionquiz.com, you’ll get a number from 1-10. 10 means you have a brain that is profoundly addicted to food. Your approach to food needs to factor that in when looking at solutions.
- You need habits around healthy living. Sleep, gratitude, and self-care habits. You may need habits around meditation and human connection. In the Bright Line Eating Boot Camp, I talk about these habits and guide you in setting them up.
- Lastly, you need support, a community of people walking this journey with you. People you can call when you’re afraid of the number on the bathroom scale, and so much more.
So, where do weight-loss drugs fit in? If you can’t stick to a program because of cravings and hunger, weight-loss drugs can be a tool to help you work your program. But expect to use them for the long term. Whether there are exceptions to this is something we’ll see in the coming years.
What works for maintenance is whatever you did to lose weight. Long-term maintenance means doing what takes the weight off, using the three-prong path.
If you have relapsed or can’t seem to manage a consistent plan, you may want to consider a weight-loss drug. If you absolutely insist on getting off of them, I would encourage you to reach maintenance, stay on the drugs for at least two years, and then slowly wean off.
We’re on this journey together. I’m watching the relationship between these drugs and food addiction, and advise you that whatever method you use to lose weight, keep doing it.
I’ve created a new video series, called Weight-Loss Drugs and Beyond: What Really Works for Lifelong Success. I talk about the latest research, side effects, and more. In it, I tell you how you can get the effects of drugs—without using them. I invite you to join our new Boot Camp Cohort to find out more.
I’d also like to ask you to answer one quick question at the link below, about how you feel about weight-loss drugs. That will get you free access to the video series.
I’m glad we’re all on this journey together, and I love you.
Take the Food Addiction Susceptibility Quiz: https://ble.life/omyja3
Access the Video Series: https://ble.life/frqd9c
