The Loner Route

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:35:33 +0000

The loners used a combination of approaches to lose weight. Nineteen-year-old Kyle B., who lost 30 pounds on his own more than two years ago, exercised more and ate less. He counted calories; followed a low-fat, low-calorie diet; and eliminated certain foods altogether. He says, "I
stopped eating potato chips, French fries, most other fried foods, and soda. I also drank a lot of water and kept busy so food wasn’t on my mind." His most important strategy was exercise. He ran, lifted weights, and used a ski machine. Marie P., who has kept off 55 pounds for more than five years, says she lost weight by "watching how often I ate and learning as much as I could about healthy eating." She also cut back on foods high in fat and counted calories, keeping them in the 1,500-to-1,800 range. For exercise, she joined a number of high school sports teams and started working out on her own at the gym.

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I was curious to see if the loners and the teens who participated in programs used different strategies to get to a healthier weight. I guessed that the loners would be more likely to say that they needed the structure of going on a diet or counting calories, but they were not. Although not many teens said they were meal skippers, the loners were more likely to have skipped meals and to have stopped eating certain foods completely. (This may reflect a lack of guidance about healthful eating when trying to lose weight, as well as eating habits that were a bit more restrictive.) However, the loners also were more likely to say that they increased their exercise when losing, as well as being more likely to cut back on foods high in fat-both healthful strategies.

The loners also tended to be older when they began to slim down. Their average age was almost sixteen and a half, while the average age for the teens who used programs was just over fourteen and a half. Perhaps younger teens and their families felt more need for guidance than did older teens.

What Helped the Most?

admin — Thu, 22 May 2008 09:33:32 +0000

Interestingly, although about half of the teens went to a program, not many of them listed that as the most helpful thing they did. Rather, they were more likely to list specific steps or strategies as their “most important things” to arrive at a healthier weight. And many of them couldn’t pinpoint just one strategy-they credited several as being “most helpful.” As Katie S. says, “It’s hard to say one variable was most important.”

Once again, at the top of the list, way ahead of all the other responses, came comments about exercise. Next came remarks about eating sensibly or more healthfully. Actually, a number of teens mentioned both exercise and eating sensibly, which goes along with studies showing that the most effective way to lose weight and keep it off is to combine physical activity and changes in eating habits.

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Sandra D. says that what helped her most was that she “started to go to the gym at least three times a week and paid a lot more attention to the nutrition labels on my favorite foods and all foods.” For Katie S., “it was equal-between exercising three to five days a week and watching my diet, including calories, carbs, and protein intake.” Speaking of carbs, just one person listed “cutting carbs” as a most important strategy -perhaps surprising given that the teens completed their questionnaires during the peak of the low-carb diet craze.

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The Loner Route

What Helped the Most?