Introduction

FANS is an acronym for Fitness, Attitude, Nutrition, and Self-Monitoring. It started out as my personal effort to emulate the STOP Regain study conducted by the National Weight Control Registry. From Maintenance of Long Term Weight Loss (2009), I knew the program was called STOP regain, and my imagination came up with what STOP could be an acronym for, that would cover the predictors of successful weight maintenance. It turnes out it stood for “Study TO Prevent Regain.” I wanted another catchy acronym and came up with FANS.

Maintenance FANS is a practical guide to the findings of the NWCR survey of 1 year maintainers and its STOP Regain study on teaching those behaviors to new maintainers. It is designed to be used either as a personal workbook or as a discussion guide for a support group. The 13 chapters cover the Getting Ready post and then three cycles through key predictors of sucessful maintenance represented by FANS:

Fitness The NWCR study found most successful maintainers exercised consistently and at fairly high levels. This not only burns calories, but keeps the metabolism conditioned.

Attitude Key predictors of success included fewer depressive symptoms and less disinhibited eating. There is significant overlap between mood disorders and obesity.

Nutrition Eating breakfast and practicing cognitive restraint in eating habits are an important difference between maintaining and regaining. The NWCR has found that people using many different nutritional strategies can be successful maintainers. The patterns that have emerged address ways to eat more than what to eat.

Self-Monitoring Weighing yourself seems like it would be a simple matter, but demotivation from weigh-ins is a major area of concern in many lifestyle change programs. Rather than discouraging frequent weighing, we strive to understand the significance of weight and other tracking data.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, you should see a doctor before undertaking an exercise or calorie restriction regimen, information is provided for educational purposes and does not constitute medical advice.

Resources:
Maintenance of Long-term Weight Loss 2009
www.rimed.org/medhealthri/200 9-02/2009-02-53.pdf
The STOP Regain Study
jama.jamanetwork.com/article. aspx?articleid=181605
Long-term Weight Loss Maintenance
ajcn.nutrition.org/content/82 /1/222S.long