ABSTRACT
This chapter provides three different approaches to explore why some people manage to lose weight and keep it off. First, some studies have identified success stories and used qualitative methods to explore how these people have managed to show weight loss maintenance. Second, other studies have used quantitative methods to compare those who have been successful to those who have been less successful. Finally, some studies have taken the data from large-scale interventions to explore what factors predict weight loss maintenance in the longer term. The chapter describes the results from these three different approaches and then pull them together to find common themes that form the basis of successful dieting. Weight loss can be extremely hard work as it involves changing habits that have been ingrained for a lifetime, existing in a state of denial, missing out on social events and changing the way people live their day-to-day lives.
