When can you safely say you are maintaining your weight loss for good? That’s the million-dollar question.

Is weight-loss maintenance like a cancer cure where you have to be in remission for a certain period of time before the odds of recurrence drop way down? It probably is.

What time frame are we talking about when it comes to maintaining weight loss permanently? Should we measure it in months, or are we talking years here? The weight-loss research clearly shows that it takes a long time, at least two to five years, before there’s a significant drop in the odds so that weight problems are truly in remission.

During the weight maintenance phase it’s not only time that matters. There is still a lot of weight work to be done. You’ve got to adjust to no formal weight-loss diet, although it’s a good idea to follow some dietary guideline that will help you maintain your weight. You will have to get used to being without the rewards of weight loss. You might even have to learn how to derive enough satisfaction from maintaining and not losing. Definitely you will have to confront and cope with instances of return to old eating behaviors that made you gain that unwanted weight.

With time and this kind of effort you can effectively put your weight problem into complete remission.