I want to invite you to join our new Maintenance Database and the broader maintenance movement. This is all connected to my new book, Maintain: The 3 Simple Shifts That Turn Temporary Weight Loss Into Lasting Freedom, releasing April 21, 2026. It’s about the psychology of weight-loss maintenance—and what it takes to make it last.
Over the past 11 years of Bright Line Eating, I’ve helped countless people lose weight and keep it off. But we don’t yet have a comprehensive way to track those who are living in maintenance. That’s why we’re creating the Maintenance Database, as a simple way for you to stand up and be counted. You can join at JoinTheMaintenanceMovement.com.
What We Know About Long-Term Weight Loss
Historically, maintenance hasn’t been well-studied. In 1994, Dr. Rena Wing and Dr. James Hill founded the National Weight Control Registry to better understand it. While their annual survey is rooted in the thinking of the low-fat diet era, it has still produced valuable insights into habits like exercise and automaticity.
At Bright Line Eating, we’ve also gathered powerful data. Our six-year study, published in Frontiers in Psychiatry, showed that participants averaged 7.5 percent weight loss, even including those who had left the program. That tells us something important: our principles—no sugar, no flour, weighing and measuring food, and three meals a day—are potent enough to create lasting change just from an initial exposure.
Over time, we’ve reached millions of people through our email list, books, courses, and community. But we’ve never fully quantified how many are truly living in maintenance. This new database helps us to begin to do that.
What It Means to Be In Weight-Loss Maintenance
So what qualifies as maintenance?
At its core, it’s about being devoted, resourced, and liberated.
- Devoted: You’re committed to your plan, whatever it is.
- Resourced: You have tools and strategies to navigate living without turning to food when life gets lifey.
- Liberated: You’re no longer dominated by food struggles; you feel free.
You don’t need to follow Bright Line Eating specifically. But you do need to have struggled in the past and found a way through. Maintenance doesn’t mean perfection. You can still have hard moments of struggle, but overall, you are significantly freer than you used to be.
Criteria for Joining the Weight-Loss Maintenance Database
To be included in the Maintenance Database, our criteria are few. You should:
- Have a Body Roundness Index (BRI) under 6.91
- Have maintained a stable weight for at least one year
- Not currently be actively trying to gain or lose significant amounts of weight
If you’re making small adjustments to your weight to account for the typical fluctuations of life, that’s fine and normal. But maintenance is different from dieting.
Why Your Weight-Loss Story Matters
We’re at a cultural crossroads. After decades of diet culture, there’s been a backlash, but also confusion as new diet drugs come on the market. The truth is, excess weight can impact health, and eating in an addictive way is painful. At the same time, this is a deeply personal journey.
If you’ve found a path that works, your voice matters. By joining the Maintenance Database, you:
- Help create a clearer picture of what successful Maintenance looks like
- Allow researchers to learn from your experience, if you wish
- Stand as proof that lasting freedom is possible
You may occasionally receive invitations to participate in studies, but that’s entirely up to you, and you won’t be receiving promotional or marketing materials by joining this database. If you’re a Bright Lifer you are NOT automatically in this database. You must click the link to join.
Should You Join? Stand Up and Be Counted!
The Maintenance Database is simple; it takes just a few moments to join. We’re aiming to gather at least 1,000 people who are living in maintenance and are willing to be counted.
If you are devoted, resourced, and liberated, this is your moment.
Join us at jointhemaintenancemovement.com. Your experience matters, and can help light the way for others.
Click here to learn more and join the Maintenance Database.
