The 2009 budget standoff lasted 101 days, during which Rendell shed roughly four pounds a week for a total of 61.
In the past, tense times sent him searching for food.
"I'd get beat up in the morning and look forward to lunch," Rendell says. "I had lousy willpower. . . . I'd go home and have a half-gallon of ice cream. It was some positive feeling to offset terrible figures."
Rendell says he still hopes to see the 1 in the first place on the scale one day.
In 1971, the year he was married, he was a trim 195.
"I haven't made it there yet."
Wadden says dieters should focus on what they have achieved, not what they haven't.
Using "positive coping strategies," such as weighing yourself every day, helps maintain the routine. If you weigh yourself only once a month and see no change, you're more likely to throw in the towel, Wadden says.
Rendell says he has fallen off the diet wagon a few times, particularly during the holiday season, with its succession of parties.
But his body protests. He used to think the idea that a person's stomach shrinks was a myth. No longer. After eating too much, he feels uncomfortable.
"My stomach is accustomed to a smaller intake," he says. And he doesn't "wolf food" as he used to.
The odds are against Rendell's keeping the weight off.
Studies show that as many 80 percent of people who lose weight gain it back in five years, Foster says.
Wadden cautions that Rendell will have to work as hard to keep the weight off as he did to lose it.
"Your clothes might fit better and you get compliments. The problem is when the band stops playing," Wadden says. "You have to put all the same amount of time into it."
Contact staff writer Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com.
