Secrets of Keeping Off the Weight You Lose

from Tufts University

Despite the talk of "yo-yo dieting," it is possible to lose weight and keep most of it off, according to new research on 3,000 participants in the National Weight Control Registry.

Investigators evaluated questionnaires completed by people who had been in the registry, which tracks successful dieters, for at least 10 years. The dieters reported that they'd kept off an average 51 pounds of 69 pounds lost.

The study, presented at a meeting of the Obesity Society, identified strategies shared by those who succeeded in maintaining weight loss, including:

• Eating breakfast regularly.
• Walking about an hour a day.
• Tracking food intake, calories and fat grams.
• Limiting eating out and food variety, with little splurging.
• Watching fewer than 10 hours a week of TV.
• Weighing yourself at least weekly.
• Averaging about 1,800 calories a day, less than 30% from fat.