Believing that weight loss and weight maintenance are simply a matter of willpower can be dangerous.Yet it’s a very common conviction.When describing their history of weight loss, many people talk about the vast amounts of energy spent on exerting willpower. If weight loss does not occuror more commonly, the weight that is lost snaps backblame is put on a lack of willpower. This pattern is self-defeating. Getting over the hurdle of believing only in willpower and into the process of establishing a comprehensive weight-loss method is the answer.

Knowledge Isn’t Everything, Either

Knowledge is about more than numbers. Knowing how many calories are in a cookie does not tell you whether to or how to include that cookie in your eating plan. Knowing how many calories you burn in an aerobics class does not tell you whether that amount of physical activity will help you lose weight. Successful weight loss requires understanding the big picture, not just knowing pieces of information. However, knowing about weight management behaviors, making wise choices, eating healthfully, enjoying food, and doing physical activities that you enjoy can be a powerful set of tools for taking control of your weight for good.

Learn Flexible Restraint

Let’s define one aspect of willpower as the ability to hold yourself back from eating or overeating when you’re around food.Weight-loss scientists call this dietary restraint. It describes how tightly a person regulates her or his food intake. For example, highly restrained dieters are very precise about how much they eat, say, 200 calories for breakfast, 300 calories for lunch, 700 calories for dinner, and no snacks.You probably know people who add up the calories in every bite, read every label, and talk a lot about how they watch what they’re eating. These are highly restrained eaters. Do you often wish that you could be more of a restrained eater? You may be surprised to learn that a very high level of dietary restraint is associated with obesity, not with successful weight management, and is

works for your family members or friends.That is okay.The key is to find something that you look forward to and enjoy such as walking outdoors or doing more structured activities like swimming, bicycling, or aerobics with a favorite exercise tape. Don’t turn your life upside downyour chances of success are greater if you create a plan that is livable for you. The third element is to look for activities that you can do almost every day.

Consistent exercisers get the most benefit, and once you incorporate exercise into your daily life, it becomes second nature. Make Positive Lifestyle Changes The value of a positive mindset for lasting weight loss is frequently overlooked. It shouldn’t be.You have to believe that you can do itthat you can lose weight and keep it off. Whether weight has become an issue only recently or if you have been overweight for a long time, having a positive mindset and making the changes that go with it are vital in accomplishing your goal of lasting weight loss. For many of the people who share their stories in this article, their battle with the bulge was longstanding.

The same holds true with the NWCR volunteers, with almost half reporting that their weight issues began in childhood. Despite this, they were able to look beyond what didn’t work in the past and focus on what they wanted to achieve. You should have both short-term and long-term goals. Short-term goals like losing weight for a special event are easier to achieve and have immediate rewards. But setting only short-term goals is not enough. You also need a long-term mindset that takes life beyond weight loss into account.

Making positive changes to your lifestyle also means taking personal responsibility for your weight. All of us have the ability to harness our internal power to make wise choices for healthy, livable, sustainable weight loss. Lifestyle change requires focus. Both the Weight Watchers LTM Database and NWCR participants maintain a consistent focus on their weight management strategies. This does not mean that they are overly rigid with their diet or take exercise to extremes. Rather, they have learned the skill of flexible restraint and have developed habits, routines, and approaches that support their ability to sustain weight loss.

Weight Loss That Lasts Action Steps

The path to sustainable weight loss needs a beginning. As you put your new knowledge to work and embark on a comprehensive weight-loss method, there are several things you can do. The goal is to maximize your knowledge so that you are prepared to make informed decisions for your best approach.

• Consult with your doctor before starting any weight management program. It is a good idea to get a complete physical before beginning a diet and/or exercise program to rule out medical limitations.

• Ask your doctor or pharmacist if any of the medications that you’re taking might affect your weight-loss success by increasing your appetite or slowing your metabolism. The good news is that in almost all cases other drugs are available that treat the same condition but do not affect weight. It is worth finding out whether a simple change in your medication can remove this potential obstacle.

• Think about weight-loss methods that you have used in the past. How many of the factors that predict successful weight loss and sustained weight loss were part of these methods? Are there things that you could have done differently to include more factors?

• What do you see as your “happy” weight and when do you see yourself achieving it? If your answer is a weight that is less than 90% of your current body weight and your time frame for reaching that weight is in less than six months, rethink your expectations. A reasonable goal is a loss of 10% of your current weight over six months. Start with that goal you may very well surprise yourself by exceeding it!

• Identify at least three people you know who have successfully lost weight and are keeping it off. Find out about their experience what method they used, what strategies and approaches they took to make it work for them, and what they are doing to sustain the weight loss. Compare what they tell you about the factors of successful weight loss, the factors for sustained weight loss, and the basic components of a weight-loss program.

• Remind yourself often and with confidence that sustained weight loss is possible.Your body will not undermine your achievements by slowing metabolism so that you gain the weight back.

If you have gained weight as an adult, you are not alone.There is no way that any of us can turn back the hands of time. That does not mean, however, that the extra pounds should be accepted as part of the aging process. Every year you carry the extra weight means a higher risk of developing several diseases. Losing the weight will bring those risks down. Now is the time to do a weight and health check to find out where you are so that you can make decisions about where you want to go.

• Think back to your 18th birthday. Do you weigh the same now as you did then? If you have gained weight, how many pounds have you gained?

• Determine if you are at a healthy weight, overweight, or obese by finding your BMI. • Take your waist circumference. Is it over the recommended measurement?

• If you have not done so in the past year, schedule yourself for a complete physical. Ask you doctor what impact, if any, your weight has on your current health status. Find out and make a record of your blood lipid levels, blood pressure, and fasting blood sugar.

• Set a realistic weight goal.

• If you are at a healthy weight and have not gained weight as an adult, a realistic goal is to prevent weight gain.

• If you are currently gaining weight, a reasonable first goal is to hold your weight steady to stop the gain.

• If you are ready to lose weight, aim to lose 5% to 10% of your initial weight. Once that is achieved and celebrated, set another goal or a series of realistic goals until you reach your ultimate goal weight (a weight within the healthy BMI range).

• Choose a weight-loss method and approach (more on this later) that leads to sustained weight loss.