Tactics to keep the weight off

While losing weight is certainly a feat, keeping the pounds off seems to be a bigger challenge for most people. Why? As you lose weight your calorie needs decrease because you're carrying around less mass and therefore, to keep losing weight or even to just stay at your present weight, you have to take in less and less calories over time or increase the number of calories you're burning. Here are some proven tactics to keep those lost pounds, lost:

• Exercise. A new study found that exercise and not the type of diet you follow is the real key to keeping off the weight. Researchers found that regardless of which diet was followed, low-fat or moderate fat, some weight regain was inevitable; they say increasing exercise is a more effective approach.
• Eat breakfast. One study found that women who eat breakfast have lower BMIs, a measure of overweight, than women who skip breakfast. And you should include some milk or yogurt in that breakfast, too.
• Drink milk. A new study found that eating three servings of dairy each day helped people maintain weight loss while eating more calories than the people that only had one serving of dairy each day. Both groups successfully kept off the 10 percent of body weight they'd lost (for the 6 months of the study) however the 3-a-day dairy eaters had about 150 more calories each day than the 1-a-day. This suggests drinking milk or eating yogurt may allow someone trying to maintain weight loss to eat a little more and still keep all the weight off.

Paltrow exercised away the baby fat

Did you catch Gwyneth Paltrow on Oprah this week? I missed the episode but I did see an article yesterday with her comments on how she got her body back after baby number 2. It was refreshing to hear that not only did it take her 2 years to lose the baby weight, but it took hard work to take off the pounds. She credits lots of exercise for helping her lose the weight. While she worked with a celebrity trainer, there's nothing she did that regular people can't do themselves. It's really about motivation and sticking with it. I know for myself, taking off the baby weight and then maintaining my weight long term requires that I exercise daily - in addition to eating right most of the time (chocolate daily is a must have). I have some equipment in my basement and when I put the kids to bed at night, I go down there and enjoy an hour of Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune while I work out. No nannies, celebrity trainers or state-of-the-art gym needed. You can do it, too. Buy a jumprope or an exercise video and get started. You'll be looking like Gwyneth in no time - or at least the best, fittest version of you (which is even better).

Exercise a matter of time?

A new study from Wake Forest shows that people who have flexibility at work tend to have better health habits including getting more exercise. The researchers surveyed 3200 workers over the course of a year. Interestingly when a person's work situation became more flexible (from the beginning of the study to the end of the study) certain health habits improved but they were not necessarily more apt to workout. In some cases having more time meant more time to exercise, but for others it seemed not to make a difference.
Of the people that I know who exercise there are two types of personalities. One type would exercise no matter what their work or home situation; this person fits it in early in the morning, late in the evening and on weekends. She makes sure that there is a convenient way to get in her workout. Exercise is a regimen and is scheduled the way that meetings or other important appointments are. The other type of personality exercises when it is convenient but working out tends to fall farther on the list of priorities so may fall off the list altogether. I would say this is the more common personality.
As we approach January 1 and the date of New Year's resolutions including many peoples' vows to exercise more, it would be of benefit to try to become more like the first type of exercise personality - the one that makes exercise like brushing your teeth or taking a shower, something that's a necessary part of the day. Start by finding the time of day that works for you, schedule it in and make it a no excuses must-do. I'm not a morning person, so for me the best time is in the evening after I put the kids to bed and before my husband comes home from work. I have equipment for my home and there's a tv show on at that time, which I enjoy. I tell myself in order to watch it, I have to be on the treadmill or elliptical machine. There's no negotiations.
Flexibility at work, at home or not at all, if exercise is part of the routine, it will surely be accomplished. And when we're talking about seeking weight loss and lifelong weight maintenance, exercise is a necessary component. As your resolution this year, find the way to make exercise a must-do part of your life.