Health Diet Doctors Reveal Their Secrets By Sandra Gordon Coauthor of 30 Secrets of the World's Healthiest Cuisines (John Wiley & Sons, 2000)

WWWthirdage.com/health/AL

Here's what the experts say about losing weight and keeping it off.

1. Start With a High Level of Motivation and Commitment Ask yourself two questions, suggests Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.:

"Compared to how I felt before my previous diet, how motivated am I?" "Do I see myself committed long-term to losing and maintaining my weight?"

If you can honestly answer "Very!" and "Yes!" to these questions, you're on the right track.

2. Don't Try to Do Too Much at Once If you really want to be successful at losing weight, you should try to focus your energy on that. In other words, it's the wrong time to start a weight-loss regimen if you've just gotten new responsibilities at work or if your baby is sick.

3. Aim to Lose Just 10 Percent Ten percent of your body weight, that is, says Brownell. If you weigh 170, for example, that's just 17 pounds. If you're able to sustain your new weight for at least as long as it took you to reach it, you might then decide that you're ready to lose more.

4. Don't Skimp on Meals "A lot of people ... skip breakfast, have a light lunch, then have trouble controlling their hunger at night," which is the classic setup for an evening pig-out, says C. Wayne Callaway, M.D., an associate clinical professor of medicine at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

5. A High-Fiber Diet Can Fill You Up Research also suggests that it may actually cut the number of calories you ingest by blocking your body's ability to digest the fat and protein consumed with it. In a recent U.S. Department of Agriculture study, subjects who took in 18 to 36 grams of fiber a day absorbed 130 fewer daily calories.

6. Temper TV Watching According to a study at the University of Minnesota, each daily hour of TV viewed by female subjects was translated into an extra half-pound of weight at year's end.

7. Downsize Portions "Put less food on your plate, and naturally, you'll eat less," says David Levitsky, Ph.D., a professor of nutrition and psychology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

8. Join a Support Group "You need people to tell you, 'You can do it,'" says G. Ken Goodrick, Ph.D., a psychologist and associate professor of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

9. Work Out Regularly Of the nearly 800 members of the National Weight Control Registry (an ongoing study of people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept them off for one year or longer), most get regular exercise that's equivalent to a four-mile daily walk, according to James Hill, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Colorado Clinical Nutrition Research Unit and the study's co-conductor.

10. Ink in Activity Remind yourself to be physically active, such as by marking "Go Swimming" in your weekly calendar.

11. Sweat the Small Stuff You should get at least 30 minutes of physical activity three or four days a week, but three bouts of 10 minutes each will do, according to David Allison, Ph.D., an obesity researcher at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York City.

12. Snap Back After a Slip After gorging at a dinner party, you should get right back on track and try to figure out why it happened, says Susan Head, Ph.D., a consulting faculty member at Duke University in Durham, N.C.

13. Learn to Accept Yourself To be happy in the long run, says Goodrick, you've got to adopt the attitude that "I may never be thin, but at least I can eat right, exercise and feel my very best."

(c) 2001, Sandra Gordon, Los Angeles Times Syndicate

- - - - -

-- Anonymous, July 31, 2001

Answers

Use smaller dinner plates.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001

WeightWatchers considers 10% loss to be an important milestone. It's where you should definitely notice that clothes are looser, people are starting to compliment you, and if you are losing weight as a result of eating sensibly you also have more energy and are sleeping better. WW hands out a kewl keychain at that point in the diet.

-- Anonymous, August 01, 2001