11 Secrets of Successful Dieters

Perhaps the most practical way to learn what works in terms of weight loss options is to ask people who have overcome the odds and successfully lost—and more important, kept off—large amounts of weight. The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) (www.nwcr.ws) is a database that tracks more than 5,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and maintained the loss for at least 1 year.

Here are 11 insights  to lose and maintain your weight:

Secret 1: Control Portions
Less than 20 years ago, a standard cup of coffee with whole milk and sugar measured in at 8 ounces and 45 calories. Today, many java junkies have replaced that cup with a Starbucks 16-ounce Grande Mocha Frappuccino, which weighs in at a whopping 380 calories. To burn all those extra calories, you would have to walk for at least an hour.
Successful weight “losers” control their food portions. In fact, research suggests portion control is the greatest predictor of successful weight loss (Logue et al. 2004). Control portions by reading nutrition labels; carefully measure out servings; eat only a single helping; use smaller serving dishes; and resist the urge to “clean their plates.”

Secret 2: Be Mindful When Eating
Many people turn to food when they are bored or stressed out. Eat when you are hungry and stop when you are full. That means paying attention to everything you eat.
Ask yourself why you are heading to the fridge or pantry. Are you really motivated by hunger, or are you really just bored, stressed, sad, tired and maybe even full from your last meal or snack! Emotional eating can wreak havoc on a well-planned weight management program.

Secret 3: Exercise Regularly
Fitness is key in losing weight and keeping those pounds off. More than 94% of participants who succeeded in their goals in the NWCR increased their rate of physical activity (NWCR 2007). In fact, many who lost weight reported walking for at least 1 hour per day.
And for those who kept the weight off, exercise was also crucial. This was evident because the registry participants who dropped out of fitness programs ended up putting the pounds back on (NWCR 2007). Remember, as people lose weight, a proportion of each pound comes from muscle; that, in turn, slows down the metabolism and makes it difficult to keep the weight off. Although walking and other cardiovascular exercise is important for burning calories, be sure to perform resistance training to help preserve your lean tissue and keep up your metabolic rate.

Secret 4: Check the Scale
While it is not advisable to become obsessive about weight to the nearest 0.01 pound, people who maintain their weight loss do so by keeping periodic tabs on the scale, weighing themselves at least once per week. This way they are able to identify small weight increases in time to take appropriate corrective action (NWCR 2007).

Secret 5: Eat Breakfast
More than 75% of the NWCR participants eat breakfast daily; only 4% never do (Wyatt et al. 2002). And research suggests that breakfast eaters weigh less and suffer from fewer chronic diseases than people who skip breakfast (Timlin & Pereira 2007).

Secret 6: Monitor Intake
One of the strongest predictors of successful and maintained lifestyle change is monitoring dietary intake (Tinker et al. 2007). While it can be tedious to keep a daily food log, research has shown that this practice is a highly effective and proven strategy.

Secret 7: Turn Off the Tube
Time spent watching TV is time spent being completely sedentary (and thus expending minimal amounts of calories) and often eating as well. Most people mindlessly consume snacks while mesmerized in front of the television, not noticing the rapidly multiplying calorie intake. Case in point: The successful NWCR “losers” watched less than 10 hours of television per week (Raynor et al. 2006).

Secret 8: Retrain Your Brain
Interestingly, most people who have lost and kept off the most weight tend to be “lower left” brained, meaning they are organized, controlled, methodical and disciplined (Mithers 2005). This is not to say that those of us who thrive on spontaneity or embrace clutter are doomed—it’s just a matter of retraining our brains.
Become better organized by writing a grocery shopping list and sticking to it!  Plan your workout schedule for the next week and make a promise to stick to it. These efforts will help solidify their lifestyle change and make permanent weight loss more of a reality.

Secret 9: Start Today and Don’t Cheat
It’s easy to put off starting a serious lifestyle change to a later date. Likewise, it’s easy to “cheat” and eat an extra piece of cake here, a pepperoni pizza there. It’s important to be diligent when attempting to lose weight, because people who don’t cheat on a regular basis are 150% more likely to maintain their weight loss (Gorin et al. 2004). Adopt a “doable” healthy lifestyle they can stick with; this will reduce those compelling urges to unwittingly sabotage your weight management success.

Secret 10: Know That Birds of a Feather Stick Together
A study of 12,067 people followed over 32 years concluded that obesity spreads through social ties (Christakis & Fowler 2007). That is, obese people tend to have obese friends. Pairs of friends and siblings of the same sex seem to have the most profound effect on each other’s weight loss. Some researchers suspect that the spread of obesity has a lot to do with an individual’s general perception of the social norms regarding the acceptability of obesity (Christakis & Fowler 2007). The logic works like this: If my best friend and my sister are both obese and I love and admire them all the same, then maybe it’s not so bad that I gain a few pounds. You can reverse this psychological phenomenon by inviting pals to work out at the gym or go for a bike ride with them to stay or get fit.

Secret 11: Remain Optimistic
Research suggests that people who are optimistic (i.e., they have perceived control, positive expectations, empowerment, a fighting spirit and lack of helplessness) are more successful at changing behaviors and losing weight (Tinkler et al. 2007).