5 ways to keep weight off for good

Feel like you are always trying to lose some weight?  Here are some tips that will help you shed unwanted weight and keep it off for good.

Focus on lasting changes:

If crash diets work at all, they only do for the short term. For lasting weight loss, adopt healthy eating and lifestyle habits that you enjoy as a way of life. If you are starting a diet now aim to lose about 1-2 pounds per week and use the experience to discover what works best.

Learn by journaling:

A study by Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research found that people who kept a daily food journal lost twice as much weight as those who did not. That’s because journaling is a great tool for learning how your food and exercise choices affect your weight. Look for patterns that bring positive results and stick with them.

Eat more, not less:

Skipping meals hoping to save calories is a sure set up for failure because feeling hungry and deprived is not sustainable. The secret to lasting weight loss is to eat more of the right foods – especially fiber-rich foods that are delicious, filling and naturally low in calories. Check out my book The Miracle Carb Diet for meal plans, tips and recipes that make fat and calories disappear.

Build muscle, boost metabolism:

Cardio exercise is good for your heart, but weight-lifting and resistance exercises are best when it comes to shedding pounds. That’s because every pound of new muscle burns another 45 calories per day, so if you add 10 pounds of lean muscle to your frame you’ll burn upwards of 400– 500 calories a day – enough to lose about a pound of fat every week!

Indulge, too:

My clients win at weight loss by following what we call the 90/10 Rule: Commit to eating well 90 percent of the year and you still have 10 percent - 36.5 days - to relax and splurge.

Tanya Zuckerbrot MS, RD, is a registered dietitian in New York City and the author of two bestselling diet books:  The Miracle Carb Diet: Make Calories and Fat Disappear – with fiber and The F-Factor Diet. Subscribe to Tanya’s free weekly newsletter and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and subscribe to her free weekly newsletter.