Proven ways to lose the weight

You might expect to read the “Eight Secrets to Weight Loss!” in a popular women’s magazine. But in a top medical journal? And based on a long-term scientific study of thousands of people who lost weight and kept it off for more than a year?

Both a scientific journal and a health conference held earlier this year highlighted the key characteristics of successful weight loss in the National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of more than 5,000 successful dieters. Brown University researcher Suzanne Phelan, who is involved in the study, noted that the people who lost at least 30 pounds – and kept them off for more than a year – tended to share certain success strategies. Anyone with some unwanted pounds to shed, she said, would be wise to learn from the “successful losers” in the research project.

“There is a general perception that almost no one succeeds in long-term maintenance of weight loss,” Phelan and a colleague wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “However, research has shown that [roughly] 20 percent of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10 percent of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least one” year.

So how do they do it?

The researchers found that to lose weight, 98 percent of the successful dieters in their study modified their food intake, and 94 percent exercised more often – with the most popular activity being walking.

To keep the weight off, most said they exercise about an hour per day. The vast majority also eat breakfast every day, and weigh themselves at least once a week.

Some of the dieters share their success stories on the National Weight Control Registry Web site. But you can read a CliffsNotes version, so to speak, in the journal Internal Medicine News, which details the secrets of successful dieters:

1. Eat a diet that is low in fat and calories. Dieters averaged 1,385 calories per day, with 27 percent of their energy coming from fat.
2. Exercise often. Some 90 percent of the dieters said they exercised an average of an hour per day.
3. Turn off the TV. Slightly more than 60 percent of the successful losers said they watch fewer than 10 hours of television per week.
4. Weigh yourself frequently. Fully 75 percent of the study respondents said they hop on the scale at least once a week.
5. Maintain a consistent eating pattern.  The participants who followed a consistent diet throughout the week were much more likely to maintain their weight than those who dieted more strictly on weekdays and less on weekends.
6. Limit variety in your diet.  Successful dieters keep fewer types of foods in their cupboards and refrigerator, a method shown to discourage eating.
7. Eat breakfast. Although some dieters are tempted to skip the first meal of the day, 78 percent of those who kept their weight off said they do eat a morning meal, typically cereal and fruit.
8. Avoid fast food. The best dieters visited fast food joints less than once a week.

These tips should be useful for the one-third of Americans now considered clinically obese, and the other third who are simply overweight. Although many people are motivated to lose weight for cosmetic reasons, the health benefits are the real gains. Obesity increases a person’s risk of high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and stroke. It can even increase your risk of certain cancers.

Weight-related issues, in fact, affect many of the health conditions covered in the Navigenics genetic health service.

Losing weight isn’t always easy. But following these eight proven strategies and sticking with them, will no doubt help.  Lose weight and improve your health. Turn your losses into gains. Now there’s something you can’t do in the stock market—especially these days.