How to Lose Weight, and How to Maintain is The Hardest Part

I believe many of us do experience this so-called yo-yo diet. Sometimes we lose weights, we get happy, allow ourselves some snacks and yummy guilty foods to celebrate our 'achievements', and before we know it, the fat is back on!!!

Of course those with very very strong willpower and self control can manage to keep the fat off for a long period of time. But not everyone of us is very strong willed. At times, we will fall down to the "pampering" ourselves with good food.

Not that good food is bad. What you can do is eat in moderate amount, spread your food intake into many times a day, 5 times a day will be enough to keep you feeling full, and avoid hunger which can lead you to eat excessively at once. Regular exercise will keep you in the right track.

But willpower and self control tend to fail. The question is, how to keep yourself in check.

There is a US trial involving over a thousand people started with a six-month weight loss program, during which they lost an average of 8.5 kg.

After this they were randomly allocated to 1 of 3 groups for 2 and 1/2 years: doing things for themselves with some written advice; a web-based interactive program which got them to feed in their weight and activity levels and encouraged increased exercise and sensible eating behaviours; and finally, a third group was allocated to monthly personal contact from a trained person, both by phone and face to face.

The good news was that everyone weighed less than they did at the start. The bad news was that it wasn't the intial 8.5 kilos.

Almost everyone regained weight, but those who'd had personal contact put less back on than the others, to the tune of about 1.5 kg.

The web-based program looked good to begin with, but soon lost its effect.

It's not cheap, but it looks as though to slow the passage of food from hand to mouth, what you need is having someone on your back.