Weight loss guide.

Weight Loss Guide

Before reading this article, be sure to read "How Not to Lose Weight" on page 6. Once you have a good understanding of what not to do, you can more successfully put into practice what you can do to lose weight.

Here are some suggestions:

* Forget about diering. In the long run, diets just don't work. Ninety to 95 percent of dieters regain all or most of the lost weight within two to five years. When you reduce your calorie intake dramatically, your body responds as if it were starving. Your metabolism slows, which will cause you to gain weight back more quickly when you stop dieting. Avoid the temptation to crash-diet. It promotes yo-yo dieting, which can be harmful to your health and defeat your purpose. Focus on how you'd like to eat for the rest of your life.

* Change your lifestyle. Think about ways to live a healthier lifestyle, rather than being obsessed with losing weight. "Make lifestyle changes gradually, step by step," says Kim Galeaz Gioe, R.D., a spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association in Indianapolis. "For instance, if you like to eat ice cream daily, instead of eliminating it all at once, first try the low-fat brands or frozen yogurt." A healthier lifestyle includes not only food but exercise. Before starting an exercise program to lose weight, read the article on page 18.

* Reduce fat intake. This is easier than it sounds. Some simple things include topping pancakes with fresh fruit, applesauce, or nonfat yogurt instead of butter and syrup. Make the move to skim milk. Use egg whites for whole eggs. Spread bread with all-fruit jam instead of butter. Order thin-crust, vegetarian, single-cheese pizza; eat fat-free chips or pretzels; saute vegetables in a pan coated with nonstick vegetable spray, not oil. Try lemon juice on vegetables instead of butter. Cook with dried pasta instead of fresh. Order a copy of the American Dietetic Association's 32page booklet Skimming the Fat: A Practical Food Guide. Send a check for $8.25 (Illinois residents, add 8.75 percent sales tax) to American Dietetic Association, Dept. 810, P.O. Box 4729, Chicago, IL 60680-4729.

* Don't skip meals. You need to keep your system going. When you go for long periods of time without eating, you get so hungry that the type of food you eat becomes unimportant. "You end up eating everything in sight, and you're more likely to select high-fat things," Gioe says. Never go more than six waking hours without eating something.

* Keep a food journal. It may sound like a hassle, but it will help you uncover negative patterns or bad habits. Log in when, where, what, and why you eat. Analyze the log after a week. Work on coming up with alternative food choices or activities.

* Take your time. Don't expect to lose five pounds in one week. The faster you try to lose, the more disappointed you'll be when you end up gaining it back. If you lose slowly, you're more likely to keep it off. Losing one-half to one pound a week is realistic and healthy.

* Remember that weight plateaus are normal. if you cut 3,500 calories from your weekly diet, you'll probably lose one pound a week for a while, then stop losing weight. The body needs to go through an adjustment period before the pounds start dropping off again. Don't get discouraged by plateaus; instead, focus on your overall progress and remember how much you used to weigh.

* Don't deprive yourself. Eating one high-fat food at one meal isn't going to make or break your weight. What you eat regularly is what counts. Find a way to include some of your favorite things by making trade-offs. Cut back on something else. Also, when people deprive themselves by dieting and then go off the diet, they often overcompensate by overeating, and the pounds that come back will likely be all fat, rather than fat and muscle.

* Eat mindfully. Evelyn Tribole, M.S., R.D., author of Eating on the Run, gives this advice: Don't eat while doing something else, such as watching television, reading, or working. Instead, eat consciously, pausing to ask yourself how the food tastes and whether you're still hungry. Pausing isn't a commitment to stop eating; it just gives you time to consider whether you really need or want to continue.

* Seek counseling. For some people, counseling may be helpful in uncovering underlying reasons for excess weight.