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Top Tips for Weight Control

By WLR Dietitian, Lyndel Costain BSc RD

‘There is a general perception that almost no-one succeeds in losing weight and keeping it off in the long term’ say scientists from the Brown Medical School, Rhode Island, USA.

They go on to explain that research has in fact shown that 1 in 5 overweight people are successful - when success is defined as losing at least 10 percent of their weight and keeping that off for at least 1 year.

To help motivate people who feel despondent about their ability to control their weight in the long term, they have compiled this list of top success strategies used by the thousands of successful slimmers they have interviewed.

They are:

• being physically active for an hour or more daily e.g. a total of walking for one hour  
• eating a low fat diet and keeping a check on overall calorie intake  
• eating breakfast regularly  
• keeping a regular check on their weight e.g. once or twice a week  
• not falling into the trap of ‘all or nothing’ thinking (where you feel bad if you overeat/eat a high calorie food, feel you’ve blown it and keep on eating) 
• having a fairly consistent eating pattern across weekdays and weekends  
• greatly limiting their variety of fatty and sugary foods

Surprisingly Simple

This study is very encouraging as it shows that long term weight control is possible – and it points to surprisingly simple ways to help make it happen.

While this study highlights practical strategies of successful slimmers, the big reason they can keep putting them into practice rather than go back to old habits is their positive state of mind. They believe, and keep on believing that they can keep up these changes and that they are worth it.

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