People are made to move and eat

Focus on a quality diet and regular exercise if you want to maintain a healthy weight - at least that's what an editorial by Jean-Pierre Despres of Laval University in Quebec, Canada recommends.

Most studies have shown that dietary restriction is the most important factor in weight loss and that exercise has only a minimal effect. However, exercise provides a buffer to combat excess calorie intake. People who want to lose weight and maintain their new weight typically incorporate large amounts of exercise into their weight management program. Only about five percent of people who lose a significant amount of weight keep their new weight off for more than a year. Despite this depressing statistic, some people lose weight and manage to keep their new weight off.

The National Weight Control Registry contains records of people who have successfully lost more than 30 pounds and kept their new weight off for a year or more. These people share one thing in common - they burn an extra 3000 kcal a week, which means they exercise for about an hour a week.

Don't just gauge your progress by looking at your scale. People who exercise regularly tend to build lean muscle mass while losing fat. Dr. Despres recommended replacing the bathroom scale with simple and inexpensive tape measure measurements to determine body circumferences.

(American Journal Clinical Nutrition, 102:1303 - 1304, 2015)