Get Active
1. Start with Sneakers - It takes a combination of diet and exercise to lose body fat, but researchers now believe that it's best to tackle exercise first.

2. Make Ambitious Exercise Goals - Instead of saying "I will exercise three days a week," plan to exercise every day, even if you know you won't make it. Most of us accomplish only 60 percent of our weekly fitness goals, so if you plan to work out for an hour every day, you'll probably make it to three or four workouts a week.

3. Find a Groove - Blocking out an hour or two for a sweaty workout takes dedication. Make the prospect a little more fun by buying an MP3 player. A recent study from Fairleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey found that women who listened to music while walking lost twice as much weight as those who didn't.

Calorie-Counting Strategies
4. Keep Your Diet Simple - Most successful losers are unadventurous when it comes to eating. "Too much variety actually stimulates your appetite," explains Hollie A. Raynor, PhD, RD, assistant professor of research at Brown Medical School in Providence. Curtail your dietary diversity by preparing dinners at home instead of eating out. Stick to cooking a few tried-and-true recipes with a wide range of nutrients, and rotate them often.

5. Overestimate Your Calories - Most dieters under-report the calories they consume by a third and over-report the amount of exercise they do by half, says Foreyt. Keeping an accurate journal allows you to objectively analyze what you're eating and why. When you do guesstimate, round up by a few hundred calories.

6. Target Weekend Calories - A recent study found that on the weekends, Americans tend to eat about 82 calories more per day than on the weekdays, most of them from fat and alcohol. That doesn't sound like much, but after a year it adds up to more than two pounds. Weekends are usually a time to let it all go; but losing weight is a precise numbers game, so you can't really afford to loosen the reins too much. Skip the extra margarita and find other ways to relax.

7. Order First - When you're dining out, be the first to place your order. If everyone is ordering the burger and fries, for example, you'll be more apt to go with the flow. Set a healthier tone by ordering a salad and the grilled fish.

8. Troubleshoot - When you overindulge (and you will, because you're human), don't beat yourself up, but don't slough it off either. Taking a problem-solving approach reinforces your sense of accountability. For example, if you scarfed down a tray of appetizers at the office party, was it because you skipped lunch? Were you nervous about an upcoming meeting? Once you think you've nailed the cause, formulate a plan for what you'll do differently the next time you encounter the same situation.

Daily Tips
9. Weigh In - Daily weighing is a winning weight-loss strategy, according to research from the National Weight Control Registry, which tracks more than 4,000 people who have lost 30 pounds and kept them off for at least one year. "If you're actively trying to lose weight, gaining more than that over a week is a red flag that your calorie intake or exercise plan needs some tweaking," says Raynor.

10. Outwit Your Appetite - Eating six small meals a day to help control your appetite doesn't work for everybody. To control calories, have just three meals a day and skip snacks.

11. Make a Connection - A good support system may help you make better diet and exercise decisions by boosting accountability.

12. Take Eight (Hours) - Shortchanging yourself on sleep lowers the level of the hormone leptin -- this can increase your desire to eat and decrease your ability to burn calories. To lose or maintain weight, there's an ideal sleep zone of about eight hours a night, say researchers.

13. Limit Tempting High-Fat Foods - For a while, conventional wisdom urged the no-diet approach: Don't avoid tempting foods like chocolate ice cream, because avoidance only leads to cravings and results in bingeing. But in some studies, those who actually followed this method ran into trouble. "The reality is that most people trying to lose weight can't give themselves permission to eat problem foods," says Kirschenbaum. Temptation just creates difficulties. Choose replacements such as chocolate sorbet instead of saturated-fat-packed chocolate ice cream.

Via July 2006 FITNESS magazine.