Daily Health News Blog

Mastering Weight-Maintenance Skills Before Embarking On Diet Helps Women Avoid Backsliding Would you take part in a weight-loss program in which you were explicitly asked not to lose any weight for the first eight weeks? Although the approach sounds counterintuitive, a study from researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that women who spent eight weeks mastering weight-maintenance skills before embarking on a weight-loss program shed the same number of pounds as women who started a weight-loss program immediately. More importantly, the study showed that the "maintenance-first" women had regained only 3 pounds on average a year later, compared to the average 7-pound gain for the immediate dieters. The study's authors say that the maintenance-first approach may offer a way to halt the cycle of yo-yo dieting. "Those eight weeks were like a practice run. Women could try out different stability skills and work out the kinks without the p