Building Simple Habits For Healthy Weight Loss

Lasting weight loss demands that you transform your eating and exercise habits. But many other choices you make each day, such as how much time you spend sleeping or surfing the Internet, can also make a difference.

The habits described here and in the Harvard Special Health Report Healthy Solutions to Lose Weight and Keep it Off can help you move toward your weight-loss goal.

Set small, specific, and realistic goals

Perhaps you’d like to be the same size you were in high school or when you got married, but that would mean dropping more than 50 pounds. Don’t go there — not yet, at least. Set a more realistic goal of losing 5% to 10% of your weight, and give yourself plenty of time and some flexibility to reach that goal, keeping in mind that most people take at least six months to achieve that degree of weight loss. Also try to avoid generalized goals, such as “I should eat less at dinner and exercise more.” Instead, set specific and short-term (that is, daily or weekly) goals, such as these.Read more