The Real Secrets to
Maintaining Your Ideal Weight!

Sure, it's great to be a big loser, to burn that fat, build that muscle and show off your new body. But what happens several months -- or even years -- later? Can you say you've kept that weight from returning?

The bottom line -- and the entire goal of burning that fat -- is to maintain your new healthy weight! And that seems to be a problem for many individuals. How many times have you experienced dramatic, exciting weight loss on a specialty (dare I call them fad?) diet, only to have gained the weight you loss, or more, back again.

It's discouraging, to say the least. And it's definitely unhealthy.

So what's the skinny on staying skinny once you hit your magic number? Tom Venuto, celebrated bodybuilder and weight-loss expert, has a few ideas about this.

The first step in assuring permanent weight loss is not to model yourself after the "big losers." Instead, investigate the habits of "the maintainers" as he calls them. They hold the secrets you need to know.

Venuto cites a research study that looked at this topic. Technically, it was a compilation of data found in the document "Styles and Surveys." It questioned a representative portion of the United States about their strategies at keeping the weight off long term.

Unfortunately, one of its first findings revealed that only a third of dieters nationwide were successful "maintainers." That means dieting fails for two thirds of the population.

What Secrets Do "Maintainers" Hold?

So what does this small segment of dieters do that others don't? Not surprisingly, they exercise regularly for 30 minutes every day -- sometimes for longer periods. On top of that though, they stay active by adding another recreational activity to their agenda, daily. It could be a sport or some type of physical work.

Another habit "maintainers" adopted, this study said, was the inclusion of weight training as a big part of their exercise regimen.

Similarly, maintainers reduced -- significantly -- the amount of sedentary time they experienced. This mean less watching TV, less surfing on the internet, basically less "couch potato" time!

But that's not all. This survey also discovered that "maintainers" continued to monitor their eating and exercise habits. They tracked their calories even after they reached their ideal weight-loss goal.

These successful individuals also kept tabs on their body weight and fat. They consistently planned their meals as well as measuring the amount of food they ate at every meal.

Here though is a revealing statistic from this survey. Those individuals who threw up "self-perceived barriers" to their efforts were 48 to 76 percent less likely to be a "maintainer." Wow?

What exactly is a "self-perceived barrier?"

For these dieters, they claimed they had no time to exercise or they were too tired to exercise. Some erected a barrier by saying that it was just plain too difficult to maintain an exercise program.

"Self-perceived barriers?" This is what Tom Venuto had to say about this: "I interpret this as the unsuccessful losers were excuse makers!"

In your journey of burning fat and building muscle are you a "maintainer" or only a "loser?" Worse yet, are you an "excuse maker?" Read the information again on what habits the successful maintainers have developed. They seem to be great role models!

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