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5 ways to stay on track

• Consumereports editorial team

How to mentally prepare yourself for weight loss.

»    Think about your core values and what you want out of life.

What brings you happiness? Perhaps you rank health as a high priority and want to feel good and have more energy? Now look at small steps you can take to live in line with these values.

»    Find something that suits you

Hate the gym? Then don’t force yourself to go. Instead find something you enjoy (maybe yoga, bushwalking, pole dancing or underwater hockey is more your style?). If you indulge in fitness pursuits that you value and enjoy you will be happier and more motivated.

»    Be open to change

Just because running half marathons worked for you five years ago, doesn’t mean that running is still the best option for you now. Listen to the needs of your body and switch to a new fitness routine if necessary.

»    Have realistic expectations

If you weigh under 100kg then it’s not safe or realistic to try losing more than 0.5kg per week. If you weigh between 100 and 150kg, 1kg per week is achievable, and if you’re over 150kg, 2kg per week is considered healthy.

»    Try to eat every three hours: three main meals per day with two small snacks.

When possible, exercise before breakfast on an empty stomach, and then eat breakfast within an hour of exercising. When starting or changing an exercise regime, watch that you don’t eat more. Your body will naturally crave more food initially but after a few days your appetite will settle down.

NEXT: 10 tummy flattening foods>>

Miriam Hospital study shows social gaming site effective weight loss tool

• Consumereports editorial team

Researchers from The Miriam Hospital have found that DietBet, a web-based commercial weight loss program that pairs financial incentives with social influence, delivers significant weight losses. The study and its findings have been published in the current issue of the open access publication JMIR Serious Games. Tricia Leahey, Ph.D., lead researcher at The Miriam Hospital Weight Control and Diabetes Research Center, sought to examine weight losses associated with the social gaming website and contributing factors to gauge the success of such web-based programs. On Dietbet.com, players join a game to lose weight while betting money on themselves. Players all have four weeks to lose four percent of their starting weight. At the end of week four, all players who have lost at least four percent of their initial body weight are deemed “winners” and split the pool of money collected at the start of the game. To verify weight losses, players submit photo-based evidence of their weigh-ins to DietBet’s referees at the start and end of each game. “Online social weight loss programs are accessible to large numbers of overweight and obese individuals who want to lose weight,” Leahey says, “but there has been little research to date on whether such programs are effective, or just how much weight loss they generate.”