Understanding why we easily quit our weight loss plan

Statistics could prove the high numbers of the population being overweight. Although they are subscribing to hundreds of different techniques and weight loss programs available all over the world, not many end up successfully. And there are always two major reasons for these failures:

1. Their inability to follow the program.
2. Their inability to continue the program even after losing some pounds through it.

These are only the most common reasons, not entirely the only ones. As we can see, both are mostly because of the human mind and not the human body. The failure isn't entirely the program or the diet's fault but the mindset of the person on that plan. Either s/he do not think that s/he could follow the plan consistently, or the possibility of a conflict between the conscious and the unconscious state of mind of that person. Drive and determination are needed to lose weight, so if you are not up to the challenges and work, no one can get you in shape.

The most effective solution is to alter the lifestyle of the person. A healthy outlook and perspective could get him or her convinced into following the plans more consistently and motivate him or her further into fully adapting the new settings. It is important that they will feel that they have accepted set-up voluntarily and that they were not forced to subscribe to it, so they will follow the whole program and diet plan without any problems.

There are a number of advanced mind trainings available to help out in these situations, which include magically slim. With the help of these trainings, the person will be more at ease in following the weight los programs and continue to pursue it for a long time.

However, a good diet and exercise plan is also needed to achieve great results with this state of mind. The actions and bodily activities are still big factors in losing pounds, and weight can oonly be reduced if you could burn more calories than you intake. Thus, a good diet plan is necessary. Doctors could always help about your queries on healthy foods with low calories. You could also ask friends about tested and proven effective diet plans. Then the internet could help you about the nutritional values of the food you plan to intake. This way you could know and compute the amount of calories and carbohydrates that your body takes in.

After setting up a diet plan, you could now look for a good exercise program. The internet could provide you information about exercises, watch videos, or help you buy gym memberships, but these all depend on your experience level. Another option is to subscribe to easier everyday exercises like walking, cycling, swimming or running. These activities are easier and cheaper to adopt and they do not necessarily require equipments to get you started. Just remember to follow the basic rules of exercise: the warm-up and cool down so you could avoid damage to your precious bodies.


(article from www.bestsyndication.com)

The battle to lose weight doesn't have to break the bank

The way Carolyn Thurmond figures it, she lost almost 30 pounds in five months, and she spent less than $1 a day to do it.

Thurmond, 42, who home-schools her three children in Advance, N.C., weighed 192 pounds in December 2007 and was having foot problems, heart palpitations and frequent fatigue. She saw a photo of herself and says: "I was horrified. I looked like someone blew me up. My face looked so fat."

At about that time, a gym with bargain-basement prices opened close to her home. She began working out, and later she started cutting calories. At 5-foot-5, she now weighs 164 pounds.

It was a small investment that yielded big returns. She now works out so intensely that a fellow gym member recently asked her what she was training for, and Thurmond quipped, "I'm training against fat."

Her story was selected by a panel of experts to be featured in USA TODAY's sixth Weight-Loss Challenge in the newspaper and online at dietchallenge.usatoday.com. This year's challenge, which runs every Monday through mid-May, focuses on losing weight on a budget.

The dieters who submitted their stories took small, cost-effective steps that led to big strides in weight loss. Some bought athletic shoes and started walking or running. Others joined inexpensive gyms. Most started cooking more and eating out less, and all do their best to food-shop economically.

Rae Goodman, 40, a child care provider in Kennesaw, Ga., weighs 135 pounds, down from a high of 225 in November 2005. She used the free website sparkpeople.com and gradually increased her exercise. Her trimmer, fitter body means she finds bargains on the clearance racks.

"I like the sales on clothes I can get now. Everything that's small is on sale. It's fabulous. I can buy a size 4 designer shirt for $4," says Goodman, who is getting married Saturday. She has a 19-year-old son from a previous relationship.

• R.V. Stephens, 69, a retired surgeon in Phoenix, says that in six months, he has dropped from 205 to 160 pounds by following a low-carb diet and walking 10,000 steps or more a day. "I bought a pedometer for $25," says Stephens, who can fit into his Air Force uniform from 38 years ago, when he served during the Vietnam War. He is married with three adult sons.

These dieters "watched not only their calories but their pocketbooks," says Edith Howard Hogan, a registered dietitian in Washington, D.C., who helped select the challenge participants.

"As we all face economic uncertainties, it would be so easy to comfort ourselves with all the wrong foods," she says. "But it's better to treat yourself to a good, reasonably priced diet with lots of fruits and veggies, lean protein, whole grains, low-fat dairy and healthful snacks."

Gradual weight gains

Many of the dieters report that their weight crept up gradually.

Goodman is frank about how she packed it on: "Poor eating habits. Sedentary lifestyle. Working too many hours and eating terribly. Lack of motivation. I like junk food. I like pastries, chocolate, wine."

Now, she buys mostly organic food, shopping for special discount sales. She watches her portions and fills up on fruits and vegetables.

Stephens says he gained over the course of years partly because "the doctors lounge was filled with doughnuts and bagels." But last summer, his physician told him he needed to lose weight because his blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugars were all too high.

He lost his weight and is keeping it off by steering clear of snack foods and fast foods. He is on a low-carb diet and has learned to season grilled salmon and chicken in a variety of ways. But he does treat himself to pizza every week.

Thurmond gained about 30 to 40 pounds with each pregnancy. "With each baby, I lost all of the weight but 10 pounds. When I was done with three kids, it was 30 pounds."

Then her family moved twice, and she gained 10 pounds each time. Plus, she didn't make time for herself. "I thought I didn't have time to exercise. It was the last thing on my list. I'd get up with the kids. I take care of them and school them all day, and I didn't want to go to the gym at 9 o'clock at night."

She didn't really notice how heavy she had gotten. "I stay home. I wear sweatpants all day, and I didn't realize that my clothes didn't fit anymore."

Her health was suffering. She huffed and puffed going up the stairs. When a family-owned gym opened 2 miles from her house, it had no enrollment fee, so she felt compelled to give it a try. "It was open 24/7. There were no excuses."

The price of her membership: $27.50 a month. "It costs me less than a dollar a day to go there. You could spend a dollar on a Coke or something that you shouldn't have."

But she was so out of shape that it wasn't easy. "I tried the elliptical machine, and in five minutes, my heart rate was too high and I felt queasy and out of breath. I tried the tread climber, treadmill and bicycles."

Thurmond experimented with the best time of day to exercise. She found that if she put it off until night, she often didn't have the energy to go to the gym.

She now exercises first thing in the morning, although if she had her druthers, she wouldn't. "I say this with great emphasis: I don't like getting up and exercising in the morning. I'm a night owl. But my mom picks me up at 7 in the morning, and we go to the gym. I get home about the time the kids get out of bed. When I exercise in the morning, I feel a million times better all day."

For the first month or so into her weight-loss journey, she exercised religiously, but the scales didn't budge. People told her she was gaining muscle, but Thurmond says, "I didn't want to hear that." Her brother kept reminding her that she had to count calories and weigh her food, so Thurmond decided to give it a try. "I wrote everything down. At first it was annoying."

She dug out a small scale to weigh her food. Sometimes after she figured out the calories, she put the food back in the package.

One of the most helpful things she did was take notes on how she felt after eating meals. If she ate something for lunch, and a half an hour later her stomach was growling, she jotted that down. "It was helpful to know what filled me up and what left me hungry."

Thurmond, who co-owns a residential construction business with her husband, watches her food bill closely. The family doesn't eat a lot of meat, frozen meals or junk food. They rarely eat out or get takeout. She makes almost everything from scratch. She estimates she consumes about 1,300 calories a day.

Working out works

All of the dieters who are featured in the eight-week series approach exercise with gusto.

Goodman sometimes works out twice a day, but she gradually built up to her current fitness level. "In the beginning, I didn't have the money or time for gym membership. I didn't have a treadmill, so I just started walking at a local park and on a track. I did that for a couple of months.

"Then I bought a treadmill and started paying in installments. I did the treadmill once a day for a while; then I did it twice a day for 45 minutes at 4 a.m. and the last thing at night. I did that for almost a year."

Then she chatted with people on sparkpeople.com, and they said she needed to go to a gym to be with like-minded people. "So I started at Bally's, and it took off from there. I started doing the spin class. I was slimmer and I wanted a tighter body, so I began weight training. I'm now lifting hundreds of pounds."

On the other hand, Stephens, the retired surgeon, is sold on walking. He wears a pedometer. "I walk at least 5 miles five days a week and 7 miles the other two days. I walk a mile in about 17 minutes. I'm bringing my pulse up to 120 to 130. I try to play golf once a week."

Thurmond mixes up her routines, doing an intense aerobic workout using different exercise machines for 45 to 60 minutes three days a week. Two or three other days, she does a cardio workout for 20 minutes and then intense weight training. "I change it up," she says.

She says she could save even more money by doing the same workout at home but finds that "going to the gym is motivating. It's like silent support. It has been worth itself over and over. When you go there, you might as well do what you are there to do."

She doesn't sugarcoat her experience.

"This journey was very difficult, a lot of hard work," she says. "You read magazine covers that say, 'Lose 10 pounds in one month' … or 'Lose inches with this simple plan!' That was not the case for me. Nothing fell off or melted away or was easy. I had to work harder than I wanted to."

She isn't aiming for a perfect body. "I don't expect to look like I did before children. I don't expect to be thin or slim."

She'd like to get rid of a few more pounds, but overall she's happy with the changes in her looks. "My legs are like rocks. I have very muscular legs."

And, she says, "I have a waist again."

-Article from www.usatoday.com

---This is very very much inspiring! No matter if you're a model or simply a housewife, you deserve good health and happy body image, right?

Weight Loss: Ideal Weight or Happy Weight?

How much weight do you really need to lose?

Maybe you've been struggling -- without success -- to get down to the size you were in high school or on your wedding day. But do you really need to go that low? The truth, experts say, is that you can weigh more than your ideal weight and still be healthy (not to mention happy).

If you're overweight, losing just 10% of your body weight is associated with a myriad of health benefits, including lowering blood pressure, blood cholesterol, and blood sugar, and reducing your risk for heart disease. Not only that, experts say, but this kind of weight loss is easier to attain and maintain, setting you up for success in the long run.

Your Weight "Set Point"

Just as your body temperature is programmed to stay around 98.6 degrees, your body weight is naturally regulated to stay within a range of 10%-20%, says Thomas Wadden, PhD, director of the Center for Weight and Eating Disorders at University of Pennsylvania Medical School. This weight range is known as the "set point."

A complex set of hormones, chemicals, and hunger signals help your body naturally maintain your weight within this range, says American Dietetic Association spokeswoman Dawn Jackson Blatner, RD.

It is not just a matter of genetics, though. Your eating and exercise habits can also help to determine your set point.

"Overeating swamps the internal regulatory system, and, as a result, the set point increases -- which is much easier to do than it is to lower it," says Wadden. The body adjusts to the higher weight and "resets" the set point to defend the new weight.

It is difficult, but not impossible, to set your range lower. "With changes in healthy eating and exercise behavior, you can lower your set point," says Blatner.

The 10% Solution to Weight Loss

A recent book, Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off, by George Blackburn, MD, suggests that maintaining a 10% loss for six months to a year helps your body adjust to the lower weight and thus reset the set point.

Wadden explains that when you lose large amounts of weight at once, you set up an internal struggle and hormones like ghrelin spike to make you hungrier as your body tries to defend its comfortable range.

Instead, experts recommend that you try losing 10% the old-fashioned way -- by slowly changing eating and exercise behaviors -- then maintain this new weight for a few months before trying to lose more. Not only will your body get the signal to lower its "set point," but you'll give yourself a chance to get used to new food choices, smaller portions, and regular exercise.

“When patients lose 10% it may not be the pant size they want, but they start to realize how a little weight loss impacts their health in very positive ways," says Blatner. "They feel better, sleep better, have more energy or less joint pain, and some people are able to reduce medications."

How Much Should I Weigh?

Most people overestimate how much weight they can realistically lose, which leads to frustration, says Blatner. To find your happy or healthy weight, Blatner suggests looking back on your weight history as an adult and identify a weight you were able to maintain naturally and fairly easily.

And if you've gained more than a few pounds since your wedding day, forget trying to fit into that bridal gown. "As you gain weight, you experience an increase in fat cell size and number, which will probably prevent you from getting back to your married weight," says Wadden.

Instead of focusing on the numbers on the scale, Blatner suggests setting behavioral goals: "Eat breakfast every day, go for daily walks, eat more fruits and vegetables -- when you set behavior goals, they are easier to accomplish and they make you feel good." Stick with these behaviors for 3-6 months and they will become part of your life.

Based on your current weight, eat about 10 calories per pound of nutritious food (low in fat, rich in lean protein, high in fiber), get regular exercise, and assess your weight after a month or so.

"Your weight will settle out and typically you will lose 10%, then hit a plateau, which is a good time to maintain the weight loss," says Wadden.

As you get to a healthy weight, you can go up to 12 calories per pound.
Tips for Weight Loss Success

Here are some tips from Blatner for weight loss success:

1. Eat regular meals. People who eat regular meals consume fewer calories than those who eat irregular meals.

2. Use a plate, sit down, and enjoy your meals. Folks who do this eat 43% smaller portions than those who eat out of containers or on the run, according to Blatner.

3. Get at least 30 minutes of moderate activity each day.

4. How much and what you eat makes a big difference. Enjoy normal portions of foods that are high in fiber (fruits, veggies, whole grains) and rich in lean or low fat protein is the secret to feeling full.

5. Think positive: Focus on the benefits of a healthier lifestyle rather than the scale.

---It's so good to know all these things. It helps me to become more considerate with my self while setting my weight loss goals.

20 Weight Loss Tips (Tried and Tested)

Weight Loss Tip #1:
Push in two fruits or vegetables with every meal you eat. This will fill your stomach and help you cut down on the calories you would take in from the other foods.

Weight Loss Tip #2:
Eat breakfast daily. You would have gone hours without eating since the previous night, hence eating breakfast would not decrease your tendency to overeat later during the day.

Weight Loss Tip #3:
Have some snacks every 4 hours. You could have any snack: Oranges, Apples, Chips, String Cheese, Pretzels etc. Eat anything you want (in small quantities), just make sure you have something in your stomach at all times, you shouldn't feel hungry.

Weight Loss Tip #4:
Eat at regular intervals. Eating at odd irregular times would upset your whole diet. It is always advisable to maintain a specific schedule and always stick to it.

Weight Loss Tip #5:
Always know your portions: Half a cup of rice is about the size of your fist, one ounce of cheese is as much as a large marble; a three ounce serving of meat is the size of a deck of cards. Divide your plate into parts: Three fourths of it should be filled with vegetables, grains, beans and fruits while the other quarter should be extra-lean meat or low-fat dairy products.

Weight Loss Tip #6:
NEVER skip your meals. NEVER!
Skipping a meal might seem like cutting on calories but thats not the case. You are basically starving yourself which is very wrong. The next meal that you eat will be converted to pure fat. This will eventually cause you to gain weight rather than losing any.

Weight Loss Tip #7:
Drink A LOT of water. This is one of the most essential components of your diet plan. One glass of water every hour would do wonders to your body. It helps you eat lesser without making you feel hungry. The large amount of water intake also flushes out all the unwanted waste in your body and helps in digestion too. Drink atleast two to three litres of water daily.

Weight Loss Tip #8:
Eat slowly. Munch and chew every bite. Grind it to pieces before swallowing it. Generally when we're in a hurry, we just tend to swallow down whole chunks of food. We do not realise when we're full and when we're overeating. Eating slowly will not only give you satisfaction from every bite but you will also realise when to stop.

Weight Loss Tip #9:
Cut 100 calories a day from your diet. Replace your daily bar of chocolate with a banana or an orange. These 100 calories a day sum up to 1 pound a month. Just by giving up that one bar of chocolate, you can lose 1 pound of weight in one month!

Weight Loss Tip #10:
Buy pre-cut fruits and vegetables. You're more likely to munch on them as a snack or make a salad from them if they're already cut. You might feel lazy on one particular day and decide to wipe those veggies and fruits out for that one single day. However, if they're already cut, you'll feel like eating them.

Weight Loss Tip #11:
Go in for the less processed food. Its less fattening. For example: Potatoes versus chips, Whole Wheat Bread versus Doughnuts etc.

Weight Loss Tip #12:
Don't eat on auto-pilot. For example: Tasting the food you are cooking, Noshing from the serving bowl etc.

Weight Loss Tip #13:
Limit your alcohol intake. Limit it to only occasions. Alcohol is not only extremely fattening but also deteriorates your will power. Alcohol is also very harmful for your body in the long run. Try your best to limit your consumption, if not call it to quits.

Weight Loss Tip #14:
Don't do it alone. Get a friend or relative to go on a diet with you. In this way, both of you will inspire and push each other and keep going.

Weight Loss Tip #15:
Eat beans every now and then. Add a handful to your salads to curb your hunger pangs longer.
Sweeten your food with spice. use spices like cinnamon and vanilla to desserts instead of sugar. They're less fattening.

Weight Loss Tip #16:
Keep moving, Don't be a couch potato. Daily physical activity, like walking, along with healthy eating is key to long-term weight-loss success and maintenance. Once again, more is better.

Weight Loss Tip #17:
Make a strong start, Contrary to common wisdom that "slow and steady wins the race", weight loss is best, recent articles have found that dieters who lost weight quickly, lost more total weight and kept off more weight long-term. Researchers concluded that how well dieters do in the first 2-4 weeks predicts their success up to five years later.

Weight Loss Tip #18:
Fight your temptation. Don't break your whole diet plan just because of one outing with friends of family. Order just steamed veggies or maybe a grilled sandwich or even a soup and salad combo.

Weight Loss Tip #19:
Try introducing a herbal supplement in your diet to help curb your appetite and give you more energy as an alternative to overeating.

Weight Loss Tip #20:
The last and final tip: FOLLOW ALL THE ABOVE TIPS.

There are no hard and fast rules in this diet plan. If you notice, these are very easy methods and techniques that won't even make you feel like you're on a weight loss programme. Neither will you ever feel hungry nor will you have to undergo a monotonous, tasteless food intake. Its as interesting a diet as it gets.

---I love this article from this link.Whenever I browse through these simple steps, I readily feel more motivated to lose more weight and become more healthy. I think, it's a good summary of almost everything we need to do to lose weight. Go and try it too!

Lose Weight with Excercise

Why Exercise?

Regular physical activity is an absolute necessity when it comes to long-term weight loss success.

Dieting can cause muscle mass to be lost, while exercise increases it. Exercise and healthy eating will help you lose more weight than dieting alone since muscle burns more calories than fat. Because exercise speeds up your metabolism, you can cut fewer calories from your diet and still lose weight with regular moderate exercise.

The key to starting -- and sticking to -- a fitness regimen is choosing activities that you enjoy and look forward to. Long-term success also requires planning; the exercise habit doesn't form by accident.

Benefits of Exercise

The risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, osteoporosis, and many other health problems is lessened with regular physical activity. Some conditions, such as hypertension and type 2 diabetes, have a direct link to a sedentary lifestyle.

Regular exercise also brings more immediate benefits: It improves resistance to infections, joint flexibility, emotional well-being, energy and stress levels, and digestion. With continued, regular exercise, you will find that you will move easier, feel stronger, have better posture, and experience less chronic pain (if any at all).

Choose an Exercise

Walking
Walking is the ideal exercise for those of us with weight issues. Even if you're significantly overweight or obese, you can walk for weight loss. Begin today by simply walking to the end of your block, or even just to your mailbox and back. More people tend to stick with walking in the long run than any other form of exercise.

Invest in Equipment
Shop local thrift shops, classifieds, yard sales, and second-hand fitness stores. Stick with tried-and-true exercise equipment, such as exercise bikes or treadmills; resist the call of novelty equipment such as an "ab fat blaster." A step, resistance bands, or a set of hand weights, are also good investments for beginners.

Join a Gym
Gyms offer a wide variety of exercise methods, including cardio machines such as step machines, low-impact aerobic classes, weight-lifting, indoor cycling classes, kickboxing and step aerobics classes.

At Home
Options for working out indoors at homeinclude exercise videos or DVDs, doing exercises such as squats or push-ups, dancing, using a stationary bike, and using a step.

Before You Begin
The Surgeon General recommends that women over 50, men over 40, and those who have been sedentary for a long time see a doctor before beginning to exercise.

It's very important to start out slowly, particularly if you have been inactive for a while. If you do too much, too soon, you not only increase your risk of injury, you're more likely to get burnt-out. And that can lead you to give up exercise altogether.

Get Started

Why not start today? Aim for just 10 minutes of walking. Those 10 minutes can eventually become three 10-minute sessions a day; in time you will be able to work up to 30 consecutive minutes. Gradually increasing the duration will help your body become conditioned to regular exercise.

In time you can set a bigger goal, such as three 30- or 60-minute workouts, three days a week. (The World Health Organization currently recommends an hour of moderate activity most days of the week to maintain a healthy body weight.)

Remember, the most important part is to schedule your work out -- and then, just do it -- even if it's just that first 10-minute walk. That 10 minutes will make a difference!

--- I'm proud to say that I'm good at this, keeping myself moving! I actually bought myself a mini stair stepper so I can keep my butt moving even while I'm watching my favorite tv program with my family. I even do it twice a day, 30 minutes each time! Isn't that fun and cool at the same time?

The `fast' way to weight loss

-Article from www.indiatimes.com

KANPUR: Navratras are here and so is the practice of observing fast for nine days. An ancient practice, fasting doesn't involve any elaborate preparations - you just have to say no to food. And in this age of fitness it is a healthy weight-loss option too.

"The holy and spiritual atmosphere during the nine-day Navratra radiates positive vibes giving energy to the individual to follow the healthy diet plan," believes 27-year-old, Vandana Bhalla who has been observing fast during Navratra for the last decade, despite being a working woman.

She adds, "The appeal lies in the fact that it is a quick method for substantial weight loss. One tends to take a limited diet during this period surviving on fluids, juices and liquids."

A limited diet coupled with more fluid intake surely does wonders in removing the extra flab from the body and that too without much effort. If the health experts are to believed, the liquid and fruit diet during the Navratras helps in avoiding the thoughtless eating which is usually done in normal days. Non-cereal meal during fasting is a good method of reducing the weight.

However, there is a downside to this trend too. The girls observing fast and depriving themselves totally of food often land up at the doctor's with stomach pain or other problems.

On the other hand, keeping in view the preference of the customers for `satvik' food during the ongoing `Navratra', the city restaurants and sweet shops too are making efforts to lure their customers by arranging for no-onion and no-garlic food.

---Catholics also have this kind of practice called the Holy Week, right? And they are also encouraged to fast during those "holy days." But I don't think it's a very good way to losing weight. I tried fasting a lot of times during my younger days but I always end up having stomach problems. I lose much of the energy needed to do a good job at work and my mood is also not very good most of the time. I'd rather exercise than starve myself.

Weight Loss: Get a Buddy

Teaming up is more fun, and it may even help you shed more pounds.

There's no getting around it: The road to weight loss can be a bumpy one. But much like life's other journeys, the going can be smoother when you have someone to share the trip.

That's where a "diet buddy" comes in -- a partner who not only shares your weight loss and workout goals, but can help you navigate a kinder, gentler path to sveltesville. Many experts now say buddying up can make the difference between failure and success with any weight loss plan.

"Most people put all their effort into finding the right diet or exercise program but don't put any energy into creating a support and accountability system, and too often, that's where the devil lies," says Adam Shafran, DC, an exercise physiologist and chiropractor who is the author of You Can't Lose Weight Alone: The Partner Power Weight Loss Program.

Shafran, who also hosts Dr. Fitness and the Fat Guy, an Internet radio show focusing on weight loss, says people fail not necessarily because they're following a bad weight loss plan, but because they lack a good support system.

"It can be the deciding factor that makes a diet work -- or not work," say Shafran.

Some psychologists agree.

"In the realm of dieting, there is evidence that social support is a positive factor influencing weight loss," says Kenneth Schwarz, PhD, who with his wife, Julie Schwarz, wrote the book Maria's Last Diet: How to Break through the 15 Obstacles to Achieve Diet Success.

In research published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 2005, doctors at Brown Medical School and Dartmouth University found that people who had an exercise buddy who successfully lost weight were more successful at losing, too.

What Makes a Good Buddy

Most of us know what turns us on in a partner, and it's easy to count the virtues of our best friends. But if you're thinking of using these same guidelines to find a diet buddy, you could be making a mistake.

"You may have a partner or a best friend who you love dearly, but if you're still overweight and struggling to lose it, then clearly, that partnership, while perfect in other areas of your life, is not the right relationship to help you lose weight," says Joey Dweck, founder and CEO of DietBuddy.com, an online "match service" for those seeking weight loss partners.

As such, he says, seeking a diet buddy who has the same qualities you see in your partner or best friend may not be the ideal solution.

Experts say that sometimes, qualities you would never tolerate in a partner -- like holding you accountable for every bite you take -- could be the very qualities you need in a weight loss buddy.

The bottom line: "Choosing a diet partner, like choosing a diet, is a very personal matter," says Schwarz. Just as there is no one diet that's perfect for every person, Schwarz tells WebMD, there is no one type of diet buddy that is universally better than another.

Shafran agrees, "The truth is that even if we share the same goals, what it takes to get us there is different for every person. And that means every person needs something slightly different in a diet buddy."

So how do you figure out what you need? Look deep inside yourself and be brutally honest about what you need to get your weight loss mojo working, Dweck says.

Don't just focus on doing things together, Shafran says.

"Diet buddies are just two people who share a common goal and know they can count on each other to help them achieve that goal in whatever way it takes to do that," says Shafran.

For some, that may mean working out together or getting together to cook or swap recipes a couple times a week. For others, it can mean taking turns babysitting so that each of you can get to the gym separately.

Another consideration is mutual availability. Both partners should agree up front on how much time and energy they have to devote to the partnership, and discuss what they need from each other during that time.

Also important: The primary mode of contact and support. If you're constantly monitoring your email and need a buddy who's always there when you send out that Instant Message S.O.S., be sure you pick a buddy who is as computer-accessible as you. If what you really need is face-to-face contact, pick a buddy who has a similar need -- and the time to share.

"For some people, the anonymity of having an Internet buddy is the best solution. For others, it has to be someone who they can get together with for a Wednesday night weigh-in," says Shafran. "It doesn't matter, as long as both buddies want the same thing."

No matter what your mode of communication, it's important that buddies spend time listening to each other.

"It can be online in a chat; it can be on the phone; it can be in an email; or it can be in person, as long as there is some time that each of you can devote to listening and encouraging the other," says Dweck.

It's also important to recognize that encouragement comes in many different forms.

"For some people, it means hearing kind and supportive words; for others, it means having someone come by and literally drag them out of the house and to the gym," Dweck says. "As long as both buddies know what the other needs and expects, then they can be there for each other."

 The Buddy Contract

To help ensure that both you and your buddy get what you bargained for, consider writing up a "buddy contract" -- a document that spells out your mutual goals and the ways you plan to help each other achieve them.

Be sure to include both short-term goals ("I want to get to the gym three times a week and I need you to go with me") and long-term ones -- such as how much weight you'd like to lose, or how many miles you'd eventually like to walk each week.

"The goals should be firm, but the ways to accomplish them should be flexible, to accommodate what you learn about yourselves and each other along the way," says Shafran.

He suggests that both buddies keep a copy of the agreement and re-read it often, reminding each other of what you're each trying to accomplish.

At the same time, don't be afraid to call it quits when a diet buddy isn't working out. If you're not getting what you need, or if your buddy wants more than you can give, have a heart-to-heart chat about what's going wrong. If it can't be fixed, it's time to move on, Dweck says.

"The purpose of a diet buddy is to enhance the weight loss journey for both partners, and make it easier and more fun for each of you," he says. If that's not happening, there's no point in sticking it out.

At the same time, if your diet buddy partnership begins to blossom into a beautiful friendship -- experts say, "Go for it!"

Says Dweck, "You may find that you are building a lifelong friendship that continues on with mutual support for the rest of your lives."

---Yeah! I hope it's a lifelong thing for me and my boyfriend. He's trying to gain weight while I'm trying to gain some. Everytime I notice that there's so much food on my plate, I automatically reach for his plate and give him all of it. That's what we call teamwork.