Lose Weight for Good

Pride. A sense of mischief. Or the need to remember just how far her diets and weight loss have come. Every once in a while, something inspires hairdresser Karen Brown, 39, to line up her "before" pictures beside her scissors, combs, and blow-dryer at the Vermillion Hair Salon in Centennial, Colo.

"When I was 29, I weighed nearly 195 pounds—and I'm only 5 feet 3 inches tall," says Brown, who is now a svelte 124. "I have four kids, and with each pregnancy I gained another 20 pounds that never came off. I wore those baggy, no-size clothes all the time. And I tried everything: the grapefruit diet, the Hollywood diet, the stewardess diet, the cabbage soup diet, diet shakes. Nothing worked."

For this survivor of the diets war, the answer was do-it-yourself—a crazy quilt of strategies custom-fit to her personality. "I worked out for an hour and a half five days a week with a friend. I reduced calories but didn't restrict my food choices. No food was off-limits; I just kept portion sizes in check. And I made it a very positive thing: What can I have today, what can I do today, what can I be today? That's what I told myself.

Brown's experiences and insights track perfectly with weight loss research findings from the past year or two that have turned nearly everything we thought we knew about what really works—and why—on its head. "All diets work," Brown says. "Whether you can maintain after you've reached your goal is another story. If not, you've got to wonder if it's the right thing."

Not too long ago, the idea that Brown could eat anything she wanted and still lose weight would've had weight loss experts guffawing. The "proper diet" was hotly debated by advocates of the low-carb, high-protein Atkins diet; the low-fat, high-carb American Heart Association diet; and other versions of these diets. "There was a war coming from the low-fat side," says psychologist Thomas A. Wadden, Ph.D., director of the Weight and Eating Disorders Program at the University of Pennsylvania. "Atkins felt denigrated and misunderstood."

Now the dust has settled. Major studies have left many weight loss experts surprised and chagrined. For those scoring at home, the research revealed that all the diets deliver about the same amount of weight loss, and no single plan was significantly more healthy—or unhealthy—than the rest.

Winning your diet war

But there's more to report. Cutting-edge diet research is full of hope and creative solutions for the most intractable weight loss dilemmas, from a simple way to fill up for 800 fewer calories a day to a food formula that sidesteps the metabolic slump that dooms many diets. One amazing study even suggests that eating the right foods could cut your weight by 10 pounds or more in a year—without dieting.

But just as not all calories are created equal, neither are all dieters. As Karen Brown discovered, weight loss finally works when it fits your personality, your lifestyle, and your taste in food. That's why we've presented these new weight loss success strategies cafeteria-style—so you can pick and choose to create your own perfect plan.

Feel full on less

Several new studies show that choosing "smart calories" gives you a definite weight loss advantage. These foods won't erase the excesses of a Big Mac and large fries, but they could help you stay on the weight loss path. "We're seeing suggestions that maybe not all diets work the same," says Gary Foster, Ph.D., director of the Center for Obesity Research and Education at Temple University in Philadelphia.* "By choosing different types of carbs, fats, and protein—and the proportions of each—you can get different effects." Three intelligent calorie strategies:

Eat nuts, lose more weight

When 52 overweight women and men followed a 1,000-calories-a-day diet for 24 weeks, those who ate almonds at meals and snack time lost 18 percent of their body weight, while those whose treats were carbohydrate-based (wheat crackers, baked potato, air-popped popcorn) lost just 11 percent. The waistlines of the nut eaters were whittled by 14 percent; the carb snackers, 9 percent. Researchers from the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif., suspect that the protein, fat, and fiber in almonds keep you feeling full longer—and that not all the calories in almonds are absorbed thanks to the tough cell walls of these nuts.

Try this: Walnuts, pecans, unsalted peanuts, and other nuts should have similar effects—they're packed with fiber and good fats, too. Have a handful (no more—they're also high in calories) in place of your usual midmorning or afternoon snack.

Pounds lost: 50

"I eat much more than I ever have before," says Neuzil. Strange talk for a successful dieter, but Neuzil used to skip meals. Now she eats all day, snacking on cheese between meals that deliver more protein. "I feel much more satisfied."

Fool your stomach. Pennsylvania State University nutrition expert Barbara Rolls, Ph.D., found in one ingenious study that secretly reducing the calorie density of food—by preparing mac and cheese with less butter and cheese, for example, or adding more veggies and less cheese to pizza—cut 544 calories a day from the diets of 24 young women ages 19 to 35, and they never noticed the difference. Trimming portions sliced away an additional 256 calories a day. "Saving 800 calories a day is enormous," says Rolls, author of the book The Volumetrics Eating Plan.

"We eat roughly the same volume of food every day or so," she says. "If you can reduce the calories by focusing on water-dense fruits and vegetables, you can keep the volume high and feel satisfied. Your stomach senses food volume—it has stretch receptors and pressure sensors."

Try this: Start meals with a big salad—lots of veggies, no croutons or creamy dressing; have double portions of fruit and veggies at meals and skip or cut back on calorie-dense starches, fats, and fatty meats. Opt for a fruit dessert, with a dab of sorbet or ice cream for flavor.