Secrets of Long-Term Weight Loss

Long-Term Loss

The weight loss many people diagnosed with diabetes are encouraged to make can provide a wide range of benefits -- improved heart and blood-circulation health, perhaps fewer medications, and simply feeling better. For those at risk for type 2 diabetes, weight loss of 5 percent to 7 percent of body weight (depending on your starting weight, that could be just 10-20 pounds) reduces the risk of being diagnosed with diabetes.

To keep the weight off, tilt the odds in your favor by using the proven techniques of men and women who are successful losers, including those involved with the National Weight Control Registry.

Imagine losing 30 pounds and keeping it off. Impossible, you say? More than 5,000 members of the National Weight Control Registry have done just that, and they've shared their long-term weight-loss tips with Diabetic Living.

Established in 1994 by researchers Rena Wing, Ph.D., (Brown Medical School) and James O. Hill, Ph.D., (the University of Colorado), the National Weight Control Registry monitors the eating and lifestyle habits of people who have lost 30 pounds or more and have kept it off for at least one year.