<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" If you want to drop five pounds in time for a New Year&amp;#039;s party, a crash diet might do. But to shed 20, 40 or more pounds, you need a plan for the long haul \u2014 and a few proven strategies that will keep up your momentum. To find those tricks, we talked to the trade: the country&amp;#039;s most successful weight-loss centers, where up to 70 percent of participants lose big and maintain their new weight for at least a year. Though these clinics agree on the basics (eat less, exercise more, and learn to handle stress without your pals Ben and Jerry), their experts take different approaches to big-number weight loss. (Some encourage controlled snacking, for instance, while others forbid it.) So pick the tips that make sense for you. These are some of the slimming secrets that spa guests pay thousands of dollars to learn. Mark Your Success in Stages The spa: Duke University Diet and Fitness Center, Durham, North Carolina The strategy: Lose 10 percent of your weight initially, maintain that level for one to three months, then start on the next 10 percent. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s daunting to attempt to lose 40 or 50 pounds,&amp;quot; health psychologist Patricia Esperon says. &amp;quot;That&amp;#039;s why we suggest dropping them in stages.&amp;quot; If you weigh 160 pounds, shoot for losing 16 over the course of about four months. Then wait a few months before working on the next 10 percent, and so on. &amp;quot;This is really successful for people who have a history of losing and regaining weight,&amp;quot; Esperon says. If you feel that family and friends unwittingly sabotage your diet (a common problem), write them a letter asking for support. Point out behaviors that drive you to cheat \u2014 like constantly asking you how much you&amp;#039;ve lost. Duke&amp;#039;s sample letter puts it this way: &amp;quot;You may feel that your questions about my weight are supportive, but I might take them as pressure and feel frustrated when I can&amp;#039;t report better numbers every time you ask.&amp;quot; Stop Eating Before You&amp;#039;re Stuffed The spa: Green Mountain at Fox Run, Ludlow, Vermont The strategy: Don&amp;#039;t avoid food until you&amp;#039;re &amp;quot;starving&amp;quot; \u2014 it sets you up for overeating. &amp;quot;Many people who struggle with their weight walk around with a low-level hunger that keeps them focused on food all day,&amp;quot; says Marsha Hudnall, nutrition director. &amp;quot;Then, when they finally indulge, they eat a lot, quickly, and often make the wrong choices.&amp;quot; To break this habit, Green Mountain encourages clients to eat every three to five hours; between meals, they&amp;#039;re served light snacks such as fruit-and-yogurt sundaes, celery sticks with peanut butter or unshelled peanuts. Before a meal, they rate their hunger on a scale (with one being &amp;quot;starving,&amp;quot; six being &amp;quot;full&amp;quot; and eight being &amp;quot;so full, you&amp;#039;re distended&amp;quot;). And they practice recognizing the signs that indicate they&amp;#039;re satisfied. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ll serve a delicious turkey wrap with yogurt spread, apples, pecans and shredded lettuce for lunch,&amp;quot; Hudnall says. &amp;quot;When we&amp;#039;re done, I ask clients to sit and think about how they feel. If, after five minutes, they&amp;#039;re still hungry, they can eat a small piece of bread or fruit.&amp;quot; The goal is to learn to eat only when you feel a grumbling in your stomach and to stop once you&amp;#039;re comfortably full and the food stops tasting delicious. Fed up with calorie counting? Hudnall recommends dividing dinner plates into thirds: protein (3 to 4 ounces of fish, lean meat, dairy products); grains and starchy vegetables (bread, rice, pasta, corn, winter squash, green peas, beans); and the rest fruits and other vegetables. One satisfying trio that Green Mountain guests love: broccoli (1 cup), couscous (1/2 cup), and this simple maple-glazed salmon from the spa&amp;#039;s cookbook, Recipes for Living:  1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon lemon juice 2 tablespoons light soy sauce 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard 1/2 teaspoon minced gingerroot if desired 1 1/4-pound salmon fillet 2 tablespoons thinly sliced scallions  Mix all ingredients except salmon and scallions. Cut salmon into 4 serving pieces and place in shallow dish. Drizzle marinade over fish, reserving about 1/4 cup marinade to serve over cooked fish. Refrigerate fish about 30 minutes. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Place fish in baking dish; set aside marinade. Bake 15 to 20 minutes, basting occasionally with marinade, until fish flakes easily with fork. To serve, drizzle reserved 1/4 cup marinade over fish; top with scallions. Serves 4. Get Off Temptation Island The spa: Structure House, Durham, North Carolina The strategy: Eat three healthy meals per day \u2014 at the same time each day \u2014 and cut out snacks. &amp;quot;Regular snacking can &amp;#039;program&amp;#039; you to feel hunger at certain times,&amp;quot; warns clinical director Lee Kern. Have breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the same hour every day, and you&amp;#039;ll lose weight, he says. But if you usually munch on candy or chips at 3 p.m., you&amp;#039;ve trained yourself to feel a mid-afternoon craving \u2014 and snacking may get out of hand. Still have cravings? You may be feeling psychological hunger \u2014 for comfort, entertainment, or stress relief, rather than for nourishment. Even if you stick to the three-square-meals plan, there will still be pitfalls, such as restaurant eating. To stop yourself from ordering the burger-of-the-day, don&amp;#039;t even open the menu, Kern advises. If your favorite restaurant serves grilled fish and a green salad, order that without looking at the other choices. If you&amp;#039;re going to a new place, pick up a takeout menu in advance to check the options. In grocery stores, shop the perimeters (produce, dairy, etc.), where the food is fresh rather than packaged and high in calories. Bonus: Stick to the edges, and you&amp;#039;ll never see the cookie aisle again. Make Low-Fat Luscious The spa: Golden Door, Escondido, California The strategy: Turn low-calorie food into appealing fare by adding colors and focusing on the taste, says Michel Stroot, longtime executive chef. Because meat and fish cooked with minimal fat can dry out, serve them with a moist condiment, such as grilled onions on burgers or, for salmon, a yogurt-dill sauce (made with 1/2 cup nonfat yogurt, 1 teaspoon horseradish, and 1 teaspoon minced dill). If you&amp;#039;re a texture lover, fend off your potato-chip cravings by baking crunchy tortilla chips: Lightly spray cut-up 6-inch whole wheat or corn tortillas with vegetable oil; toast for 15 minutes at 375 degrees F until golden. Sixty calories per serving of 6 chips. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/advice/a16096/advice-weight-loss-tips-0102/>