Fighting The Pound Rebound

(CBS News: Shape Up) - Why do so many dieters inevitably regain lost weight?

Studies show that most people (if not all) put the pounds back on after 4 or 5 years.

Elisa Zied, registered dietician and spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, speaks from personal experience, after losing 30 pounds over the years.

She tells The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith, "People have a problem losing weight and keeping it off for many reasons. Mainly, what happens when you diet and reduce your calories dramatically, you lose weight and your metabolism slows. That means your body requires fewer calories to maintain a reduced body weight. But also, a lot of programs and diet books set us up for failure because they make us restrict food groups or eliminate them altogether and make us eat so differently than what we’re used to and it’s hard to sustain that long-term.”

Researchers from the National Weight Control Registry (a study of men and women who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least a year) say most success stories had the following things in common:

- Vigorous exercise weekly

- Low-calorie and low-fat intake

- Healthy breakfast

- Monitored weight

Zied explains how to control, the dreaded, "pound rebound":

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