Want to keep lost pounds from finding their way home again? Try these five simple rules:

1. Weigh in daily. Sure, it can be depressing to watch your weight fluctuate with every hormonal swing or salty meal. That's why many commercial weight loss programs discourage you from stepping on the scale every day — they don't want you to get frustrated and throw in the towel. But according to a study reported in the December 2005 issue of Annals of Behavioral Medicine, "higher weighing frequency was associated with greater 24-month weight loss or less weight gain." In other words, dieters who got on the scale every day were more likely to lose weight and keep it off than those who weighed in less frequently. Why? The study's authors hypothesize that the frequent feedback made it easier for dieters to correct small weight gains before they could turn into major ones.

2. Have a meal plan. When you were dieting, you knew what you were going to eat for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. But now that you're just trying to maintain your current weight, do you need to be so rigid? Absolutely! If you go back to eating the way you did before you started dieting, you can expect your weight to rebound too. Figure out your current caloric needs and design a maintenance plan with fixed breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner selections.

3. Exercise. The downside to losing weight is that your resting metabolic rate is lower than it was before your diet. This isn't because you've wrecked your metabolism — it's just that it takes fewer calories to maintain your new, lower weight. Cranking up your daily energy expenditure with regular aerobic workouts will give you a little more wiggle room in your diet.