Help! I gained 50 pounds during my pregnancy with my son and have been faithfully working out three to five times a week since he turned nine months old. I have to lose 10 pounds, and I am a hopeless dieter -- I feel like I have no willpower to stay on a diet. I now weigh 142 pounds. Any help would be very appreciated.

Have you ever played with a yo-yo and watched the disc move up and down, up and down on the string? Well, like most chronic dieters, you're experiencing a similar up-and-down in your weight as a result of your endless cycle of crash diets. Dieting slows your metabolism, deprives you of valuable nutrients and leaves you feeling dehydrated and mentally unfocused. The result is often cravings or, as you put it, loss of willpower.

It's time for you to stop dieting and get yourself back in balance. To do this you've got to start eating sanely and sensibly -- that means developing some healthy eating habits. Here are a few basic tips:

• Start by figuring out how many calories you need to eat and burn off a day to lose one pound a week. You'll first figure out your basal metabolic rate (BMR), the minimum number of calories your body needs to function. We're going to have to do a little bit of arithmetic, so grab a calculator:
  1. To find your BMR, multiply your body weight by 15 (142 x 15 = 2130)
  2. Multiply the number of minutes a day you do moderate activity by 3.5 (or by 5.5 if the activity you do is typically high intensity). (30 minutes x 3.5 = 105)
  3. Add the number from step 2 to your BMR. This is the total number of calories needed to maintain your weight. (2130 + 105 = 2235)
  4. Since your goal is weight loss, reduce your daily caloric intake to 500 calories a day below that number or increase your activity level by 500 calories a day to average a one-pound weight loss each week.
• Try to balance your calorie intake throughout the entire day. If you have cravings in the late afternoons, you may not be eating enough earlier in the day. Eat five to six small meals throughout the day, starting with a satisfying breakfast.
• Eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day to help keep your calorie count low and your fiber intake high. Also aim to eat a variety of different foods, concentrating on foods that are as close to their natural state as possible. For example: apple, good; applesauce, okay; apple pie, no.
• Know this: Sugar-free (and fat-free) does not mean calorie-free. Those "free" foods often have two to three times the calories of the real thing. Plus the taste is usually a disappointment.
• Drink 8-10 glasses of water a day to help you feel full and to prevent dehydration.
• Keep a food log for at least three days, then review it carefully. Writing down what and when you eat will help isolate eating patterns and problem spots. For instance, you may discover that the buttered muffin and coffee with cream you've been bolting down every morning leaves you feeling unsatisfied, adds hundreds of calories to your total intake and gives you virtually no nutritional bang for your buck.
• Have your food diary analyzed by a registered dietitian. She'll help you understand your eating habits and offer plenty of strategies for improving them.
• Don't completely cut yourself off from your hot-button foods. You're going to crack sooner or later. Allow yourself a little indulgence, but limit the amount and the frequency. For example, if you can't resist eating your mother-in-law's famous chocolate cake that's served at Sunday dinner, cut back your desserts during the rest of the week.
• Work out aerobically 20-60 minutes, five to seven days per week. Aerobic activities such as cycling, walking, running, stair climbing on the stair machine at the gym and swimming all burn tons of calories and help rev up your metabolism.
• Adding 2-3 days of weight training is essential for weight loss because it builds calorie-burning muscle tissue. Aim for 8-15 repetitions per exercise using a weight that challenges you but still allows you to maintain good form. If you can do more than 15 reps with a weight and the exercise still feels kind of easy, then the weight is definitely too light.

That's about it. Notice we didn't give you a bunch of food-specific rules to follow. And we didn't recommend restricting your calorie count to the point of deprivation or exercising your life away. Experiment and customize your diet until you strike the right balance of taste, nutrition and convenience. Once you create an eating plan that you can live with, you won't have to obsess over every morsel you put in your mouth.

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