Strict dieting regimes can bring you instant weight loss but these practices are just useless if you wish to control your weight permanently. According to researchers, to keep your weight in control throughout, it is important to maintain a stable weight initially and then begin a reasonable diet plan.

In a nutshell, before going onto a crash diet, it is important to maintain a stable weight with a bit of exercising and diet plan. This would help you stay slim and in shape for long term.

People who start with dieting are unable to maintain their body shape and weight for longer periods of time because they keep swinging between different measurements.

To carry out this research, researchers from Stanford University analyzed 267 overweight or obese women by dividing them into two groups. The first group was asked to immediately begin a 20-week weight loss course, and the other was assigned an eight weeks weight loss program with simple and easy weight maintenance techniques. This group was allowed to occasionally snack on unhealthy food items and was told to exercise more before a holiday. Checking weight daily was compulsory and the target was neither to lose nor gain weight more than five pounds overall.

As a result women from both the groups lost around 17lb during the research but those in the later group lost 7lb in next 12 months whereas the former group women lost just 3lb.