(NECN) - Many people know the drill - crash dieting to losing a few pounds, just to gain it back within a month.
For those looking to lose some weight for good, Dr. George Blackburn may have the answers.
The director of the Center for the Study of Nutrition Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School has written some books on the puzzling topic of weight loss.
Dr. Blackburn recommends dieters to follow the 10 percent rule. Try to lower your body weight by that percentage and then stop losing for a while. Fight instead to keep off just that amount. So if you weigh 180 pounds, aim to lose 18 pounds in the next three to six months. If you weigh 220, your goal might be to drop 22 pounds. Stay at that level for at least six months to give your body a chance to adjust to its new, lower "set point."
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The set point is the weight that the body has established as normal, and the body has mechanisms that fight to return to that weight.
Dr. Blackburn's research and other studies show that dropping as little as 10 percent lowers blood pressure, cholesterol and the risk of diabetes.
Blackburn outlines his ideas in "Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off". The book is based on his research with 12,000 to 16,000 overweight or obese patients over the past 30 years.
He is also the author of "Break Through Your Set Point: How to Finally Lose the Weight You Want and Keep It Off".
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