How do you actually control your weight?

How do you actually control your weight? Everybody knows it's diet and exercise, right? But what that axiom means morphs over time and is so different from person to person.

The latest studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that all those fancy diets that are all about controlling this or that in your food intake may have it all wrong. The only thing that matters is how many calories you consume, in spite of all the claims by all the diet people about eat this, not that.

In other words, the studies in JAMA are saying that portion control leading to reduced overall caloric intake is really the only thing that matters.

Adding another wrinkle to this confusing question, I was reading in The New York Times that if you lose weight and want to maintain your new, lower weight, you will need to take in fewer calories than someone of equal weight who never had a weight problem before. Imagine that!

Looks like calories are front and center to controlling what you weigh, period.

On portion control, when I travel around the world, everywhere else I go offers smaller portions than here in the United States. The plate the food is served on may be giant, but the portions themselves are small.

For example, I was in an Italian restaurant in Europe and I watched a family get a "family size" portion of lasagna to feed four people. But the portion looked so small to me! That's when I realized it was about the same size that you would get here in the United States for one person.

On a related note, I lift weights three times a week at the YMCA. Around this time of year, there's no space in the parking lot to even pull in because everybody is there with their new year's resolutions to get fit. I had to spend an extra 15 minutes when I finally did get in the gym because there were so many extra people using the equipment. Yet as one of the regulars said to me, "Just wait until February and they'll be gone."

If you have a new year's resolution to get fit, I suggest you get a buddy who can motivate you to stick to an exercise regimen. And never sign a gym contract!