Weight Loss: What Really Works!: Weight Loss Winners Share Their Secrets

The result of 6,000 letters received from readers of Prevention in response to the question ``How did you lose weight--and keep it off?,'' this book calls on the experiences of ``the biggest informal research group we'd ever heard from'' to offer moral support and specific advice to other potential readers. Some of the advice: take exercise regularly, especially walking, and particularly right after meals; eat many small meals each day, rather than three large ones, avoiding red meat and sweets, and concentrating instead on vegetarian offerings; learn how to read food labels so you won't be duped by the apparently nutritive. And pursue variety to avoid the oppression sometimes induced by a virtuous regimen. The book invites reader participation with quizzes and informal testimonials: ``Boredom was my excuse for avoiding the NordicTrack machine in the basement,'' confesses a dieter in Newark, Del., who solved her problem by drawing a ``snowy woodland scene'' as a mural on the basement wall. Friendly, hopeful and pragmatic, the volume is likely to give help to those who need it. (Jan.)