Weight Loss & Diet Plans

Does Fear of Regaining Weight Keep You From Losing?

Losing Weight and Maintaining: Resolve Kicks In continued...

Sheri Nilsson lost 101 pounds. "I can't just go 'OK, I am done,''' she says. "If I want to have this body, I can't be one of those people who blows off the gym."

And they know that maintaining the loss will take constant vigilance. "This is my life now," says Nilsson, 41, of Louisville, Ky. of her healthier lifestyle habits. "That life [before the weight loss] wasn't as much fun as this one."

Linda Thacker, down 120 pounds, says: "It's sheer willpower and determination. I made this promise to myself and I'm keeping it."

Abramson, the California psychologist, remembers a poster he saw long ago at a health club. He believes it applies to weight maintenance. "Someone was running on a long road," he says. The road was seemingly endless. And on the bottom of the poster, it said: "There is no finish line."