We are pumped to share one of our fave stories from Shape here on FitSugar. This week Shape turns to dietitian Cynthia Sass.

If I told a client she wasn’t supposed to lose any weight for the first two months of a weight-loss program, she’d probably go find another nutritionist. But that may be the secret to not only dropping a dress size but also keeping those pounds off for life.

In a new study by Stanford scientists, more than 260 overweight to obese women were split into two groups: One immediately began a 20-week weight-loss plan that involved eating more fruits and veggies, being more active, keeping daily food journals, and attending weekly support meetings. Once this part of the program was completed, they spent eight more weeks focusing on weight maintenance tactics.

RELATED: Don’t let holiday indulgences derail your diet. Have your happiest and healthiest holiday’s yet with these handy kitchen gadgets.

The other group was asked to refrain from losing any weight the first eight weeks while they learned those maintenance lessons. Only after those two months did these women began the identical 20-week weight-loss program.

In the end, both groups lost about the same amount of weight-an average 17 pounds, roughly 9 percent of their starting weights. But there was a big difference a year later: Those who lost weight first regained seven pounds, more than twice as much as the women who started by mastering the maintenance tricks.

See what Cynthia thought of these results after the break!
weight loss
FitSugar