Here are the final steps in creating a successful strategy that will allow you to stick to your balanced healthy diet and lose weight.

Healthy Weight Loss Tips, Step 5: Identify barriers

"There are going to be crises, external influences, times you have to eat Grandma's cookies," Neuhauser says. You'll have days when you can't exercise and days when you'll be tempted by holiday meals, and because you're tracking your progress, you'll be able to detect which events actually cause weight gain.

"Overwhelming evidence from many areas, including substance-abuse research, shows that situations trigger relapses," Alemi says. "You need to find out which situations make you return to old habits." Once you're aware that working late makes you too tired to exercise, for example, you can test strategies for leaving work on time. If you blow your balanced healthy diet because you dine out with friends who always order too much, try hosting takeout at your house and make sure you order healthy foods.

Healthy Weight Loss Tips, Step 6: Build a support team

Some people lose weight with the help of a diet buddy, but for the best chance of success, you need the support of people whose decisions will affect your efforts.

"When you make systemwide changes, your actions affect many people," Alemi says. "If you plan to lose weight by changing your food-shopping, cooking habits and strategy for a balanced healthy diet, then everyone at home will be affected. You're better off to engage them from the start."

Start by educating these friends and family members about weight loss in general (including what lifestyle changes are necessary) and your goals in particular with regard to a healthy weight loss, then involve them in your daily experiments. "The whole group needs to agree to rely on the data," Alemie says. As results of your changes come in, including new, healthier habits, share them with the group.

After all, when you finally do solve your weight problem, these people are the ones who will help you celebrate your success. They may even thank you for helping them, too.