It's not enough to eat healthy foods and exercise for just a few weeks or months. To keep off extra weight, you should make these healthy changes a way of life. Lifestyle changes start with taking an honest look at your eating patterns and daily routine.

The Mayo Clinic Diet provides a choice of five different eating styles at several calorie levels. Whether you would like to follow the Mayo Clinic Diet meal plan, are vegetarian or prefer the Mediterranean eating style, you will find an abundance of recipes and meals that won't leave you hungry.

Protein and nutrition take center stage Eating adequate protein and getting all the nutrients you need will set you up for success with healthy weight loss. Here’s how

Sports Medicine 2021: The effect of resistance training in healthy adults on body fat percentage, fat mass and visceral fat: A systematic review and meta-analysis [systematic review of randomized trials; strong evidence] ↩

Losing weight can actually slow down our metabolism a bit (think: a permanent weight loss smaller body requires less energy to heat than a larger one).

It's up to you to make the changes that lead to long-term weight loss. But it helps to have support from others. Pick people who will inspire you. They should never shame you or get in the way of your progress.

A systematic review of randomized controlled trials found that higher-protein diets tend to promote weight loss, due in part to reducing hunger and increasing satiety:

Eating a recommended amount of protein is essential to help preserve muscle mass while losing weight.

However, if you aren't used to having fiber in your diet, you may experience minor, temporary changes in digestion, such as intestinal gas, as your body adjusts to this new way of eating.

Thermic effect of food (the energy it takes to digest what we eat)Non-exercise activity thermogenesis (think of walking to work or going up the stairs)

We are all emotional human beings with cravings and specific likes and dislikes. Our way of eating should match those patterns if we hope to have long-term success.

Getting less than 6 hours of sleep a night can increase a person’s risk of being overweight or obese.

To support your weight-loss journey, the Mayo Clinic Diet also makes available electronic tools, such as a food and exercise journal and a weight tracker, to help you stick with the program.

The Mayo Clinic Diet is a lifestyle approach to weight loss that can help you maintain a healthy weight for a lifetime.