With all the talk about getting extra weight off your body, there's a lot less being said about how to keep it off. Yet, if you think about it, weight maintenance is significantly more important and more difficult than losing weight.

"It is ironic that we focus on weight loss, when the real challenge is weight maintenance," says James Hill, the director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver and one of the founders of the National Weight Control Registry, an ongoing study of more than 4,000 individuals who have lost significant weight and kept it off.

So why don't we pay more attention to the most important aspect of weight control?

"Weight maintenance is just not as sexy. No scale moves, no dramatic 'before-and-after' experiences; it's a routine and, as a result, can be boring," says Suzanne Phelan, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown Medical School in Providence, R.I.

"There are fewer strategies that work for weight maintenance," says Phelan.

The good news is that it's not as difficult as you might think to maintain the loss. The concept that only 2 percent can actually maintain their weight loss is based on studies that are decades old. "About 20 percent of people in the general population are successful at long-term weight maintenance."

So what do you do after the fat is gone? Learn the techniques that other successful weight-loss maintainers follow:

AVOID URGE TO INDULGE

Does this sounds familiar? After losing those pounds you suddenly feel that, magically, your body has changed. You indulge, and the diet you had been on is now ancient history because all along you knew you could never live on that diet for the rest of your life. Weight control is a forever process, so you need to create practices you can live with — forever.

KEEP YOUR PANTS ON

Almost all successful weight-loss maintainers have some kind of "5-pound warning system" — a way of measuring and/or monitoring their weight before it gets out of control. It could be something as simple as keeping a "thin" pair of pants or a dress they try on periodically instead of getting on the scale, but they all have some way of knowing if they are slipping and a backup plan they can put into action.

WALK

Your body burns fewer calories as you lose weight. Walking or other physical activities, keep your calorie-burning capacity high. Walking is easy to do and easy to maintain no matter where you are. According to the National Weight Control Registry, 77 percent of successful losers use walking as their primary means of physical activity. They do some combination of physical activity for at least one hour per day.

Look for parks, paths and trails in your area. Even your neighborhood sidewalks can be perfect, and on rainy or cold days, malls can be converted into indoor tracks. Scope out scenic paths to keep motivated. Also make arrangements to walk with friends, family or co-workers — socializing helps get you there and adds to the fun.

MAKE IT AUTOMATIC

Successful maintainers have figured out ways to make their behaviors and choices second nature. It's based on the concept of automaticity — the subconscious ways we perform daily behaviors. Activities like setting your alarm clock at night, putting on your shoes before leaving the house and remembering how to drive to work do not require much thought. The idea is to apply the same principle to your diet. Set yourself up so that you don't have to think about your diet by coming up with very practical, "doable" changes. Keep doing them until they become like brushing your teeth.

KEEP IT CONSISTENT

According to research at Brown University Medical School, a major predictor of successful weight maintenance is dietary consistency. This means that those who maintain the same diet regimen across the week and year are more likely to maintain their weight loss over the next year than those who diet more strictly on weekdays and/or during non-holiday periods. That means there are no breaks, so make sure you choose your new behaviors carefully.

EASIER OVER TIME

According to Phelan, research has shown, "Once you've lost weight and maintained it for more than a few years, weight maintenance gets easier over time."

LOW-CALORIE DIET

Research from the National Weight Control Registry indicates that successful losers eat a low-calorie, low-fat diet, not a low-carb diet. And successful dieters eat breakfast each morning, most likely preventing them from overeating during the rest of the day.

Charles Stuart Platkin is a nutrition and public-health advocate. Write to info@thedietdetective.com.