Q: Hey Mike, I am the new mom from 2774. My diet is varied. The 1500-1700 calories I eat daily are based on a weight watcher point system. Here's the whole picture though. I weighed about 234 when my son was born 8/8. I lost 30 lbs by 9/24/08. From that point, I have lost 15 lbs by Thanksgiving, where I have been holding steady over the holidays, (no effort to work out). I am currently weighing 189 lbs. My goal is 160-165 by June 1st. To shake things up, I have started a cycling class and am continuing with the Weight Watchers. What other tips do you suggest to help me get this off?

A: Congrats on your already achieved weight loss and great job with your dedication! As you get into better and better shape you'll start noticing that it will become harder and harder to keep losing weight. When you were very overweight your body was happy to start losing weight and fat as long as you didn't overeat. But now, from your body's perspective losing weight may not be necessary so you will need to do a lot more little things right.

Weight Watchers is not a bad program but it still allows you too much choice in exactly what you eat. I would be less strict in the amount of calories, but much more strict in the choice of foods. So as I mentioned in http://www.mikesfitness.com/content/want-to-lose-25-lbs-but-scale-hasnt-... I'd need to see your detailed daily diet to give you specific suggestions. For general guidelines about what to eat you can also read my Nutrition article.

As far as weight training, make sure you exercise your whole body with freeweights as much as possible and not just arms and shoulders with some leg machines. That means that most of your time should be spent on exercises such as squats, lunges, deadlifts, rows, presses and pullups/pulldowns. If you are not sure what some of those are, make sure to read my Weight Training article and see exercise videos on Essential Exercises page. The weight training article will also have some sample programs that you can take up for weight training.