8 Strategies to Stay Slim Forever: How to Maintain Weight in a World Hell-Bent on Making Us Fat

When I first moved to Los Angeles from Iran at 13, I was a scrawny little punk. This changed soon after I discovered Big Macs, Double Cheese Whoppers, one-pound bags of peanut M&Ms, Pringles potato chips, and boxes of Twinkies, scarfing them down in front of Knight Rider reruns. Soon, I was chubby — for the first time in my life. And, fortunately, for the last.

Then I read a magazine article that listed the amount of calories and fat in the junk I was devouring: for a Double Cheese Whopper from Burger King, it was something like 800 calories and 65 grams of fat. With the help of some scolding from my older sister, I got religion: I dropped all the junk food, joined the local YMCA swim team, and became one healthy sonofabitch. I’ve been trim since then, around 175 pounds (80kg) for the past 25 years or so at a height of 5’10” (177cm).

I never thought of trimness as much of a feat, attributing most of it to my excellent choice in parents, whose weight has been pretty stable their whole lives. But a few things I noticed recently made me think that perhaps I am doing something differently. After all, over 60% of Americans are now overweight. And my metabolism has slowed down significantly since I was a college athlete. And at my recent college reunion, about half…