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Brian Wansink, Ph.D., and Author of "Mindless Eating"

That's Fit: In your book, you mention calorie-compensation, a phenomenon that can occur when people exercise to "make up" for the calories they burned, by eating more. How can you avoid it?

Wansink: One of the biggest things that causes diets to initially fail -- just initially, not over the long run -- ends up being compensation. Some of that is compensation related to exercise, the other part is compensation related to rewarding yourself for having eating a healthy lunch or for not having eaten a dessert. If you're rewarding yourself for not snacking, you may compensate by eating a larger dinner. In terms of compensation related to exercise, it's due to two things. First of all, people grossly overestimate the number of calories they burn when they exercise. They can exercise for a couple of hours and eat a Snicker's bar and erase that in a minute. The second thing is they psychologically want to reward themselves for having gone through the inconvenience and efforts of exercise.

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Diet Derailers of the Stars(click thumbnails to view gallery)

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Weekends are for letting your hair down, de-stressing, relaxing and gosh darn it, cutting loose. You've worked hard all week. That's cause for celebration. Dinner out. Drinks out. Time on the couch. With the remote. And a bag of chips. Hey, indulgent laziness on two of your seven days of the week won't hurt. Or will it?

Weekends can definitely derail a diet, says RealAge. So much so that you can rack up nine pounds per year because of your off-days. Apparently, most folks on diets or following exercise routines drop out of the race on weekends and actually gain weight. Now a bad day here and there won't kill an otherwise healthy lifestyle. It's when weekend wine and cheese and Sunday buffets become commonplace that the flab starts sticking around.

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I'm not sure how I survived my younger years as a fast-food customer without gaining tons of weight. Maybe my high school and college drive-through ventures weren't frequent enough. Or my metabolism was way high. Or I was just plain lucky. Because there's no doubt about it: McDonald's and Taco Bell, my two favorites back then, are not known for their low-cal, low-fat menus. Which makes take-out locations like these pretty darn successful at wrecking a good diet.

Even if you eat small at McDonald's, like I did -- one hamburger, one order of fries (actually, make that a large) and one diet drink -- you're looking at least 750 calories and more than 30 grams of fat. At the Bell, my Taco Supreme alone costs 220 calories and 14 grams of fat. Funny thing: That one taco never filled me up, and my second order only made things worse.

I'm a cold-turkey kind of girl. It just works for me. No more sweets -- they give me headaches (and extra weight too). And no more fast food. You might not operate this way. That's OK, say the experts at America Takes It Off. It's perfectly fine to enjoy your favorites, even if they are slung out a sliding window as you cruise by in your car. Here, a few tips for getting your fast-food fix, without derailing your diet entirely.

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I have mixed emotions about New Year's resolutions. Sure, they can be great and all. I mean, who can argue that resolving to clean up your diet and fine-tune your fitness are not good ideas? I guess I'm with Karla, though -- resolutions should not be tied to the calendar (read: January 1), and they should not be short-lived, as so many of them are. Resolutions should be made on any old day of the year (I resolved to change my diet and exercise routine one year in May, as good a month as any), and they should be viewed as life-long, life-changing tweaks. Treat them as fleeting brand-new-year intentions, my friends, and what you've got is the potential for a major diet derailer.

Think of the typical New Year's weight-loss and fitness resolutions like you would a crash diet. They come on fast, deliver some swift success, then taper off, leaving life to return to its usual pattern, which often includes bags of chips, cookies, Coke and lots of channel surfing. Nothing like a set-back of this nature to send you back for another Snickers bar and another dose of diet depression.

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Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

Cashews were derailing my diet. Seriously. Without cashews, I normally weigh about 133 in the morning and 136 at night (it's normal, you now, to weigh more at the end of the day). With cashews, I'm more like 136 in the morning and 139 at night.

How can those little, healthy nuts screw with my scale so much? Because they're full of fat (15 grams per serving), and they contain a fair amount of calories too (160 per serving). There's salt too. And while they are good for me, in excess, they are just like many other foods -- they're fattening.

Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

Last December, my family of four headed on the road for a holiday trip. Desination: Virginia, then DC. Let me just say: I hate to travel -- hate it! -- and so the 10-hour drive was a daunting one for me. And even though I tried to anticipate the possible troubles we'd encounter (little boy fights, boredom, emergency potty stops and more), I didn't do so well on the food front. I knew I should pack healthy tidbits for our journey and while I did stock our minivan with plenty of snacks, I fell down on the management of our on-the-road meals. I figured we'd surely find some roadside restaurants with healthy fare. I was wrong. When faced in one southern city with the choice of a Cracker Barrel full of secondhand smoke and a McDonald's, I knew I was in trouble. I picked the McDonald's and ordered the most nutritious-sounding salad on the menu board, but the burgers my boys ate made my tummy turn.

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Derail. You know the word. Let's face it, most of us working toward good health through diet and exercise have an intimate relationship with the word. Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

FitSugar tells us it's not unusual to hit a fitness slump this time of year. Another site tells us that 30 percent of people don't work out at all during the winter months. There's the cold weather, the colds, the shorter and darker days -- oh, and the holidays too. I mean, who has time to work out with all the family, shopping, and cooking commitments? Ah, cooking -- this brings me to the diet disasters that might plague you during the bunches of days that fill November and December. Think Thanksgiving feasts and other holiday splendor and the fact that we tend to eat more carbs in the colder months, and it's clear that winter is a sure diet derailer.

Want to head off this derailer before it throws you off track? Here are some ideas. First, start engaging in some winter-y activities that burn calories. Prevent your seasonal pudge, says Good Housekeeping (December 2008), with these powerful moves (all require one hour of work and are based on a 150-pound woman).

• Shovel your driveway and burn 430 calories
• Stack firewood and burn 358 calories
• Build a snowman and burn 286 calories
  
• Downhill ski and burn 215 calories
• Ice skate and burn 197 calories
• Set up and decorate your tree and burn 164 calories
• Walk in a winter wonderland (3 mph) and burn 118 calories
• Wrap presents and burn 107 calories

Derail. You know the word. Let's face it, most of us working toward good health through diet and exercise have an intimate relationship with the word. Diet derailers are everywhere -- in your house, in the grocery store, at work, at play, in your head even. Here, we'll address the very things that throw us off course. Together, we'll learn how to avoid our diet traps -- and how to get back on track when we can't.

First, there was Halloween. And the candy. And the temptation. And the calories. Now, we're staring down Thanksgiving. And the turkey, the stuffing, the casseroles, the pies -- and the temptation, and the calories. Thankfully, the blessed occasion lasts for just one day and while leftovers are likely, they won't last as long as that trick-or-treat candy, which means your diet won't be derailed for long -- well, as long as you get back on track quickly. You know, before that next holiday rolls around.

In the spirit of festive eating and conscious calorie management, the clever ones at Holidash have a few things to say. Take a bite out of this inspiration.

• Beware of traditional turkey treats, like um, turkey and pumpkin pie. Check out these scary stats.
• Try these healthy snacks to keep you from gorging on the bird.
  
• Wrap your head around this healthy holiday cuisine, with an international flavor.
  
• Will you or your guests go vegetarian for the big day? Grab some menu ideas here.
• In the event you come to regret your super splurges, you might want to consider a little diet detox.
  
• Got a turkey trot in you? It might be what you need to keep those pounds from piling on.
  
  

That's all she wrote -- for now. Keep tuning into Holidash, though. You're sure to stumble upon more valuable tips and tools for surviving the holidays -- we know, they can turn our diet dreams into dreaded disasters, and who wants that to happen?

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