Heres What Makes the Ultimate Difference Between Resolving to Lose Weight and Actually Doing It  

Research published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology shows that 36 percent of people ditch their New Year's resolutions before January is up. Buzz. Kill.

That being said, some people actually do manage to make their resolutions work: According to new data based on more than three million Lose It! weight-loss app users, those who successfully hit their weight-loss goals have four crucial habits in common:

1. They weigh themselves an average of three times per week.

2. They exercise four times a week.

3. They log their meals five times per week.

4. They use the tracking app for about four months.

These four habits seem to be the magic formula because “self-monitoring ensures that we’re actually doing what we set out to do. We're not just thinking about it,” says Georgie Fear, R.D., author of Lean Habits for Lifelong Weight Loss.

Thinking about our goals isn't enough to translate them into action, Fear says. According to one Gallop poll, Americans are about twice as likely to want to lose weight as they are to seriously put in the work to do so. Makes sense, right?

Luckily, developing healthy habits like logging your workouts and meals, and even weighing yourself, can actually make losing weight feel like a whole lot less work. “Habits become your usual way of living with little or no thought,” says Fear. So when your habits become healthy ones, you don’t need much motivation to keep living the healthy life. It’s just automatic.

The result: This year becomes the last year you resolve to lose weight. 

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