The short answer to that question is, "The solution to your motivation problem." How many times have you attempted to start a weight loss program, and just not been able to find enough support or encouragement to follow through with it? It's not all your fault - weight loss is a difficult thing to go at alone.

That's where a Diet.com Weight Loss Challenge comes in. By joining up to participate in our Weight Loss Challenge, you are making a commitment to yourself and your fellow Challengers for the duration of the Challenge. You are committing to setting goals and using the powerful force of community support to reach those goals.

That's right - the most important ingredients in your diet should be "support" and "motivation." With these two things combined, your chances of remaining committed and reaching your goals are much greater!

So commit yourself to this 12-week long Weight Loss Challenge. Connect with other Challengers and share tips and ideas on staying motivated and losing weight the fun way - with a team! Engage with the other Challengers using our interactive Challenger Map to learn more about your fellow Challengers and their goals, and participate in real-time Challenge Chats. Check in with the Challenge page daily or weekly to find out how everyone else is doing, as well as share your ups, downs and successes during this special *extended* 12-week Challenge. Answer daily polls and receive weekly tips, advice and delicious daily recipes - all right here on the Challenge page!

And as a special New Years Challenge bonus, we've got a 12-week video fitness series for you as well! The new videos will be available for the Challengers every Monday, so be sure to come back at the beginning of each week to check it out and share with us your weekly weigh in!

So what is a Diet.com Weight Loss Challenge? It's an opportunity for you to become part of a team, all striving for the same goal of improving your health. Use this as a forum to engage with other site members and push each other to reach your individual goals!

During our previous 6-week Challenge, we invited you to set goals, or Milestones, for yourself. We recommended that you set four (4) personal Milestones that you wished to achieve during those 6 weeks. Well, our Challengers were SO excited about their Milestones, that they wished they could set more! So THIS Challenge, we invite you to set a Milestone for EVERY week of this 12-week Challenge, to keep you motivated throughout the entire Challenge!

These 12 personal Milestones will be a powerful means of accountability and motivation for our Challengers, and we can't wait to hear about the Milestones you are setting and how you plan to reward yourself for conquering each Milestone!

Another great feature to our Challenge is the interactive Challenger Map. After you fill in ALL your personal Milestones and rewards, click on the "Challenger Map" section of the Challenge page, and fill in your location and zip code. Enter in your location, submit, and then check it out - You're now a part of our interactive Challenger Map!

This map is a display of all your fellow Challenge participants - all over the globe! Each Challenger is represented by a small "Challenger Marker" - and you're one of them! Click on each Challenger Marker to learn more about that particular Challenger. You can learn about their goals, read their Diet.com profile, or even add them as a Diet.com buddy.

Wanna know what else is cool about this interactive Challenger Map? You'll notice that the Challenge Markers are 2 different colors. Some are red, some are green. A green marker means that user is signed onto Diet.com right now! Click on a green Challenger Marker and you can send that Challenger an "Invite to Chat." That means you can send them an invitation to chat with you live - in real time - in our Challenge Chatroom! Go ahead and try it out - you'll meet new buddies, and have fun chatting with others who need your support and motivation, too!

Think of your Milestones as your "mini-goals." Sometimes looking at the overall picture can be overwhelming. So rather than saying, "I've got to lose 25 pounds by spring," try saying, "I'd like to lose 2 pounds this week," or "This week I'll stay within my allotted 1500 calories/day, everyday." The Milestones you fill out upon signing up for the Challenge will guide you throughout this 12-week Challenge. These Milestones will help hold you accountable, and can be found on this Challenge page, under the Milestones tab. Make sure that you check off your Milestones as you complete them. You can do this from your Milestones tab. And - most importantly - don't forget to reward yourself for reaching your Milestones!!

Milestones can be anything - from "I want to lose 1 pound in Week 1" to "I want to take Fido for a walk everyday during Week 4" to "I want to be able to run up the stairs by Week 6." Be sure to choose Milestones that will challenge you, and will help improve your health along the way!

Diet.com wants to encourage you to set goals, or Milestones, for yourself during this Challenge! What are your own Milestones that you'd like to reach during this 12-week Challenge? After you sign-up, look for the "Milestones" section of the Challenge page. Fill in twelve (12) Milestone goals that are personal to you and that you'd like to reach during this new Challenge. Fill in your personal Milestones, as well as how you plan on rewarding yourself for each Milestone reached.

Yes, we're giving you permission ;) to reward yourself for your dedication to your health. Motivation doesn't always have to come from other people - the motivation of rewards for your hard work is also a bonus, and a great motivation for weight loss. So make sure you fill out your Milestones, as well as how you plan on rewarding yourself for each Milestone completed. AND make sure to check off each Milestone as "complete" after you've reached it. This will mark that Milestone with a green "check mark," signifying that you've done it!!

Note: You must fill out all 12 Milestones in order to participate! All Challengers who complete at least 9 of their Milestones will be eligible to be entered into the drawing for the final GRAND Milestone Prize! All Challengers who complete at least 6 of their Milestones will win a special Diet.com prize!

Each week, Diet.com will provide a new teaching point for you to think about and focus on. This weekly focus point can be found by clicking on the appropriate Week-by-Week menu on the left-hand side of this Challenge page. For example, during the first week of the Challenge, you'll click on "Week 1" to check out what's going on that week. During the second week, click on "Week 2," and so on.

Along with the weekly teaching points, you will also see a daily poll question. Answer the daily poll question to learn more about your fellow Diet.com Weight Loss Challengers, as well as earn Diet.com site points.

You can also participate by reaching for, and completing, your 12 Milestones! Each time you mark one of your Milestones as "complete" you will have your completed Milestones noted in our Challenge Counter of Milestones Completed, right at the top of the Challenge page!

Every Monday, we'll have a weigh-in. You'll be able to post your current weight on our Challenge board, and talk with other Challengers about their progress as well as your own. Don't forget to update your Diet.com Weight Tracker each week with your most up-to-date weight. This will also be noted in the Challenge Counter of Pounds Lost since the beginning of the Challenge. You can see right away how much total weight the Challengers have lost!

Additionally, stay engaged with the Challenge teaching points and your fellow Challengers by posting on the Challenge Message Board. You can post questions, tips, advice - anything you'd like to talk with the other Challengers about. You can also chat in real time with other Challengers in the Challenge Chatroom. You can get to both the Message Board and Challenge Chatroom by clicking on the "Chat & Message Board" button.

And don't be shy about blogging in our Diet.com blogs about how you're doing, and encourage other site members to participate. Remember - the more Challengers, the merrier!

There sure is! Diet.com and its amazing video team are uber excited to present a 12-week Fitness series that will coincide with our Back on Track Weight Loss Challenge! That's right, each week of the Challenge on Monday afternoons, you'll be able to check out a *new* fitness video, presented by Sarah and the video team! These videos will provide you with some awesome new moves for you to try out during the week, as well as give you fun ideas on some exciting new exercises and activities! You can comment and rate the videos, as well as discuss them with your fellow Challengers or save them to your homepage Dashboard as "Favorites."

So be sure to keep an eye out for the weekly Fitness video, to keep your mind AND body engaged throughout the Challenge! The weekly video link will be available to you in the Week-by-Week menu tabs, along the left of this Challenge page!

And don't forget to subscribe to our Video team's YouTube channel - diethealth - to be the first to know when they upload a video!

Sure, losing weight is rewarding. But we know what's REALLY motivating - fun prizes!! When you stay the course and actively participate in a Diet.com Weight Loss Challenge, you are eligible to earn some awesome rewards!

We've got an incredible GRAND PRIZE lined up for the Top Challenger... But you'll have to stay tuned to find out what the big prize will be! We wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!

In addition to the Grand Prize pacakge, the grand prize winner will earn a whopping 10,000 Diet.com site points! These points are a fun status marker - but more importantly, they earn you awesome discounts at our Diet.com Store!!

Want to win the Grand Prize package and all those Diet.com site points? Read on to learn how:

An overall Grand Prize winner* will be chosen based on Milestones completion, Premium Member status, participation throughout the challenge, weight lost, before and after photos, and a final written narrative. Every member of the Challenge who completes at least 6 of their Milestones will receive a Diet.com prize!

And check out all these other great benefits of joining:

* Lose up to 25 pounds
* Feel more attractive
* Enjoy more energy
* Get expert diet tips
* Win weekly prizes
* Discover long-term weight loss
* Make great friends
* Find the support you need
* Get in shape for life!


*Previous Challenge grand prize winners are exempt from winning the grand prize again. But, of course, encouraged to participate!

It takes more than "desire" to change your behavior. Trying to go from point A to point Z overnight is bound to set you up for disappointment. With our step-by-step diet program, you'll learn how making gradual changes to your eating patterns will yield better results in the long run.

Since not everyone diets the same - or even has the same tastes in food - it's important that YOU be able to select the foods that will fit into your own lifestyle. Have you ever tried a severely restricting meal plan, and then wondered why you couldn't stick to it? It's not YOU that's the problem - it's the expectation that you be able to stick to a ridiculous diet! With Diet.com's customized meal plans, you can select the calorie range that's right for you, and choose foods that you can actually see yourself eating! Best part? There's SO much more to life (and our diet plans) than water and toast!

If you've taken our Personality Quiz, then you know that we've already pegged your exercising personality! (If you haven't taken the quiz...Well then what are you waiting for?!) Armed with the knowledge of HOW to master your own exercising strategies, you can achieve so much more! Our expert fitness plans offer cardiovascular AND strength-training options, so you can pick and choose how YOU would like to workout!

Need a little extra help with the fitness plans? When Premium members use our Workout Builder, they are able to build and save an UNLIMITED number of customized workouts, complete with an interactive demo video for each move! You can't find this ANYWHERE else!!! It's a Diet.com exclusive!

The Personality Type Diet doesn't just help you figure out your eating and exercise patterns, it also helps you understand your emotional coping strategies. Once you learn your personal coping style, our Premium Members are given all the tools they need to figure out HOW that coping behavior has been working against them - and how they can change their behavior and achieve the results they desire!

Do you want to be sure that you're on the right track with the meals you are eating? Premium Members always have access to our registered dietitians! Post your meals in our Rate My Plate message board forum, and receive personalized assessments of what you're eating, as well as tips on how to make your meals healthier!

Every week, we've got a live - yes, LIVE - chat going on with one of our very own weight loss experts. Only premium members have access to this exclusive chatroom, where they can learn insights from our experts, as well as receive personal responses to any of their most pressing questions! This weekly chat is SO exclusive that I can't even post the link to the chatroom here! You'll have to receive it in our special weekly Premium chat reminder! ;)

So, the holidays just ended and I'm sure you saw plenty of stores offering "Free Shipping" as a special holiday bonus. Well, as a Diet.com Premium Member, it's holiday season YEAR-ROUND! Because you are so special to us, we are delighted to offer our Premium Members Free Shipping ALWAYS - all the time, constantly, perpetually, even on Sundays and Thursdays - on ANY of their Diet.com Store purchases! Talk about a bonus feature :)