Even though exercise decreases metabolic rate (your metabolic rate drops after exercise, to conserve the calories you burned) and exercise increases your appetite (exercise can increase hunger and trigger feeding frenzy) – I never tell a patient who wants to lose weight, not to exercise. Exercise will likely increase you energy and your sense of well-being. And from a clinical perspective, exercise is possibly the best maintenance program in existence. The best thing you can do to maintain weight loss, is to exercise for 30 minutes, 3-4 times a week. My favorite advice for exercise is the motto of the San Francisco Bay to Breakers (running) Club. They say “start slow, and then ease up.” Try to exercise hard enough to break a sweat for 15-20 minutes, 3-4 days a week. I recommend 30 minutes of exercise, because your first 10 minutes is your warm-up, as you are getting to your sweating phase. And from the trenches, many if not most of my successful patients, exercise 3-4 days a week. I do too.