Yesterday Doctor Ellen, an internal medicine doctor and weight loss expert, started answering your weight-loss related questions in Questionland. Here are just a few of examples of her good advice:

Q: How bad is skipping breakfast?

A: A number of studies have shown that people who skip breakfast tend to be heavier. Folks who help people manage their weight suggest eating more of your daily food intake at breakfast is one strategy that might help. However, if you are at a good weight for you, get exercise, and your weight stays about the same, I wouldn't worry a lot about breakfast. You might notice what you choose for lunch—i.e., when you skip breakfast do you choose food that give you a lot of calories quickly, like pizza. Hope that helps!

Q: What do you think of the Medifast diet plan?

A: The rapid weight loss achieved on these kind of diets is almost impossible to sustain. You are right that metabolism slows down and weight tends to come back on—the body responds as if it is starving (and it is). Permanent, long-term weight loss, usually 5-10% of body weight, can be achieved by permanent lifestyle changes. At this point, dramatic, permanent weight losses pretty much only result from bariatric surgery procedures like gastric bypass. But these procedures have serious risks and can have serious side effects. So they are currently reserved for individuals having health problems from their weight like diabetes. Irregardless of what you decide, to keep the weight off will require you to start exercising regularly, if you haven't already, and to make some simple changes to decrease the portion size of what you eat and cut out empty calories from Coke, etc. You may have already done this, but if not, it's the best place to start. Good luck!

You can see more of what Doctor Ellen has to say right now in Questionland. Or, need a little advice of your own? Ask Doctor Ellen a question!

(Dr. Barak Gaster, Sara Beth Rubin, and Mindy Crary are also standing by to answer whatever questions you might have about quitting smoking, improving your overall health, or getting your finances in order, respectively. Hooray for New Year's resolutions!)