Bet you have a pair of jeans hanging in your closet that make you feel great when you wear them. We do. Whether they’re a size 2, 12 or 22, we love how we look when our skinny jeans are hugging our hineys.

Problem is: They’re our skinny jeans because we typically also love our weight when they fit. Most of us can lose weight, but keeping it off—turning our skinny jeans into our everyday jeans—is the real challenge.

If staying in your skinny jeans is a struggle, here’s new advice from the American Heart Association and the Journal of the American Medical Association that may help you take weight off … and keep it off.

Get support: In a new study, women and men who received monthly personal counseling and also used web-based weight loss and maintenance resources did the best at keeping the unwanted pounds off. Overall, 42% of the study members maintained at least a 9-pound weight loss for 30 months.

If you’re overweight, you may qualify for nutritional counseling or discounts for a national weight loss program under your health insurance benefits. And make the online connection: In this study, participants who also received online weight loss support via web sites, email listservs or blogs were better at maintaining weight loss.

Practice portion control: Even if you’re eating healthfully, calories still count. Google “BMR calculator” to find out how many calories it takes each day just to maintain your current weight. (The Mayo Clinic has a total calorie counter that will also factor in your activity level.) To lose a pound a week, you have to increase activity to burn fat or portion your food to cut calories by 500 calories a day; you need to cut 1,000 calories a day to lose up to 2 pounds a week.

The leading federal Reasonable Eating and Activity to Change Health (REACH) study that followed dieters for two years found that those who counted calories and practiced portion control were best able to lose weight and maintain weight loss for the longest period.

“Although we saw similar patterns of weight loss related to reduced dietary fat consumption, increased fruit and vegetable consumption, increased physical activity and increased planned exercise, the target behavior that induced the greatest weight loss was portion control,” says Everett E. Logue, PhD, a researcher with Summa Health System in Northeast Ohio. “The message is that you have to eat fewer calories and/or burn more calories if you want to lose weight. There are no shortcuts.”

Get moving: The American Heart Association recommends at least 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise (exercise that gets your heart pumping) most days of the week (read as every day). Exercise not only builds your body’s strength and endurance, it also helps tone your muscles and can keep your body lean enough to stay in those skinny jeans.