The participants in FOX Chicago’s 2010 Health and Fitness Challenge have reached the mid-way mark! but they have questions for Dr. Mehmet Oz, whose plan they’re following from his best-selling book “You on a Diet.” below are some of Dr. Oz’s responses to their written questions.

How strict does this program have to be? Can I fall “off he wagon” once in a while?
I don’t want you to be tortured. this is a life program. this is not a wind sprint; it’s a marathon. so if you really crave something, get a spoonful of it and eat it. Don’t worry about it. Thinking about it all the time actually wastes a lot of emotional energy, and ultimately will draw you back.

Once we get started, how do we stay motivated?
I’m so proud that everyone in Chicago has been doing it so aggressively and successfully. the whole program is about automating your life. When you don’t even realize you’re on the program, that’s when you know you’re doing it right. You’ve got to find and customize a program that works for you, and that’s going to vary from person to person. You can’t get rid of bad habits, but you have to replace the bad habits with good habits. make those parts of your life day in and day out. Give yourself rewards along the way, and take your old clothes and hang them up in your closet. Every once in awhile, put them on to remind yourself how wonderful it is to be a little bit thinner.

What gets people through plateaus–when they can’t seem to lose any more weight and stay at the same level?
Don’t panic! Remember when you’re overweight, your body is actually inflamed, so it’s burning off calories that normally you wouldn’t burn off. What usually works is to build a little bit of muscle mass. You’re going to get hungry when you work out. That’s normal, and, remember, you’re not trying to push too hard. When you plateau, what your body is saying is you’ve gotten rid the fat that’s way over the top now. What you want to do is take off 100 calories a day. That’s it! 100 calories of either less food or more exercise a day. Remember the best way to lose weight is to eat less. It is not to exercise more. Exercising more really only burns off a few extra calories it’s hard to keep up with whatever you’re eating with exercise alone Give you the calories that your body craves, but make sure they’re the right calories not the empty calories that the body will not be satiated from.

Why is measuring our waists more important that stepping on a scale?
Weighing yourself does not take into account the fact that you might be putting on a little bit of muscle mass as you lose fat–because muscle weighs more than fat. so the scale could reveal a larger number even though you’re actually thinner and healthier. so, measure your waist size. your waist size needs to be measured by a tape measure placed on your belly button and over your hips. Do not trust your belt size. your midsection should be half the size of your height. for example, if you’re 6’2, that comes to 74 inches. Divide that in two and you get 37 inches–which is what your waist circumference should be. It doesn’t matter if you’re 190 pounds or 225 pounds, male, female or child, as long as your waist size is less than half your height. this means you don’t have too much of that belly fat that we know drives up the blood pressure, poisons your liver causing high cholesterol and blocks insulin, which causes diabetes. Applaud the fact that your body thinks you’re a lot younger than it used to think you were, just by the fact you lost the first 10 or 15 pounds. so when you hit the new plateau, don’t sweat it. At that new level, you’ll live longer and better. your body loves it.

What kinds of work-out supplements do you recommend?
I strongly feel you should not take ephedrine type products. I like the soy proteins. I use a protein shake. It’s a power drink that has soy protein and some flax seed oil in it. Put a banana in it and some blueberries, a little bit of apple juice or apple sauce, and then some ice. Mix that up, and it gives you a lot of energy and fills you up, especially if you add some fiber, like Metamucil, to it. What you end up with is a concoction that’s got protein and fiber, and it keeps you full all day long. It gives you the protein your muscles need to rebuild themselves. It’s very easy to lose weight on some of the diet pills and supplements, but they’re not a wholesome diet. They’ll help jump start the next descent from your plateau but you have got to stay on real foods that’s how your body knows that it can keep losing the weight.

Are vitamins a good thing, if so what should I take?
I do like vitamins. I think for a lot of folks, we’re malnourished nutritionally, even though we have extra calories and fat onboard. 99 percent of the American public doesn’t eat the food they should eat to get all their vitamins. but here’s the deal, a, B, C, D, E multivitamins cost pennies. we don’t get enough Omega-3 fats in our diet, which help us be more clearly