As summer comes and goes, so does ones appearance. The hardest time to keep off weight is the transition between summers to fall, because it becomes colder and days become shorter; which makes early morning jogs a drag. Here are a few tips for weight loss in these transitioning months:

• Get 8 hours of sleep every night Sleep is important for not only maintaining alertness and energy for daily duties, but also your health. If you’re one of the 37 percent of people who sleep fewer than 7 hours per night, you might be sleep-deprived. Studies show getting less sleep than you need may negatively affect your health and lead to weight gain.

• Never skip breakfast it’s called the most important meal of the day for many reasons. Health benefits coming from breakfast, including improved concentration and increased energy, are a big plus when trying to lose weight. Eating a healthy breakfast also helps in weight loss by helping to avert cravings and ravenous hunger before lunch. Also, breakfast influences your metabolism, which can further promote weight loss.

• Cut down portion sizes eating just 50 to 100 extra calories per day can add up to a 10-pound weight gain in a year. With large servings, it’s easy to consume more than you think are. In a study published in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition” in 2002, people who were served a larger portion consumed more calories than when they were served a smaller portion of the same food. Reducing the size of the portions you eat can help you consume fewer calories and lose weight.

• Don’t eat without thinking many teens spend their nights on Netflix and what goes better with a movie then a snack? As your mind concentrates on the sound of the TV or computer, it doesn’t realize when you are truly full. You just continue eating because you don’t know not to. The best solution to this is to simply think about how much you are consuming and trying to focus on the food a little more.

• Watch drink calories some drinks have up to the amount of calories of a full meal. Soda is the most common “no no” when trying to lose weight, but there are actually drinks that are worse for you then a soda. When drinking a fruit juice or smoothie, you should always be on the lookout for the calorie count and the serving size.

• Lower stress “While the immediate response to acute stress can be a temporary loss of appetite, more and more we are coming to recognize that for some people, chronic stress can be tied to an increase in appetite — and stress-induced weight gain,” says Elissa Epel, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco. The problem, she says, lies within our neuroendocrine system. This system still activates a series of hormones whenever we feel threatened. So lower your stress as much as you can!