You're angry, disappointed, depressed. But most of all you're confused. How could you have gained weight over the past year after doing everything right — exercising, watching portions, eating low-fat foods and drinking more water?

        Experts say it's often the little day-to-day choices that sabotage our weight-management efforts. Dipping into a co-worker's jar of M&M's, putting cream in your coffee, or making that afternoon trip to the vending machine can put on weight over a 12-month period if all other factors are the same.

        “Soda is the big one,” says Denise Griswold, a registered dietitian with the John C. Lincoln Hospitals in Phoenix. “If you drink just one can of regular soda a day at 150 calories, that's an extra 15 to 16 pounds a year.”

        Ms. Griswold says that 3,500 calories equal a pound. Assuming you have an average metabolic rate and would consume 2,000 calories a day without the soda, that extra 150 calories times 365 days equals 54,750 excess calories over a year. Dividing by 3,500 calories equals 15.6 pounds.

        Phoenix nutritionist Julie King says jelly beans are another sneaky calorie extra. She says that because they're small, they look harmless, but one jelly bean has 5 to 8 calories.

        “They're like eating a sugar cube,” Ms. King says.

        A couple of fistfuls a day can add up to 200 calories. Over a period of 12 months, that could be as much as 21 pounds.

        Dr. Lynne Pirie is a Phoenix family practitioner who also specializes in sports medicine and anti-aging medicine. She says it sounds incredible, but eating half a Lifesaver a day over 20 years could add 20 pounds to your weight.

        Dr. Pirie, a former world championship bodybuilder, says alcohol is another saboteur of weight control.

        “When I was competing, if I drank alcohol — no matter how close I stuck to my diet — it would interrupt a weight loss,” Dr. Pirie says. “Alcohol is metabolized like fat and I think it just changes (slows) your metabolic pathway in how calories are burned.”

        Says Ms. Griswold: “We tell our patients to consume either 500 calories less a day or to exert an additional 500 calories — or a combination of the two — to lose one pound a week.”

        If you work where there are stairs, Ms. Griswold says, you can burn off 105 calories a day if you spend 15 minutes climbing rather than taking the elevator.

        “So in a year you would lose 11 pounds,” Ms. Griswold says.

        Shirley Strembel, a registered nutritionist for the Maricopa County, Ariz., Office of Nutrition, says people who are successful in weight control are those who adapt to gradual changes and stick with them over a year or more.

        “People who focus on the drastic calorie-cutting diets can do those for a short time, but they'll rebound eventually, which is why fad diets don't work.”

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