Trying to lose weight? Here’s some advice on finding ways to exercise from the book “How to Lose 9,000 lbs. (or less)” (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, $13.95), straight from people who’ve done it:

“Get a dog. Initially, she was what got me out of the house and running. I don’t think that now, nine years later, I need her. It’s become enough of a routine for me that it’s an ingrained habit. But she sure was a great motivator.”

“I wasn’t able to exercise when I first started my diet, due to a back injury. But after a few months, I was able to start walking each day with my dog. I think that adding exercise to my weight-loss program was the final change that really helped me get to my goal weight.”

“My dog, Winston, is a tremendous motivator for me. We really walk every day, usually several times a day. But I’m careful to tailor our walks to the Chicago weather. On a nice, summer day, we might walk for more than an hour. But when it’s 20 below, we go out for short periods of time several times a day.”

“I did what a lot of people do when they want to lose weight: I tried to stop eating so much. But pretty soon it seemed like I couldn’t eat anything without it showing up on the scales. It was scary. What saved me is that a dog adopted me. This was a big, 80-pound animal that needed lots of exercise. I ended up walking him twice a day and before I knew it, I’d lost a few pounds. That inspired me to take a yoga class, which firmed up my body, and I lost a few more pounds. Within six months, I had lost 30 pounds, and I’ve kept it off for several years now.”

“I took part in a study that compared people who exercised with their dogs to people who exercised without dogs to see who would lose more weight. When the study began, they gave us pedometers and the goal to walk 10,000 steps a day. I was surprised to find that in a normal day, I walk only 3,000 to 4,000 steps. Most people don’t realize how little we move! During the year-long study, I began focusing on the 10,000 steps, and my dog, Spats, and I walked just about every day. It really helped.”

Hundreds of Heads Books’ survival guides offer the wisdom of the masses by assembling the experiences and advice of hundreds of people who have gone through life’s biggest challenges and have insight to share.