Definitely exercise while gaining the weight back. I have been a little fanatical about that lately trying to outrun Father Time. I just saw an article yesterday with a long term study on mortality. Men who had a BMI in the normal/healthy range, don't smoke, exercise regularly, eat healthy and don't drink excessively at age 50 on average live 12.2 years longer. It is obviously too late for the 50 mark, but I can at least do it at 60 without having heart trouble or cancer (which is what the list is about avoiding). All 5 factors; they didn't break it down (at least not in the article).