What might you learn from a successful loser?

The topic of weight management has been my passion since my personal struggle with weight gain in my late teens. When I was 17, after gaining 30-pounds over three or four months, I went to Physicians’ Weight Loss Centers for help getting that weight off.

Looking back, family stress due to my mother being ill, plus freedom (my drivers’ license, and my parents’ gift of a used Datsun 1200 for wheels) led me to making way too many regular stops at Seven-Eleven type places for a “snack!” These snacks were mostly brownies and different bags of various salty-crunchy things.

When I finally came up from the long binge—feeling like crap, and way past fitting in most of my clothes—I was ready to turn things around. Somehow I ended up at a Physicians’ Weight Loss Center “clinic” which may have been about the only choice in a small town (1977)!

I never saw a doctor there. The (all female) staff wore white coats, but didn’t seem like real medical professionals to me. Who knows? I was given a 600-calorie-day diet consisting of chicken breast (skinless, broiled) and vegetables, no bread or starchy vegetables (except a couple of Melba toasts per day). Only non-caloric beverages were allowed. Zero education, coaching or counseling was offered—just a starvation meal plan. It was my job to follow the diet, and come back each week for a weigh-in.

I did follow it, and the weight came off. But, then I moved away to college in the fall, and within a few months gained back every pound and more! I topped out at my highest weight sometime that year.

One of the take-away points of my experience is that the program I went to didn’t teach me anything about how my body worked. They told me WHAT to do but not WHY. That works great for making your clients dependent on you—and keeps the clients coming back—but very unlikely that the clients would become successful self-managers of their weight. A more common problem today is gimmicky programs that purport to teach you how your body works while the information they dole out is fact-less and leaves you even more confused (about how your body works) than when you started!

I know now that given the body weight I was at when I walked into that clinic, the 600-calorie diet they put me on was tantamount to malpractice. Seriously. Today you have to have a 28-BMI and at least one co-morbidity (diabetes, hypertension, etc.) to qualify for a very-low-calorie-diet (VLCD) which is what they put me on (while I had walked in with a 24-BMI). And even then nowadays the calorie allotment for a 28-BMI person wouldn't go lower than 1000-calories because of the higher calories needed to protect lean body mass at lower body weights (counter intuitive, but true). (If you know anybody on the HCG Diet right now their lean body mass is at risk; send them here.)

Clearly I was very naïve back then. I didn’t have a clue how to tell the difference between the kinds of misinformation that diet gurus dole out in their books and programs, and reality (which comes from questions that researchers have studied, and a body of research—not just a single study—supports). Today, 35 years later I can fairly describe myself as a successful loser considering that I’m 45-pounds below my highest weight. I maintain mostly within a 5-pound range, and my BMI is 20. It took me about 15 years to get to where the last-10-pounds stopped revisiting! That was 19-years ago.

Over the years I got a degree in nutrition, became dietitian and got certified as a personal trainer, managed a hospital-based out-patient obesity program, wrote The NEW Healthy Eating & Weight Management Guide, studied more of all this in graduate school, and never stopped digging down threads of research for answers to questions regarding all aspects of weight management.

The point of sharing my path is that while I can’t walk in your shoes, I do understand much of the struggle that weight management entails in current culture. I also am reminded daily of how your efforts are made more difficult by the abundance of misinformation, outright scams (including those by "legitimate" medical doctors like what's going on with HCG), and even well-meaning but misguided “help,” that all serve as road blocks to any long-term success.

Thankfully there is reliable information out there too! So, with each blog my commitment is to shed light on truth, provide a reality-based perspective for you, so that you are empowered to steer clear of the next scammy program or science-fictiony fad diet you run across. Ultimately, I hope to shorten your path so that (sooner than later) you can call yourself a successful loser too!

All the best,
-Dorene

Related of interest:
HCG Diet faces FDA Action
HCG Diet Review