The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss

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Article Title:

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The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss

Article Description:

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Most people who read my articles and e-books know me as a science

guy who likes to quote studies and apply research to everyday

problems such as weight loss, bodybuilding, and other

health/fitness related topics. However, sometimes you have to

step back from the science and look at the big picture to help

bring people back into focus, so they can see the forest for the

trees, so to speak.

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3867 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Distribution Date and Time: 2007-03-15 10:48:00

Written By: Will Brink

Copyright: 2007

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The Big Picture Of Permanent Weight Loss

Copyright © 2007 Will Brink

Brink Zone

http://www.brinkzone.com

Most people who read my articles and e-books know me as a science

guy who likes to quote studies and apply research to everyday

problems such as weight loss, bodybuilding, and other

health/fitness related topics. However, sometimes you have to

step back from the science and look at the big picture to help

bring people back into focus, so they can see the forest for the

trees, so to speak.

For most people reading this article, finding an effective diet

that works most of the time must seem as complicated as nuclear

physics. It's not, but there are a bewildering number of choices

for diets out there. High fat or no fat? High carbohydrate or no

carbohydrate? Low protein or high protein? To make matters worse,

there are a million variations and combinations to the above diet

scenarios to add to the confusion. It seems endless and causes

many people to throw up their hands in frustration and give up.

In this article I will attempt to change all that.

There are some general guidelines, rules of thumb, and ways of

viewing a diet program that will allow you to decide, once and

for all, if it's the right diet for you. You may not always like

what I have to say, and you should be under no illusions this is

another quick fix, " lose 100 lbs. in 20 days, " guide of some

sort. However, if you are sick and tired of being confused, tired

of taking the weight off only to put it back on, and tired of

wondering how to take the first steps to deciding the right diet

for you that will result in permanent weight loss, then this is

the article that could change your life...

Do you need to be a scientist to apply what you will learn here?

No. A mind reader or clairvoyant? No. A nutritionist or medical

doctor? Not at all. What you need to be is open-minded and

willing to learn a few key concepts that will allow you to sort

through the confusion.

You will be able to apply what you learn here to any diet you are

considering and decide if it makes sense, once and for all! The

process, however, is neither easy nor quick per se, but I never

promised you either of those things...

This article does not look at specific diets but will teach you

to take a logical approach and apply some common sense to

choosing a nutritional plan for life long weight loss. If you are

willing and able to make a paradigm shift, then let's proceed.

Does your diet pass " The Test " ?

What is the number one reason diets fail long term; above all

else? The number one reason is...drum roll...a lack of long term

compliance. The numbers don't lie; the vast majority of people

who lose weight will regain it - and often exceed what they lost.

You knew that already didn't you?

Yet, what are you doing to avoid it? Here's another reality

check: virtually any diet you pick which follows the basic

concept of " burning " more calories then you consume - the well

accepted " calories in calories out " mantra – will cause you to

lose weight. To some degree, they all work: Atkins-style, no carb

diets, low fat high carb diets, all manner of fad diets - it

simply does not matter in the short term.

If your goal is to lose some weight quickly, then pick one and

follow it. I guarantee you will lose some weight. Studies

generally find any of the commercial weight loss diets will get

approximately the same amount of weight off after 6 months to a

year. For example, a recent study found the Atkins' Diet,

Slim-Fast plan, Weight Watchers Pure Points program, and Rosemary

Conley's Eat Yourself Slim diet, were all equally effective.

(1)

Other studies comparing other popular diets have come to

essentially the same conclusions. For example, a study that

compared the Atkins diet, the Ornish diet, Weight Watchers, and

The Zone Diet, found them to be essentially the same in their

ability to take weight off after one year. (2)

Recall what I said about the number one reason diets fail, which

is a lack of compliance. The lead researcher of this recent study

stated:

" Our trial found that adherence level rather than diet type was

the primary predictor of weight loss " (3)

Translated, it's not which diet they chose per se, but their

ability to actually stick to a diet that predicted their weight

loss success. I can just see the hands going up now, " but Will,

some diets must be better than others, right? " Are some diets

better then others? Absolutely. Some diets are healthier then

others, some diets are better at preserving lean body mass, some

diets are better at suppressing appetite – there are many

differences between diets. However, while most of the popular

diets will work for taking weight off, what is abundantly clear

is that adhering to the diet is the most important aspect for

keeping the weight off long term.

What is a diet?

A diet is a short term strategy to lose weight. Long term weight

loss is the result of an alteration in lifestyle. We are

concerned with life long weight management, not quick fix weight

loss here. I don't like the term diet, as it represents a short

term attempt to lose weight vs. a change in lifestyle. Want to

lose a bunch of weight quickly? Heck, I will give you the

information on how to do that here and now for no charge.

For the next 90 to 120 days eat 12 scrambled egg whites, one

whole grapefruit, and a gallon of water twice a day. You will

lose plenty of weight. Will it be healthy? Nope. Will the weight

stay off once you are done with this diet and are then forced to

go back to your " normal " way of eating? Not a chance. Will the

weight you lose come from fat or will it be muscle, water, bone,

and (hopefully!) some fat? The point being, there are many diets

out there that are perfectly capable of getting weight off you,

but when considering any eating plan designed to lose weight, you

must ask yourself:

" Is this a way of eating I can follow long term? "

Which brings me to my test: I call it the " Can I eat that way for

the rest of my life? " Test. I know, it does not exactly roll off

your tongue, but it gets the point across.

The lesson here is: any nutritional plan you pick to lose weight

must be part of a lifestyle change you will be able to follow -

in one form or another - forever. That is, if it's not a way of

eating you can comply with indefinitely, even after you get to

your target weight, then it's worthless.

Thus, many fad diets you see out there are immediately

eliminated, and you don't have to worry about them. The question

is not whether the diet is effective in the short term, but if

the diet can be followed indefinitely as a lifelong way of

eating. Going from " their " way of eating back to " your " way of

eating after you reach your target weight is a recipe for

disaster and the cause of the well established yo-yo dieting

syndrome. Bottom line: there are no short cuts, there is no free

lunch, and only a commitment to a lifestyle change is going to

keep the fat off long term. I realize that's not what most

people want to hear, but it's the truth, like it or not.

The statistics don't lie: getting the weight off is not the

hardest part, keeping the weight off is! If you take a close look

at the many well known fad/commercial diets out there, and you

are honest with yourself, and apply my test above, you will find

most of them no longer appeal to you as they once did. It also

brings me to an example that adds additional clarity: If you have

diet A that will cause the most weight loss in the shortest

amount of time but is unbalanced and essentially impossible to

follow long term vs. diet B, which will take the weight off at a

slower pace, but is easier to follow, balanced, healthy, and

something you can comply with year after year, which is superior?

If diet A gets 30 lbs off you in 30 days, but by next year you

have gained back all 30 lbs, but diet B gets 20 lbs off you in

the next 3 months with another 20 lbs 3 months after that and the

weight stays off by the end of that year, which is the better

diet?

If you don't know the answer to those questions, you have

totally missed the point of this article and the lesson it's

trying to teach you, and are set up for failure. Go back and read

this section again... By default, diet B is superior.

Teach a man to Fish...

A well known Chinese Proverb is;

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish

and you feed him for a lifetime.

This expression fits perfectly with the next essential step in

how to decide what eating plan you should follow to lose weight

permanently. Will the diet plan you are considering teach you how

to eat long term, or does it spoon-feed you information? Will the

diet rely on special bars, shakes, supplements or pre-made foods

they supply?

Let's do another diet A vs. diet B comparison. Diet A is going

to supply you with their foods, as well as their special drink or

bars to eat, and tell you exactly when to eat them. You will lose

– say – 30 lbs in two months. Diet B is going to attempt to help

you learn which foods you should eat, how many calories you need

to eat, why you need to eat them, and generally attempt to help

teach you how to eat as part of a total lifestyle change that

will allow you to make informed decisions about your nutrition.

Diet B causes a slow steady weight loss of 8-10 lbs per month for

the next 6 months and the weight stays off because you now know

how to eat properly.

Recall the Chinese proverb. Both diets will assist you to lose

weight. Only one diet, however, will teach you how to be

self-reliant after your experience is over. Diet A is easier, to

be sure, and causes faster weight loss than diet B, and diet B

takes longer and requires some thinking and learning on your

part. However, when diet A is over, you are right back where you

started and have been given no skills to fish. Diet companies

don't make their profits by teaching you to fish, they make

their money by handing you a fish so you must rely on them

indefinitely or come back to them after you gain all the weight

back.

Thus, diet B is superior for allowing you to succeed where other

diets failed, with knowledge gained that you can apply long term.

Diet programs that attempt to spoon feed you a diet without any

attempt to teach you how to eat without their help and/or rely on

their shakes, bars, cookies, or pre-made foods, is another diet

you can eliminate from your list of choices.

Diet plans that offer weight loss by drinking their product for

several meals followed by a " sensible dinner; " diets that allow

you to eat their special cookies for most meals along with their

pre-planned menu; or diets that attempt to have you eating their

bars, drink, or pre-made meals, are of the diet A variety covered

above. They're easy to follow but destined for failure, long

term. They all fail the " Can I eat that way for the rest of my

life? " test, unless you really think you can eat cookies and

shakes for the rest of your life...Bottom line here is, if the

nutritional approach you use to lose weight, be it from a book, a

class, a clinic, or an e-book, does not teach you how to eat,

it's a loser for long term weight loss and it should be

avoided.

The missing link for long term weight loss

We now make our way to another test to help you choose a

nutrition program for long term weight loss, and it does not

actually involve nutrition. The missing link for long term weight

loss is exercise. Exercise is the essential component of long

term weight loss. Many diet programs do not contain an exercise

component, which means they are losers for long term weight loss

from the very start. Any program that has its focus on weight

loss but does not include a comprehensive exercise plan is like

buying a car without tires, or a plane without wings. People who

have successfully kept the weight off overwhelmingly have

incorporated exercise into their lives, and the studies that look

at people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off

invariably find these people were consistent with their diet and

exercise plans. (4)

I am not going to list all the benefits of regular exercise here,

but regular exercise has positive effects on your metabolism,

allows you to eat more calories yet still be in a calorie

deficit, and can help preserve lean body mass (LBM) which is

essential to your health and metabolism. The many health benefits

of regular exercise are well known, so I won't bother adding

them here. The bottom line here is, (a) if you have any

intentions of getting the most from your goal of losing weight

and ( plan to keep it off long term, regular exercise must be

an integral part of the weight loss strategy. So, you can

eliminate any program, be it book, e-book, clinic, etc. that does

not offer you direction and help with this essential part of long

term weight loss.

Side Bar: A quick note on exercise:

Any exercise is better than no exercise. However, like diet

plans, not all exercise is created equal, and many people often

choose the wrong form of exercise to maximize their efforts to

lose weight. For example, they will do aerobics exclusively and

ignore resistance training. Resistance training is an essential

component of fat loss, as it builds muscle essential to your

metabolism, increases 24 hour energy expenditure, and has health

benefits beyond aerobics.

The reader will also note I said fat loss above not weight loss.

Though I use the term 'weight loss' throughout this article, I

do so only because it is a familiar term most people understand.

However, the true focus and goal of a properly set up nutrition

and exercise plan should be on fat loss, not weight loss. A focus

on losing weight, which may include a loss essential muscle,

water, and even bone, as well as fat, is the wrong approach.

Losing the fat and keeping the all important lean body mass

(LBM), is the goal, and the method for achieving that can be

found in my ebook(s) on the topic, and is beyond the scope of

this article. Bottom line: the type of exercise, intensity of

that exercise, length of time doing that exercise, etc., are

essential variables here when attempting to lose FAT while

retaining (LBM).

Psychology 101 of long term weight loss

Many diet programs out there don't address the psychological

aspect of why people fail to be successful with long term weight

loss. However, quite a few studies exist that have looked at just

that. In many respects, the psychological aspect is the most

important for long term weight loss, and probably the most

underappreciated component.

Studies that compare the psychological characteristics of people

who have successfully kept the weight off to people who have

regained the weight, see clear differences between these two

groups. For example, one study that looked at 28 obese women who

had lost weight but regained the weight that they had lost,

compared to 28 formerly obese women who had lost weight and

maintained their weight for at least one year and 20 women with a

stable weight in the healthy range, found the women who regained

the weight:

* Had a tendency to evaluate self-worth in terms of weight and

shape

* Had a lack of vigilance with regard to weight control

* had a dichotomous (black-and-white) thinking style

* Had the tendency to use eating to regulate mood.

The researchers concluded:

" The results suggest that psychological factors may provide some

explanation as to why many people with obesity regain weight

following successful weight loss. "

This particular study was done on women, so it reflects some of

the specific psychological issues women have - but make no

mistake here - men also have their own psychological issues that

can sabotage their long term weight loss efforts. (6)

Additional studies on men and women find psychological

characteristics such as " having unrealistic weight goals, poor

coping or problem-solving skills and low self-efficacy " often

predict failure with long term weight loss. (7) On the other

hand, psychological traits common to people who experienced

successful long term weight loss include " ...an internal

motivation to lose weight, social support, better coping

strategies and ability to handle life stress, self-efficacy,

autonomy, assuming responsibility in life, and overall more

psychological strength and stability. " (8)

The main point of this section is to illustrate that psychology

plays a major role in determining if people are successful with

long term weight loss. If it's not addressed as part of the

overall plan, it can be the factor that makes or breaks your

success. This, however, is not an area most nutrition programs

can adequately tackle and should not be expected to. However, the

better programs do generally attempt to help with motivation,

goal setting, and support. If you see yourself in the above lists

from the groups that failed to maintain their weight long term,

then know you will need to address those issues via counseling,

support groups, etc. Don't expect any weight loss program to

cover this topic adequately but do look for programs that attempt

to offer support, goal setting, and resources that will keep you

on track.

" There's a sucker born every minute "

So why don't you see this type of honest information about the

realities of long term weight loss more often? Let's be honest

here, telling the truth is not the best way to sell bars, shakes,

books, supplements, and programs. Hell, if by some miracle

everyone who read this article actually followed it, and sent it

on to millions of other people who actually followed it, makers

of said products could be in financial trouble quickly. However,

they also know - as the man said - " there's a sucker born every

minute, " so I doubt they will be kept up at night worrying about

the effects that I, or this article, will have on their

business.

So let's recap what has been learned here: the big picture

realities of permanent weight loss and how you can look at a

weight loss program and decide for yourself if it's for you

based on what has been covered above:

* Permanent weight loss is not about finding a quick fix diet,

but making a commitment to life style changes that include

nutrition and exercise

* Any weight loss program you choose must pass the " Can I eat

that way for the rest of my life? " test,

* The weight loss program you choose should ultimately teach you

how to eat and be self reliant so you can make informed long term

choices about your nutrition.

* The weight loss program you choose should not leave you

reliant on commercial bars, shakes, supplements, or pre-made

foods, for your long term success.

* The weight loss program you choose must have an effective

exercise component.

* The weight loss program you choose should attempt to help with

motivation, goal setting, and support, but can't be a

replacement for psychological counseling if needed.

Conclusion

I want to take this final section to add some additional points

and clarity. For starters, the above advice is not for everyone.

It's not intended for those who really have their nutrition

dialed in, such as competitive bodybuilders and other athletes

who benefit from fairly dramatic changes in their nutrition, such

as 'off season' and 'pre-contest' and so on.

The article is also not intended for those with medical issues

who may be on a specific diet to treat or manage a specific

medical condition. The article is intended for the average person

who wants to get off the Yo-Yo diet merry-go-round once and for

all. As that's probably 99% of the population, it will cover

millions of people.

People should also not be scared off by my " you have to eat this

way forever " advice. This does not mean you will be dieting for

the rest of your life and have nothing but starvation to look

forward to. What it does mean, however, is you will have to learn

to eat properly even after you reach your target weight and that

way of eating should not be a huge departure from how you ate to

lose the weight in the first place. Once you get to your target

weight - and or your target bodyfat levels - you will go onto a

maintenance phase which generally has more calories and choices

of food, even the occasional treat, like a slice of pizza or

whatever.

Maintenance diets are a logical extension of the diet you used to

lose the weight, but they are not based on the diet you followed

that put the weight on in the first place!

Regardless of which program you choose, use the above 'big

picture' approach which will keep you on track for long term

weight loss. See you in the gym!

References

(1) Truby H, et al. Randomised controlled trial of four

commercial weight loss programmes in the UK: initial findings

from the BBC " diet trials " BMJ 2006;332:1309-1314 (3 June),

(2) D., et al, Comparison of the Atkins, Ornish, Weight

Watchers, and Zone Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk

Reduction. A Randomized Trial. JAMA. 2005;293:43-53.

(3) Comparison of Diets for Weight Loss and Heart Disease Risk

Reduction-Reply. Dansinger. JAMA. 2005;293:1590-1591.

(4) Kruger J. et al. Dietary and physical activity behaviors

among adults successful at weight loss maintenance. International

Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 2006, 3:17

doi:10.1186/1479-5868-3-17

(5) Byrne S, et al. Weight maintenance and relapse in obesity: a

qualitative study. Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2003

Aug;27(8):955-62.

(6) Borg P, et al. Food selection and eating behaviour during

weight maintenance intervention and 2-y follow-up in obese

men.Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord. 2004 Dec;28(12):1548-54.

(7) Byrne SM. Psychological aspects of weight maintenance and

relapse in obesity. J Psychosom Res. 2002 Nov;53(5):1029-36.

(8) Elfhag K, et al. Who succeeds in maintaining weight loss? A

conceptual review of factors associated with weight loss

maintenance and weight regain. Obes Rev. 2005 Feb;6(1):67-85

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Will Brink is a best selling author and columnist for various

health, fitness, medical And bodybuilding publications. His

articles relating to nutrition, supplements, weight loss,

exercise and medicine can be found in such publications as

Lets Live, Muscle Media 2000, MuscleMag International, The

Life Extension Magazine, Muscle n Fitness, Inside Karate,

Exercise For Men Only, Body International, Power, Oxygen,

Penthouse, Women's World and The Townsend Letter For Doctors.

You can read many more free articles and more about

Will Brink at his website here: http://www.brinkzone.com