Weight Loss Really Can Be Simple

Some tips from three decades in the business

In our increasingly obese nation, millions of people dream about losing weight. Most of them repeatedly attempt to do so, but fail to make it stick—time after time. I have some ideas to share about how to shed pounds—permanently and with as little hassle as possible. My ideas are based on a lot of experience, too. I guess I actually qualify as a weight loss expert.

In 1982 I entered the clinical weighing and measuring device market—a fancy way of saying I was a scale salesmen. I got very good at it and wound up outfitting practically every national weight loss and health club chain in the U.S. with highly accurate digital scales, along with blood pressure equipment, body composition analyzers and a host of other medical related products. Among others, I provided equipment to hundreds of Nutri-System and Jenny Craig locations. I also equipped thousands of physician offices, nursing homes, hospitals, clinics, mail order companies, physician and hospital supply companies with similar devices. I learned a lot about weighing and measuring people, from premature newborns to geriatric patients, from the bed-ridden to the morbidly obese.

As I became more involved in this area of sales, I also became active in the bariatrics community (the folks who study and treat obesity) and I diversified into the whole range of bariatric medical products. Obesity has reached the level of an epidemic in the U. S. and appears to be getting worse instead of better. So, if you’re in the health care supply chain business, you understand that this is—forgive me— one “big ass” market.

Over the years, I have turned two foreign scale manufacturers (one German and one Japanese) into U.S. market leaders, saved a smaller domestic scale manufacturer from going out of business, and I am currently working with another domestic firm that I brought in from the commercial scale side, and that I feel will very soon become the number one market leader in health care.

I also owned a weight loss franchise for two years. (I’m trying to forget that one; I think I was the only one losing weight.)

All in all, then, I understand weighing and measuring as it relates to human beings. Here are some of the conclusions I have reached, and some tips I offer you that can make your weight loss efforts work.

You can’t read weight away.

The weight loss sections in bookstores and libraries often take up several whole rows and there are numerous books available on the subject, with more coming every day. My thinking is that weight loss is actually quite simple, and this brief article really includes everything you need to know to lose weight permanently. Some people read weight loss books as a substitute for actually losing weight. The fact is, nobody can read weight away, and who wants to read an entire book on losing weight anyway? Frankly I would rather be horse whipped; go find a good novel to read instead.

The results of most “programs” don’t last.

I cringe every time I see an ad on TV about weight loss programs because, frankly, they don’t work. There are many weight loss programs out there ready to capitalize on people’s desperate desire to look great while continuing to overeat and under-exercise. Most of them simply don’t work in the long run. They do provide contact with other people in the same boat, and therefore mutual support, but for the relatively high expense of long-term participation in these programs, the results are scant. Those programs that are based on buying pre-prepared meals or proprietary foods are not only the most costly, but they are also inevitably self-limiting. No one can eat that stuff for too long!

The relatively rapid business cycle of these firms testifies to their results. With the exception of Weight Watchers, they have all taken their turn going in and out of business. If you are determined to join one, Weight Watcher has a reasonable program that has worked for many over the long haul. They have the highest percentage of people who kept lost weight off after a year. If you’re inclined to join up with a different program, at least do some due diligence.

Calories are calories.

The fundamental nutrition fact is that calories are calories. Whether you eat more or fewer fats, carbs or proteins, the total calories you consume each day, relative to your body’s needs, determines whether you will gain, lose, or hold steady. Some foods (candy, pastry, soft cheeses, pizza, pasta. . .) contain many calories. People with a sedentary life style can’t eat many of them without gaining weight. Some foods, especially fruits and vegetables, contain relatively fewer calories, but many people find that making a diet of them alone is very unsatisfying and hard to stick to. An all banana diet? Not in this lifetime!

Many Americans are too fat not only because they eat too many of the wrong foods, but too much food period!. Owing to our relative wealth and sedentary lifestyles, we have super-sized our food portions far beyond our bodies’ needs. That can only lead to excess weight.

My belief is that people do best losing weight by eating what satisfies them, but in portions small enough to keep total daily calories in line with desired weight goals. If you’re going to lose weight you must cut calories. If you’re going to maintain your weight, you must hold calories and metabolism in balance. If you’re going to gain weight. . . well, we all have that one figured out.

It’s also important to recognize your worst food habits. Honestly decide, “What I am eating that is making me overweight?” You may not even realize what it is at first. Perhaps you have slid into the notion that cashews make a healthy midnight snack. Or that gravy is a beverage. Maybe you eat a bag of pretzels every afternoon, or four glasses of ale every evening. Figure out what your highest calorie bad habit is and then either stop it altogether or, at least, cut it back to a lower-calorie level.

Accurate weight tracking is the key.

Weight gain sets up a nasty cycle. You add a few pounds and you feel more sluggish. You move less and more slowly than before, which slows your metabolism. This triggers more weight gain. So how do you undo this spiraling gain and all the bad consequences that go with it? You need to reverse the nasty, weight-gain cycle and replace it with a self-motivating success cycle. You need to lose weight—even a very small amount, and use that achievement to spur you on to a habit of gradual but continuing weight loss.

Losing weight is really pretty simple, once you make the commitment. The real key is accurate weight measurement—combined with the appropriate adjustments in your caloric intake to move your weight gradually downward.

Invest in an extremely accurate, professional-grade digital scale to measure your progress. I know, you’re thinking, “This guy just wants to sell me a scale.” Wrong. I am no longer a scales sales guy and I will not make a dime if you buy a scale or not. I am a consultant. I help manufacturers of medical equipment become market leaders. But I do know my scales. Cheap scales are not sufficiently accurate. You really need a highly reliable device to make my approach work for you.

For my money, I love the Doran DS 6100 (about $500.00, www.Doranscales.com item #DS6100). You will pass it down to your great grandchildren. But you will also have to use it consistently and correctly. Here’s how:

We are always the lightest in the morning, because we haven’t eaten for at least six hours or so and have actually sloughed off some weight while sleeping. So, my suggestion is weigh yourself every single morning. And don’t weigh yourself until you have urinated and you are completely naked. This is important because it will make your measurement more accurate and consistent. Shed it all, including wallet, eye glasses, jewelry, socks, shoes, hair clips, underwear, teeth retainers, toe rings, piercings etc.. All of it off!

You may be horrified by what you scale tells you at first. Deal with it. This scale is your new best friend because soon, very soon, it will reveal your progress and it will only communicate with you. No one but you will see it.

It is also critical to keep a log of your morning daily weight. The exciting thing is, provided you cut back on you eating even a little bit, you will see progress on day two. How much is up to you, but even a tenth of a pound will be encouraging. You must realize is that you gained the weight a little at time and you will lose it a little a time. The good news is you can lose it much faster than you gained it.

The reason this approach works so well is that you will have eliminated all factors that might affect accuracy and your ability to see the results of your progress. It’s Day One. Your scale might show you a reading of 275.8, or whatever. The last digit represents 10ths of a pound, not ounces. That is the number to focus on first: making that last digit go down. Even if on day two it reads 275.7 you have lost weight, and you are on your way to feeling and looking great!

People will often say they have to lose 50 pounds (or much more) and the thought of that is so overwhelming they give up before they even get started. Instead, think in terms of losing 10ths of a pound, day after day after day. This is very important. Just one or two days of seeing that 10ths digit go down will motivate you to do even better on day three and four. As soon as you realize that you can do this and that you can do it without having to deprive yourself of good healthy food in reasonable quantities, you will finally have a lifelong handle on this part of your life. It is very common to see losses of a pound or more per day at first, mostly in water. But that’s fine, because at the beginning really fast results give you a big boost in confidence.

Exercise makes the pounds go away faster.

Long-term success in weight loss requires a lifestyle change. You’ll have to limit calories, but not so much that you undermine you commitment to long-term weight control. Adding a little exercise to your program will really speed it up—nothing crazy for starters, maybe just a casual walk around the block before bedtime. This will get your metabolism working for you while you sleep. Exercise when you’re even 20 pounds overweight seems horrible. So ease yourself into it. Be nice to your body while it’s going through this transition. But beware: exercise can be addictive, and really fun. In time, maybe you will go crazy and hire a personal trainer after you’ve shed some pounds and built your confidence. Do this and you will be heading for the store for new clothes before you know it.

There you have it. Pretty simple, as it should be. Just a few pounds off and you will naturally move a little faster, get out of the car more easily, walk a little faster. Before you know it your body will turn into a fat burning machine. Good Luck! Good Health! Enjoy the new clothes; you’re going to look great!