It’s Not About The Pizza

We were watching 60 minutes follow six people through the famed Duke University Rice Diet Program. All six people lost an incredible amount of weight, but five of the six put it all back on in less than a year. One out of six people successfully maintaining weight loss seems to be a pretty accurate statistic. After 34 years of studying health and fitness, that dismal number is about what we’ve seen.

Why are the statistics for lasting weight loss so low, and why did the people at Duke fail? After all, the Duke program is one of the most prestigious and successful weight-loss programs in the world. If you can’t be successful with permanent weight loss at Duke, where can you turn for hope?

Here’s our take: Most people can’t sustain a healthy weight because very few spend time figuring out why they’re gaining weight in the first place. And we’re not talking about eating too much and exercising too little—at this point we’ll assume that most everyone can figure that much out. We’re talking about exploring what’s going on in your head. Why is it you eat too much and make bad food choices? Are you depressed? Are you upset about the relationship you’re in or unhappy with who you are? Maybe you’ve got family problems, low self-esteem or you’re lonely and food fills the void. These are heavy issues that many people prefer to ignore. The problem is that until you resolve the underlying problems, you won’t be able to master the surface symptom—your weight.

While we’re not trained psychologists, we have seen enough emotional pain from clients over the years to recognize that pizza (or donuts or any other high-calorie food) is usually not the real problem. The real problem lies deep inside and is almost never discovered. If you’ve ridden the weight-loss roller coaster one too many times, consider talking to a professional psychologist or psychiatrist. Maybe you’ll finally be the one-out-of-six that succeeds at creating a healthy life.

To read more about taking care of yourself, transforming your body and life get a copy of the Great Shape-Up Program today from America’s Healthiest Couple, Dan & Jennifer Polimino.