Tag: weighless

Frequently Asked Questions about the Weighless Program

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Q. I don’t live in the U.S. Will I be able to participate fully in the program? 

A. Geography is no barrier to taking part in Weighless!  We already have people enrolled from Australia, Canada, the UK, and Europe, so you also will not be the only one! As long as you eat food, move your body, and have access to the internet, you have everything you need to participate. We will also be sure to schedule our live check-ins at a variety of times of day so that everyone will have a chance to take advantage of this.

Q. My husband and I are trying to conceive. Will I have to drop out if I get pregnant?

A. I got this question from so many people that I suspect we are going to have a Weighless baby boom! Although some adjustments will obviously need to be made if you get pregnant during the program, Weighless is an ideal approach for those wanting to maintain healthy habits and manage weight gain during pregnancy.

Q. I will be traveling for a period of time during the program. Will this be a problem?

A. The Weighless approach goes wherever you go! The whole idea is to cultivate a healthy approach that works in the context of real life, which sometimes includes travel. If you have no access to the internet for an extended period of time, you may have a little catching up to do when you get back online. But any materials you miss will be waiting for you when you return. (If you give us some advance notice, we can also try to send some advance work along with you.)

Q. I’m a vegetarian. Will this work for me?

A. The Weighless approach accommodates any and all dietary preferences, restrictions, and requirements. There are no required or forbidden foods and no one-size-fits-all dogma. We believe there are many ways to put together a healthy diet. Our goal is to help you discover what works best for your body, metabolism, lifestyle, and preferences.

Q. I’ve been diagnosed with pre-diabetes? Can I do Weighless?

A. Our program draws on an evidence-based curriculum designed specifically for those at increased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. There is no better place for you to take steps to reduce your risk.

Q. I only have 10-15 pounds to lose. Is this a good fit for me? 

A. Absolutely! This program is not about losing a certain number of pounds. It’s about developing the mindset, habits, and lifestyle that allow you to maintain a healthy weight without dieting. Whether you have ten or a hundred pounds to lose, the process is the same. Those who have less to lose will simply be practicing their maintenance skills a bit sooner in the process. (Although even those with a substantial amount of weight to lose will have ample opportunity to practice the art of living at a lower weight.)

Q. I have a surgery scheduled during the program which will restrict my ability to exercise. Will that prevent me from participating? 

A. There is no prescribed exercise requirement or regimen. We do work on finding ways to make our lives more active, but based on what’s possible for you. Unfortunately, life occasionally serves up injuries, surgeries, and other inconveniences and we believe it’s important to have an approach that can accommodate all of that.

Q. How many people will be in the group? I don’t want to get lost in a crowd.

A. Although we don’t yet know for sure how many people will be in the program, we expect it to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 120 people–big enough to give us some esprit de corps but small enough that we will really be able to get to know one another. (Speaking of which, our private online group is already up and running and we look forward to welcoming you as soon as you enroll.)

Are you ready to stop dieting and start weighing less? Details for enrolling are here.

Do you have the right nutrition goals for 2018?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

As 2017 winds down, a lot of us are starting to think about our goals and resolutions for the coming year.  What are yours? Are you planning to “eat clean in 2018”? Give up sugar? Work out more? Eat out less? (Or maybe just eat less?)

How are this year’s goals different from last year’s?

If you find yourself re-making the same resolutions year after year, the problem may not be with you. It might be the goals.

Here are two of the most common reasons we fail to achieve our goals:

Too Vague

Eating clean certainly sounds like a good idea. The problem is that no-one really knows what it means. Similarly, goals like ‘working out more’ or ‘eating out less’ tend to falter because they are too vague.  More or less than what?

Choosing goals that are specific and measurable, such as ‘getting to the gym 3 times a week,’ or will greatly increase your chances of notching a win.

Too Extreme

At the other end of the spectrum are those take-no-prisoners goals like completely eliminating sugar from your diet. Or, going from never exercising to getting up every morning at 5am to work out for 60 minutes before work.

Nothing vague or unmeasurable about these! But setting goals that are unrealistic or unattainable (for you right now) can also set you up for failure. The first time you oversleep and miss your workout, you may be tempted to bail on the whole enterprise.

Choosing the Right Goals

I’ve found that the goals most likely to be acheived tend to have the following attributes:

Incremental:  If you actually cooked dinner a grand total of four times in 2017,  resolving to cook every meal from scratch in 2018 is probably not an achievable goal. How about resolving to cook two meals a week? (Cook extra so that you have leftovers!)

Sustainable: I once decided that doing 45-minutes of yoga every morning would make my life better.  And no doubt it would if I lived on Mars, where every day is 24 hours and 40 minutes long. Here on Earth, it turns out that I can only fit yoga in 3 times a week (which is way better than zero times.)   If achieving your goal requires more time, money, or energy than you have–or can make–available, the odds of long term success aren’t good. Try to choose goals that don’t require bending the time/space continuum.

[bctt tweet=”Try to choose goals that don’t require bending the time/space continuum.” username=”nutritiondiva”]

Aligned with your values:  Behavior change is always challenging. But changing your behavior because someone else thinks you should is nigh unto impossible.  When considering which goals you might like to set for yourself in 2018, think about why each one is important to you and choose the one(s) that bring you closer to who and how you want to be in the world. Those are the goals that are worth pursuing.

Setting and achieving meaningful goals is a big part of what we do in the Weighless Program, a year-long group coaching program focused on behavior change and sustainable weight loss. Click here to learn more.

What’s your biggest weight loss struggle?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

A. Can’t stick to a diet long enough to lose weight.

B. Lose weight but then gain it all back.

C.  Can’t figure out which dietary approach is best

I posted this question to my Facebook page recently and comments poured in almost immediately. Apparently,  a LOT of us are struggling.

Interestingly, there was no clear “winner” in terms of the biggest challenge. Votes were roughly equally divided among all three, with a fair number of people choosing “all of the above.”

We struggle to figure out which diet we should follow. Then, we struggle to stick to it long enough to lose weight. And if we do manage to lose any weight, we eventually end up gaining it all back.

I think all three of these struggles are due to a single cause: Dieting.

Diets are not the solution. They’re the problem.

We have been taught that solution to being overweight is to go on a diet. When we fail, we’re told that we picked the wrong diet. Fortunately, there is always another diet to try. And around and around we go.

But if dieting worked, we’d ALL be thin by now. And it’s not about finding the “right” diet or the will power to stick to it.  It’s about finding your healthy weight and the life that goes with it. 

Lets try something different

It’s time to stop dieting and start weighing less. And I don’t mean “Once you weigh less, you can stop dieting.” I mean, “If you want to weigh less, you have got to stop dieting.”

For lifelong dieters, I know that’s easier said than done. I have supported hundreds of people through the process of “diet withdrawal” and helped them find their path to sustainable weight loss.  It doesn’t happen overnight. But, like any journey, it does start with a single step. Why not take it today?

Click below to learn more about a proven program that has already helped hundreds of people escape the endless cycle of failed and yo-yo diets.  You have nothing to lose…except the struggle (and the weight).

I'm ready to stop dieting. Show me how.

Despite billions spent on dieting, obesity rate hits new high

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

Americans are spending more on dieting than ever before--more than $60 billion a year.  The percentage of obese adults is also at an all time high of 40%. 

Do you think there might be a connection between these two trends?  I do.

Clearly, dieting  is not the solution to the obesity problem. In fact, I think it's a big part of the problem.  

Problem #1:  Even the most "responsible" diets encourage you to lose weight far faster than your body can actually lose fat. As a result, you end up losing a little bit of fat and a lot of water and lean muscle tissue.

Problem #2: Diets teach you how to lose weight but they don't teach you how to weigh less.  (There's a big difference.)  As a result, most people will eventually regain all the weight they lose...or more.

Problem #3: When you regain the weight, you don't gain back the lean muscle that you lost while dieting. You replace it with fat, which makes it even harder to lose weight the next time.

It's time to try something different

Last summer, my colleague Brock Armstrong and I launched WeighlessTM, a program that shows people how to stop dieting and start weighing less. Weighless is not a diet or exercise program. It's a structured lifestyle change program that combines nutrition science, behavior modification, professional guidance, and community support.

The results have exceeded even our high hopes. It's been absolutely exhilarating to see people escape a lifetime of yo-yo dieting and find the path to sustainable weight loss.  I'm more convinced than ever before that diets are not the answer to our obesity epidemic. (They're a big part of the problem.)

If you think you might be ready to stop dieting and start weighing less, there are more details about the Weighless program here.

Losing weight will shorten your life? Not exactly.

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

A new study finds that people who lost more than 15% of their body weight over a five year period were actually more likely to die than those who didn’t lose weight. What’s more, the biggest losers were more likely to die than people who gained 20% during the same period.

How can this be? We’re constantly bombarded with headlines about the obesity epidemic and how it’s shaving years off our life span. Are you really better off remaining overweight than losing weight? 

[bctt tweet="Poor health causes weight loss, not the other way around." username="nutritiondiva"]

This latest study does not distinguish between intentional and unintentional weight loss, nor did it take into account the cause of death. People who are terminally ill tend to lose weight. But there's a world of difference between losing weight due to serious illness and intentionally losing weight.

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

One way to see this quite clearly is to distinguish between the loss of total body weight and the loss of body fat. The loss of total body weight may be associated with increased mortality. But the loss of body fat is associated with increased life span.

Another way to separate out the effect of wasting disease is to distinguish between intentional and unintentional weight loss. Previous studies have shown that while unintentional weight loss is associated with increased risk of death, intentional weight loss can reduce mortality by 15%

The Bottom Line(s)

Actually, I have three bottom lines for you

Bottom Line #1. Losing excess body fat will improve your health.

Bottom Line #2. Losing weight slowly will increase the percentage of body fat you lose.

Bottom Line #3. Losing a modest amount of weight and keeping it off will do more to improve your health than repeatedly losing and gaining large amounts of weight.

Need help with sustainable weight loss? That’s what the Weighless program is all about. ​Learn more.. 

Does losing weight really lower your disease risk?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

James writes:

“Everyone refers to weight as being a risk factor for various diseases. But is it true that losing weight actually lowers one’s risk?  Or could some other factor be responsible for both disease risk and a higher weight?”

If you’re overweight or obese, losing weight absolutely does reduce your risk of various complications and diseases. Because when you lose weight, it’s not just the the number on the scale that changes.  Losing weight can reduce your blood pressure as well as your fasting blood sugar, for example, and that in turn lowers your risk for stroke and diabetes.

[bctt tweet=” When you lose weight, it’s not just the the number on the scale that changes. ” username=”nutritiondiva”]

And, by the way, losing even a small amount–as little as 5% of your current weight–can significantly reduce your risk of various conditions, even if you are still overweight. For this reason, you’d be better off losing a modest amount of weight and keeping it off than losing a large amount of weight and gaining it back!

(And if you’ve had enough of yo-yo dieting, you may be interested in a new project I’m working on.) But keep in mind that having a risk factor for a disease does not mean that you are certain to develop the disease.  If you are a smoker, you are much more likely to develop lung cancer than  a non-smoker. But some smokers don’t get lung cancer–and some non-smokers do.

Which Risk Factors Should We Focus On?

Some disease risk factors are things we can’t change–such as our age, race, gender, or genetic heritage. I’m at higher risk of developing osteoporosis than James is, simply because I’m female.

Other risk factors, such as our body weight, eating habits, exercise, and other lifestyle habits, are within our control. I can lower my risk of developing osteoporosis, for example, by not smoking and getting regular exercise.

No Guarantees So Enjoy the Ride!

Despite what some people will tell you,  there is no way to completely disease-proof your body. All we can do is focus on our modifiable risk factors and hope for the best. And because there are no guarantees, I think it’s important to strike a balance between lowering risk and maintaining quality of life. Or, as my friend Yoni Freedhoff likes to say, “Live the healthiest life you can enjoy living.”

Given up on losing weight?

by Monica Reinagel, MS, LDN

The number of overweight and obese Americans has climbed steadily in recent decades, from 53% of adults in 1988 to 65% in 2014. At the same time, fewer overweight Americans are trying to lose weight--just 47%, down from 55% back in 1988.

The authors of the study, which was published in JAMA this month, wondered whether we've simply made our peace with being fat.

"As more people around us are getting heavier, we simply believe we are fine, and no need to do anything with it," lead author Liang Zhang told the AP News Service.

That may be part of it.

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