Biggest Loser Diet Secrets

Psychology Today has an article on

Secrets of the Big Losers
How to reprogram mental eating habits for physical success.

By: Jay Dixit

There’s no question that losing weight is hard and keeping it off even harder. But it’s not impossible. The National Weight Control Registry lists thousands of people who have lost more than 50 pounds and kept it off more than five years. Here’s how to do the same.

Make radical changes. People think moderate dietary changes are easier to stick with. But as with quitting drug addiction, drastic changes are actually easier. “We don’t tell heroin addicts if you stay clean all week, you can reward yourself by shooting up a small amount on the weekend,” says Deirdre Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School and author of Waistland. “Sugar derails glucose metabolism in a similar way.” She advises cutting out sugars, refined foods, simple carbohydrates, and trans fats.
Reprogram your brain. Losing weight means developing new eating habits—like reaching for an orange instead of an oreo. The hardest part is the first 72 hours, when eating right is an act of will. After two or three weeks of sticking to it, your hunger and cravings subside, and control over eating choices becomes more automatic. Voila, your brain is rewired.
Eat breakfast. Without breakfast, your body plunges into starvation mode, slowing your metabolism and tempting you to binge later. Over 78 percent of the registry’s successful losers eat breakfast every day.
Exercise like you mean it. An evening walk every other day isn’t going to cut it. Ninety percent of registry participants exercised—for a full hour, on average, most days of the week.
Stretch your mind. Stop living on autopilot. A study shows that people who push their comfort zones and try new things—like reading a different magazine or listening to a new radio station—lose weight and keep it off. Breaking out of your routine may make you more aware of your choices in general, and less likely to engage in mindless eating.

Analyize Your Diet Situation

First you need to figure out how many calories your body needs to maintain the weight you have. I did it for sedentary and moderate activity  (I got 2200 & 2500) so I would get the calories for my slow days and workout days. Next you should take one of the numbers, 2200 for example and minus 500 from it for a loss of 1lb a week or minus 1000 for a loss of 2lbs a week. Keep in mind women should NEVER eat less than 1200 calories and 1500 calories for me! So minus the other number and you have the number of calories you should eat on workout and nonworkout days (my result was 1700 & 2000). It works well for me. 

3 Things your Critics Should Know

I’ve found myself eating without thinking. I’ve had a desire for sweets and I think it has more to do with stress and anxiety than a physical craving. I have a very hard time stopping myself when I’m like that. I can observe myself and say “stop!” but it doesn’t work. It’s like Jackal and Hyde. I know it sounds like an excuse but it’s truly how it is. I know some people don’t understand what it’s like to overweight. Some people think it’s just laziness and unwillingness to change.  Some, like someone close to me, thinks you can just “knock it off”. It doesn’t help the problem when people think you’re making it up or are just lazy. I’m not! This is very comparable to a drug addiction. I’m not in control 100% of the time. I’m not ME 100% of the time. There are three things that are most important for your support system and critics to know:

1. I have a different relationship with food than you do. They might have a happy/healthy relationship with food but mine is more comparable to an abusive one. I can’t just get up and leave, there are issues here!
2. My body is different than your body. For example, when you walk up stairs, you don’t give it a second thought but for overweight folks, it might be equivalent to you hiking a quarter mile up hill (it varies but you get the point). So the fact a heavier person poops out after a fight of stairs, doesn’t mean they are lazy, it means their body is out of shape and and had to work as hard as you would on a quarter mile hike up hill.
3. Sympathy, not blame. I know it’s almost second nature to blame a fat person for their weight. I’m not saying we are innocent victims but try to not write us off as lazy, pathetic and self absorbed. Most of us were raised on bad habits of our families long before we knew better and by the time we did, it was a hardcore habit. Also, some of us have had horrible childhood traumas and other stresses that we use food to medicate. It’s not right, it’s not healthy and, 99% of the the time, it’s not conscious. No one chooses to be fat. We can choose what we do about it but just know that fat people are battling hardwired life long habits. Would it really be easy for you to kick life long habits?