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Showing posts with the label Successful Weight Maintenance

Jenny Craig's Weight Maintenance Program: Success or Failure?

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When I try to get work in the US all they say is that I need to lose weight--but I bet they never said that to Mae West. --Charlotte Church When Consumer Reports rated the best diet programs, the editors rated Jenny Craig the top program, basing their findings on a study funded, in part, by no other than Jenny Craig. Consumer Reports made a lame attempt to use this small study (in which the participants were given, for two years of free Jenny Craig food and waived program fees) to prove that, overall, Jenny Craig members kept the weight off the longest. Well, duh... But now I would like to cut through the BS and see how well Jenny Craig (and, eventually, other programs) really works in the weight maintenance department. We all know that weight loss programs, even dangerous ones (which Jenny Craig is not), work for taking weight off. For example, I could go on a fasting diet for a week and lose a significant amount of weight, although it's not likely I'll keep the

Asking the Right Questions

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Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers. --Tony Robbins We are not likely to find the best answers unless we ask the right questions. Yesterday, my first interview with a naturally thin person (Harvey Rapp) was a real eye opener; I literally stumbled upon, by accident, some interesting facts about slim people. Serendipity. Of course, an interview with one person does not prove anything definitive, but this particular interview revealed some of the "secret" questions I should be adding to my questionnaire. Without my having asked--because I was unaware of the right questions--Harvey offered some stunning insights. To find out, you'll have to read the interview . We have two groups of people: those who struggle with weight and food issues and those who don't. And there is often a lack of understanding between the two groups, which can cause conflict. For example, I can't tell you how often I have heard these

Diet Programs and Weight Maintenance

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I am the one who got myself fat, who did all the eating. So I had to take full responsibility for it. --Kirstie Alley Let me say this right up front: I have failed at EVERY diet program I have tried. Yes, in almost every case, I have taken off the weight successfully. That has never been the problem for me. I'm the Queen of the weight-loss program circuit; I have spent most of my adult life in search of the Holy Grail, the definitive answer to my weight problem. But I have never been able to keep the lost pounds off. I want this time to be different; I want to be part of the 5%-7% who keeps the weight off for two years or more. Who doesn't? None of us join a program expecting failure in our future. However, NONE of the existing weight loss programs really address weight maintenance. I believe that Weight Watchers comes the closest but is not quite there yet. Perhaps it's because there is little profit in maintenance programs. Diet programs make their

Memoir Madness: Driven to Involuntary Commitment