• What qualifies you to answer my questions?
• Are you trying to sell me something? Are you trying to save my soul?
• Do you want to hear my theories on how to lose weight?
• Whose theories do you want to hear about?
• Aren't people who overeat weak willed?
• I can't imagine life eating all the food I love. How can you stand it?
• I've read your weight loss "Secret." There's nothing new there. Why even bother writing it?
• What about all the websites and books I've seen that say calories have nothing to do with weight loss?
• Aren't you hungry all the time? I don't like to be hungry.
• OK, I still don't want to count calories. What other weight loss plan do you recommend I follow?
• What are the benefits of losing weight?

What qualifies you to answer my questions?

Experience is all. I'm not a physician or a nutritionist. I'm just a guy who was overweight and now I'm not. I lost seventy pounds and have kept it off for five years. Along the way, I figured out some things that worked for me. I've also spent time quizzing others who have lost significant weight and kept it off. So far, our stories are all the same. The same things worked for all of us.

I'm also sharing my story with you. If I don't do that, anything I say is just preaching. Preaching is spectacularly unsuccessful at helping people change. If you know I've been there, what I say will have tons more meaning for you. You can read my story here: Weight Loss: Motivation.

Are you trying to sell me something?

Do you want to hear my theories on how to lose weight?

Boy, this is hard. I'm going to be honest here and risk driving you away. If you've lost weight and kept it off for an extended time, I'd love to hear how you did it. But, to be frank, most people reading this haven't done that. Your theories don't seem to work. I've talked to a lot of people during the past six years who want to lose weight. Those other people bring up the subject. I never do. All of them have been wanting to lose weight for years, if not decades, and have been unsuccessful. In general, I'm not real crazy about spending time studying theory that hasn't worked.

Here's a fascinating phenomenon: Many of those people who've asked about losing weight were there and watched me lose seventy pounds and have seen me maintain the weight loss. When I respond to their questions about what's been successful, they want to argue with me. Despite the fact they've seen me lose the weight and keep it off, they want to tell me why the "I can eat anything I want" or "I can keep eating all the stuff I love" diet gurus say I'm wrong. They want to tell some magic diet they're following that works without exercise. Problem is, none of it's working. I just nod and go about my business.

My suggestion is that you seek out those that you can personally verify have been have been successful, ask how they did it, and listen.

Whose theories do you want to hear about?

The winners. The winners are people who've lost weight and kept it off. All the studies, books, and theories in the world cannot trump what has actually worked time and again for real people. And, notice there are two parts to the winners stories: They lost weight and they kept it off.

The best place to look for how the thousands of winners have done it is the National Weight Control Registry. Rena R. Wing, Ph.D. and James O. Hill Ph.D. began the National Weight Control Registry in 1993. Participants in the study have lost a minimum of thirty pounds and have kept the weight off for more than a year. The participants far exceed the minimum. As of now, the registry reports "Registry members have lost an average of 66 lbs and kept it off for [at least] 5.5 years." So what commonalities have the researchers found among the winners? Here are a few:

• There is greater variability among the winners in the dieting pattern used to initially lose weight than there is in maintaining the weight loss.
• 90% of the winners have a diet that is low in fat.
• 10% of the participants maintain weight loss on a low carbohydrate diet.
• 90% of the winners exercise for an hour a day on average.
• 75% of the winners weigh themselves at least once a week
• 90% of the winners self monitored food intake (e.g. counted calories.)
• Winners limited variety in all food groups.
• Weight loss maintenance gets easier over time. Once the winners maintained a weight loss for 2-5 years, the chances of longer-term success greatly increases.

That ends the argument for me. As it happens, those findings parallel what worked for me, too. The only reason I can fathom for not doing what the winners do is for someone to be attempting to find some magic solution to weight loss that's easy and lets us eat whatever we want. If that's your goal and you lose weight and keep it off, please let me know. I'd love to do it, too. Meanwhile, I'll keep exercising, monitoring my calories, avoid satrated fat, and keep that weight off.

Aren't people who overeat weak willed?

No. People who overeat have the same kind of addictive issues that alcoholics have. I know because I'm both of those things. If you're an alcoholic and want to quit drinking, your odds of success are about zero if you think you can "will" yourself out of alcoholism. I discovered the same is true about food. If you think you can simply "will" yourself out of eating ice cream you have the same chances of success as the alcoholic. They're not high.

To be successful, you have to make some fundamental changes in your life. That includes the way you react to life's events. You'll find help for that in the tools .

I can't imagine life without the foods I love. How can you stand it?

First, I still eat the foods that I love. I can't think of anything I love that I've haven't eaten while I was losing weight and as I've maintained my current weight. I'll get back to that in a moment.

As I've taken steps to get healthy, I've discovered something that's true about me, and I think it's true about everybody. We can adapt to virtually any circumstance. It just takes a little time. That works to help us, but also can harm us. If it's been my habit to have a dessert after every meal and I stop doing that, it's hard at first. But, after a while, that becomes the norm and I don't think about dessert after a meal anymore. I just don't. The first few days are hard, but after that it's easy. The reverse is true, too. If I have a brownie after a meal, I'll want to do that again tomorrow. Soon, that'll become standard practice.

But, I still eat everything I love. The difference is I eat the good stuff (fattening stuff) in an extremely structured manner. I have one meal off a week and eat whatever I please. That doesn't mean, though, that I eat whatever I please in great quantities. I allow myself one piece of pie a week. Notice I said one piece, not one pie. When I eat the piece of pie, it always sets off the phenomenon of craving and I have to use my relapse tools to be certain I stick to one piece. It's a tradeoff. I greatly enjoy the eating of the pie. The relapse prevention is kind of a pain, but now it lasts, maybe, two or three minutes.

I've read your weight loss "Secret" There's nothing new there. Why even bother writing it?

Because y'all keep trying to do something different! There is absolutely no doubt that the key to losing weight is changing the amount of food we eat that makes us fat. The way we measure that is in calories. We control calories in two ways: What and how much we eat and through burning the calories by way of exercise. I have no doubt about the secret because I've done it. Now, some of you will say you've done it too, and it didn't work. I'll challenge you on that. Sorry to be blunt, but you may have attempted it, but you didn't do it. See the next question for more.

What about all the websites and books I've seen that say calories have nothing to do with weight loss?

Let's make this short and sweet: If you want to lose weight, your net intake of calories (how much you take in less how much you burn) has to be less than your body requires to maintain your current weight, whatever that is. To maintain a certain weight, your net intake of calories has to be what your body requires for that weight and no more.

Period.

If you want to keep failing at weight loss, keep reading those websites and books that insist calories don't count. In fact, if you want to have a website that draws a lot of traffic, and thereby increase your advertising revenue, build one that is anti-calorie. Add in that you get to eat all the steak you want and your website will go to the top of the ratings. I wish I could do that. Just can't do it.

How do I know calories and exercise are king? First, I've done it. I reduced my calories and increased my exercise and lost two pounds a week. (See chart on right.) When I went too far and lost more weight than was healthy, I added calories. Woop, there it is: pounds were added. When I added too many pounds and added a mile to my five day a week runs, Woop there it is again: Lost pounds.

If you need more than Ed's testimony, you'll find that plenty from the most well respected entities for medical information, including the Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health,and the Harvard Medical School. Try reading this interview with Dr. James O. Hill on WebMD. Dr. Hill and his colleagues have followed over 6000 people who have lost an average of seventy pounds and kept it off for at least seven years. Guess what they've found? The successful ones count calories and exercise. That's 6000 successful losers!

But, you don't have to read all that. You can easily test the calorie theory. Eat one Snickers a day (nothing but carbs in those) and nothing else for a month. Please contact me if you do not lose weight. I guarantee you I won't find anything in my inbox.

Aren't you hungry all the time? I don't like to be hungry.

No, I'm not hungry all the time. But, I am appropriately hungry. It used to be that I ate, hungry or not. Not anymore. I'm nearly always hungry when it's time to eat something. I eat breakfast at 7:00. I feel a little hunger at 9:00. At 10:00, I'll eat an apple. Lunch is at 11:30. I'll feel hungry about 3 and have an orange. And so on. Just like it's OK, even good, to hurt when doing exercise, it's OK to feel some hunger. Now, if you're feeling hungry all the time, especially after you're into your new regime for a couple of weeks, you may need to up your calories. Listen, though: Be very careful. Be honest or you'll fail.

OK, I still don't want to count calories. What other weight loss plan do you recommend I follow?

One that works. The way you measure that is to try it for a few weeks. If you lose weight, wonderful! Keep doing it. Here are a couple of cautionary notes, though:.

• Use some common sense. Any whackdoodle out there can create a website. Statistics can be manipulated to support any kind of theory. If you don't want to waste your time, look for verifiable success stories. And with weight loss, you have to be very careful with that. Notice that advertisements for weight loss plans must tell you whether or not their plans work for most people. All the advertisements I've heard add the quick line, "Results not typical." I know what's worked for me and it's a very traditional regime. But, I have no stake in what you choose to do. I want you to be successful, though. So, I'll say that If you've done your research and tried a program and you're not losing weight and you're still miserable, try something else. Don't keep doing the same thing that doesn't work and expect different results.
• Whatever program you choose to help you lose weight, you can't pick and choose what you will or won't do and expect to be successful. If you fail to follow directions, and you don't lose weight, or you don't maintain the weight loss, don't blame the program. Look in the mirror for that.

What are the benefits of losing weight?

You already know the answer to this, but I'll list some ways my life has been better.

• I'm massively healthier. During the past six and a half years from the date of this writing, I have been sick one time and that lasted a couple of hours. I had some nausea one Sunday afternoon. I suspect tainted food from a supermarket deli. I've had no other bacterial or viral illnesses. I have had some mechanical issues. I was diagnosed with heart disease caused by my alcohol drinking and previously fat covered body. I had the bursa from my elbow removed. I had a lateral internal sphincteroptomy. I'll let you look that up, but it involved a tiny muscle issue that's totally unrelated to drinking alcohol, being overweight, smoking, or being a sloth..
• My health prognosis has made a complete turnaround. All the heart disease markers that I had, such as terrible cholesterol numbers, have been reversed.
• My self-concept has improved. I guess it shouldn't be this way, but our society values slim and trim. In fact, weight discrimination in employment is very real. (Example) While I wish it weren't so, the fact is I feel better about myself and my weight loss has enhanced my self-confidence.
• It's so much more fun to buy clothes.
• I do not dread clipping my toes anymore. It's easy.

The main thing is that my odds of living longer has been greatly enhanced. But, even if I keel over as I write these words, there is no doubt that losing weight, and keeping it off, has made life significantly better.