Moving Beyond the One Size Fits All Diet

As a physician who has treated overweight patients for twenty-one years, I learned long ago that no two people require the exact same weight management approach. And yet each year, “one size fits all” diet books fly off the shelves faster than a World Series pitch enters the strike zone. Whether it’s the latest low carb or low fat craze, all readers receive the same lists of good and bad foods that are sure to melt the pounds away. You know the drill of losing weight, feeling good but then somehow slipping back to your old habits as you watch your weight climb back up.

Did you ever wonder if you could break this cycle of weight regain by targeting those habits that keep undermining your success? I did. And this is what I discovered. People have a set of personality patterns that keep them overweight. Just like you have workplace and relationship patterns that characterize who you are, your day-to-day eating, exercise and coping patterns affect the lifestyle you lead and ultimately your body weight. So if you want to lose weight, this is what I recommend. Instead of focusing only on the foods on your plate and their magic proportion of carbs and protein, start paying attention to your lifestyle habits that keep tripping you up. Targeting these traits will help you to lose the weight.

Do your eating patterns characterize you as a Nighttime Nibbler, a Hearty Portioner, a Deprived Sneaker, a Mindless Muncher, a Convenient Consumer, an Unguided Grazer? Log onto my website at www.doctorkushner.com, take the online quiz and find out. You’ll discover that each person has his or her own profile or combination of patterns. And each pattern has its own weight-busting strategies. The key to this individualized program is that you choose a pattern to work on that you strongly relate to, get it under control, lose weight, enjoy the benefits and then move onto another pattern. Instead of a “one size fits all” approach, you learn ways to convert your weight- gaining patterns into weight-losing habits.

Robert F. Kushner, M.D. is Professor of Medicine at Northweste
University in Chicago and Medical Director at the Wellness Institute at Northweste
Memorial Hospital. Board certified in internal medicine and nutrition, Dr. Kushner has treated thousands of overweight patients and has twenty-one years of experience in the weight loss field. In 2001-2002, Dr. Kushner was named one of the Best Doctors in America. A noted national and international speaker, Dr. Kushner has authored nearly 100 scientific articles on nutrition and obesity and appeared on Good Morning America and CNN.

For more information, you can email Dr. Kushner at doctorkushner@aol.com or visit his website at www.doctorkushner.com