Reinhard: a suggestion for you...

[Kathleen]

I know you've been interested in more press for your diet, and I would suggest you promote the idea of successful losers (like sophiasapientia and vmsurbat) applying to be part of the National Weight Control Registry. (BrightAngel is already part of this. It's a group of 6,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year, and information these people provide are used in studies on obesity.)

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Here's something from a Tuesday, July 13th Wall Street Journal article entitled "Why Some People Can Resist Dessert While Others Can't":

Some of the most intriguing imaging studies have peered into the brains of people who have lost significant weight and kept it off through diet and exercise alone -- although researchers say they're hard to find.

"They are very controlled individuals, and they are very rare. We had to fly some in from Alaska," says Angelo Del Parigi, a neuroimaging scientiest who finally located 11 "post-obese" subjects who had dieted down to the lean range. In his studies for the National Institutes of Health's diabetes research center in Phoenix, Dr. Del Parigi found that food still elicited strong responses in the middle insula and the hippocampus, brain areas involving addiction, reward, learning and memory, just like the 23 obese subjects did.

This suggests that the tempation to see food as pleasure doesn't go away. "Post-obese poeple are extremely prone to regain weight," says Dr. Del Parigi. "The only way they have to counteract these strong predispositions is by having a very controlled lifestyle, with restrained food intake and exercise."
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The reason why I think there are so many people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off on your diet is that giving up snacks and sweets on certain days as a habit leads to tuning out a reaction to a tempting treat. My guess is that post-obese people who have followed your diet don't have the same reaction as obese people because, after all, "You're pre-disapproved" to eat a sweet on an N Day."

I think you've got a diet here that is fundamentally different from others in that it isn't the constant struggle of so many other diets, so I guess I'd encourage you to encourage successful losers to become part of the National Weight Control Registry.

I'm not there yet, but I will be. Three decades of disordered eating has made my ride a little bit rougher, but I'm confident I'll get there.

Kathleen

[sophiasapientia]

I actually just received my invitation to join the National Weight Control Registry on Friday. I just have to send back my paperwork and my before & after pics and I'm officially "in" ... (FWIW, I've successfully maintained a 48 pound weight loss for years. No S has been a godsend in providing a sustainable framework for losing/keeping off the rest of the excess weight -- 20+ pounds or so -- which had been a constant challenge. I didn't know about No S when I lost the bulk of my weight, unfortunately, but I am very glad that I do now.)

Anyway, I think Kathleen's suggestion is a good one! (And I have no doubt that you will get there too, Kathleen. )

[reinhard]

Thanks for the suggestion, Kathleen.

I'll make a note about it in the testimonials section.

I guess I qualify myself -- maybe I should try to join.

Here's the link:

http://www.nwcr.ws/

Reinhard

[Kathleen]

Reinhard,

Definitely do join! The Wall Street Journal article that I cited above provides the reason why I am so enthusiastic about this diet. This diet is not about willpower; it's about habit. I think that people who follow this diet are more likely to have a brain scan similar to those who are naturally thin than to those who are obese. The reason why I think this is that I have such a reduced response to sweets and snacks on N Days. I simply "tune out" the temptation. For all those years following a diet of periodic calorie restriction, when I would have qualified for the NWCR, I was exhausted and consumed by managing my weight. The collapse of willpower led to a 60 pound weight gain. I look around at the super morbidly obese and think that I would have been in their ranks had I not found this diet.

Someday, I'll join the NWCR, too. My slow pace of weight loss I attribute to three decades of disordered eating.

Kathleen

[reinhard]

Anyone else do this yet?

I just got my paperwork packet in the mail.

Now just a matter of find 20 spare minutes to plow through it...

Reinhard