Fat Matters

BLOG MOVED TO WWW.FATMATTERS.COM

2009-08-01T05:00:00.001-07:00

Please note that this blog has been moved to www.fatmatters.com. Please visit FatMatters.com for the latest on weight loss by Dr. Lavinia Rodriguez.

You can also follow Dr. Lavinia Rodriguez on Twitter or Facebook.

I Can't Control My Portion Sizes

2009-04-17T10:30:00.000-07:00

If you want to control your portions, stop depending just on your will power and try some of the tips below:

Start from where you're at-Gradually reduce your portions so it doesn't feel so depriving and overwhelming. Going from three scoops of ice cream to two-and-half, is going to feel more reachable than going from three to one.

Learn what a normal portion is-Don't get bogged down with being accurate. Focus on what a normal portion is generally; and gradually strive toward that.

Take small steps-If it feels overwhelming, make the goal smaller.

Add color to plate-Think of your plate like a color palette. Strive to make it as colorful as possible with greens, yellows, oranges, and reds. The more colorful your plate, the more satisfied your brain will be and the less you will eat.

Add fiber-Fiber is filling, making you feel full faster and eating less. Foods such as vegetables, fruits and whole grains have the most fiber.

Don't put extra food on table-When you put servings platters on the table, it bombards the brain with more food cues and you'll end up eating more. Leave the extra food in the kitchen.

Use small plates, bowls and glasses-Smaller plates and bowls look fuller to the brain and these signals will make the brain feel satisfied with smaller portions.

Slow down-Yes, it's true. It takes about 20 minutes for messages to get to the brain that you are full. If you eat fast, you'll eat more before realizing you've had enough. Chew everything well before swallowing, swallow everything before taking another bite, take a sip of water between bites, and savor your food.

Wait a little-If you're not sure if you're full or not, wait a little (about 20 minutes). Chances are you'll find out you've had enough.

You don't need to have it all now-Remind yourself that there are no rules about food anymore so you don't need to have it all now. You can change your mind at anytime so you can have some later. It doesn't have to be now.

Diet books

2009-04-08T14:00:00.000-07:00

We're inundated with diet books in this country. Since I have to review what's going on in the diet world continually, I feel I am a good judge of what's out there. One of my goals is to make consumers smarter about what they will buy into among the huge numbers of diet books, diet programs and diet aids thrown at them almost daily.

Diet books are a good place to start. Basically, if the book has "DIET" in the title, skip it. Almost by definition, the word "diet" implies a beginning and an end. Do you want to go on something that can't be followed for the rest of your life (which is what is needed to manage a healthy weight for a lifetime)? Publishers put "DIET" in the title to grab you immediately. Publishers know that most people are not good consumers of weight management information so they play on that. But you want to be a smart, informed consumer. You won't be fooled by tricks like these.

The other thing many diet books do is include recipes. This makes the book longer but not necessarily more informative. Colored pictures of food are appetizing but the fact is that most people who buy the books never use the recipes.

If the diet book wants you to buy their products such as special foods, supplements, or exercise products, pass it by also. If you buy into the needing special foods, you will only spend a lot of money and end up in the same place you've been before. The truth is that there are no supplements that cause more fat loss. It's a gimmick-don't buy into it. Finally, how many people do you know that buy exercise products before they intend to start a diet and never use them? It's not the product that is going to cause you to lose fat. This again will only get you to spend money that could be used in a better way or not used at all.

If a weight loss book doesn't promise amazingly fast fat loss, doesn't suggest you have to buy their products, makes good logical sense, and teaches a program that you can follow for the rest of your life, that's where you need to start.

The Brain is a Terrible Thing to Waste

2009-03-17T11:24:00.000-07:00

One of the major reasons that diets fail and that the dieting industry doesn't have it right, is because of the psychological side of things. I'm not talking about deep seated emotional issues which most people struggling with their weight do not have. No, I'm talking about something we all share-the way our brains naturally think.

The brain resists us when we try to make it do something that is inconsistent with the way it normally thinks. Think of the brain like a child. If you want to teach something new to a child, what is the most effective way to do it? I don't think you would say that threatening the child, abusively punishing her, or chastising her would work very well. It also doesn't work to give the child such large and awesome tasks that he will feel overwhelmed. Add inducing guilt and you have the perfect formula for the child to fail. Instead, if you treat the child with compassion, patience, praise, and help them to focus on one small step at a time, you will have a child who is motivated, relaxed, and enthusiastic. This child will succeed. It's the same with ourselves when we embark on changes to lose or manage our weight.

The more flexible, positive, praising, and patient we are with ourselves the more successful we will be. So don't waste your brain with methods that will lead to failure, use it in ways that it can succeed.

This just doesn't compute.

2009-02-23T09:14:00.000-08:00

Americans keep getting fatter, no other country comes out with more diets, diet programs and dieting aids, and the dieting industry is making tons of money. Does this sound right? Who is benefiting here? It doesn't seem to be the consumers. If diets work, why are Americans continuing to get fatter each year? Why are our children fatter than every before?

Perhaps it's time for consumers to get smarter about choosing what or who they are going to believe when it comes to how to how to get lean and fit. It's just not working folks. What they are selling isn't working. It's time to stop depending on the dieting industry to tell you what you should do since you aren't getting what you want from them.

This is the reason I wrote my book. I want people to be smarter consumers. Yes, I do want people to be healthy, lean and fit but I want them to learn what works and doesn't work. The first step, however, is to face up and admit to yourself, and to the dieting industry that if it hasn't worked after so many years, you are going to let go of it. Let go of attempts that haven't ever worked. It's time to find another way--maybe it won't sound like a panacea but maybe if it sounds like a panacea, that's the indication that it's not going to work.

Why do I crave something sweet after every meal?

2009-02-13T12:01:00.000-08:00

Most of the time this boils down to habit. Like other animals, humans can be easily conditioned to things. For example, if you grew up always having dessert after dinner, your brain will be conditioned to expect that and it will prepare your body for eating sweets after dinner. That usually means not feeling satisfied at the end of the meal, feeling a craving for something sweet. You will salivate, preparing for the delicious treat. This doesn't mean you can't get rid of the habit, but that it takes some time and an effective strategy to get there.

I used to have a habit of drinking Diet Coke. I only drank one per day but my body expected it anytime between 11 and 2 each day. That's the time that my office schedule allowed it in the beginning. I was so conditioned that my body and mind wouldn't leave me alone until I got one. Even when I could honestly say that I didn't quite enjoy drinking them as much as in the beginning, I still craved it. It's been over 6 years since I've had any soda but it took a conscious effort and some time to get past the cravings.

Without knowing what your individual efforts have been to get rid of the habit or what your history is, I couldn't give you an answer that would apply only to you. However, this is what it usually is.

Psychologically and physiologically, the best way to get rid of sweet cravings is to:

improve what you eat in general--eat more nutritiously. This makes sure that you're not lacking anything.
wait 20 minutes after a meal before having your sweet. If the cravings are due to having gone too long without eating so that your blood sugar is low, it gives your body enough time to raise the blood sugar so that you don't have the cravings.
Don't try to go "cold turkey" with your attempts to get rid of sweets after meals. Gradually change the type of sweets you eat by having desserts that are made with fruit so that you're having more natural sugars and less granulated or high fructose sugar, cut down on processed foods and sweets. Also reduce the quantities of the sweets gradually until you have the habit licked.
You can even try this little (temporary) trick I used once with a patient and it worked nicely for them. Eat your small dessert first. Make it a small amount-then have your meal. This does two things-if low blood sugar is the problem, you start stabilizing it sooner and the meal keeps it there. If habit is the problem, you will disrupt things just enough to weaken the habit for sweets after the meal.

Remember, all that is said here is assuming that you do not have any medical problem that prohibits you from taking the above steps. Your doctor should be able to tell you.

What is set-point?

2009-02-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

Basically "set point" is the weight range that your body is physiologically programmed to maintain. For example, if your set point is between 140 and 145 pounds, your body will try to do whatever it can to stay within that range. If you go under the range, you may feel hungrier so that you eat more food or become less active so that the body can get back within the range. If you go over the range, you can lose appetite so that you eat less and, again, get back into the set point range. Everyone has their own set point range.

That is one of the biggest problems with the "one size fits all" approach to dieting that the dieting industry takes. People are led to believe that they should be able to lose all the weight they want to lose or that a weight chart says they should lose. This is a disservice to people. How frustrating to not know about set point and make endless attempts to lose a particular amount of weight when your body will be working against you if you go outside your range!

If you look back through the years at your weight history you can get an idea of your set point. Most likely it's around the weight that your body seemed to stabilize at when you weren't dieting stringently. For some people this is too hard to figure out because they have constantly dieted for years.

Having a set point is actually a good thing. It's just another wonderful survival mechanism that the body has. Accepting that you have a set point and becoming familiar with it will help you be more successful with your attempts to be more fit. That's because you won't continue to fail at unrealistic attempts to lose weight. You will choose methods of losing weight that are doable for you and you will be more relaxed while you're making changes.

Finally, there is one way that you can semi-permanently change your set point to a lower range. That is with consistent, aerobic exercise. When you engage in this type of exercise, your metabolism increases temporarily for hours after the exercise has ended. If you do this consistently, you can see that you will keep your metabolism and, therefore, your set point at a lower range. If you stop doing consistent, aerobic exercise your body will go back to it's original set point range. So when you exercise think about the fact that you're not only burning more while you're exercising, but for hours afterwards (even if you're sleeping)! That's nice, huh?

I will lose all control

2009-02-02T12:16:00.000-08:00

If I'm not strict with myself I feel that I will lose all control and never be able to stop eating. What do I do?

This is a fear that many people have. However, the data doesn't support it. In practice, when people work on letting go of their restrictive rules of dieting that tell them they cannot eat certain foods and that they are bad if they break a rule, the opposite happens. As you get rid of the psychological deprivation that you have set up through constant, rigid dieting, you become more and more of a normal eating person who's body signals when you've had enough and tells you that it doesn't want any more. It grows to be satisfied with less and less food until it reaches a normal appetite level. In my book, Mind Over Fat Matters: Conquering Psychological Barriers to Weight Management, I explain what psychological deprivation is, how we create it through rigid dieting and rules, and how to eliminate it so that you can follow through with eating in a way that will cause fat burning instead of leading to compulsive eating.

www.FatMatters.com

I weigh 157 lbs. I should weigh 130. What should I do?

2009-01-30T06:58:00.000-08:00

Now this is a very broad question but I will attempt to highlight the most important issues about it. This person had been looking at charts that said she should weigh 130 pounds. Without considering anything else, she was telling herself that she should weigh 130 lbs. Before jumping to any specific number for weight you should consider the following:

What are you doing (with food, activity, etc.) to encourage your body to burn fat?
How consistent are you in engaging in these activities?
Are you or have you dieted stringently in the past (which reduces metabolism and makes it more difficult to lose fat)?
Psychologically, what are you doing to focus on the positive and encourage yourself rather than beat yourself up about your attempts to be leaner?
What does your normal body type and that of your family tend to be?

1. If you aren't engaging in behaviors that encourage fat burning, it makes no sense to expect yourself to be at a lower weight.
2. If you aren't being consistent with these behaviors, it makes no sense to expect yourself to be at a lower weight.
3. If you are dieting stringently (undereating) and have engaged in a lot of this type of dieting in the past, you have encouraged your body to slow it's metabolism making it easier to gain fat and harder to burn it. First you have to work on increasing metabolism through increased activity instead of focusing on a number.
4. If you're beating yourself up a lot and being generally negative about your weight, you're going to make it harder to reach any kind of goal. Work on this first and fat burning will become easier--focus on behaviors, not numbers.
5. If your set-point (the inherited weight range that everyone's body tries to maintain) is above 130 (more about set point in another blog entry), you'll have to rethink your goal because it may be unattainable. Regular exercise of an aerobic nature is the only way to increase metabolism and, therefore, decrease ones set-point semi-permanently (until you quit being a regular exerciser).

Considering all of the above (and more that we haven't mentioned), it makes more sense to focus on behaviors, not numbers. Keep it simple by setting your mind and your goals on all of the behaviors that will lead to your body burning more fat. Then you're doing everything in your power to produce the leanest body that is possible for you. The number isn't important. Your body doesn't need you except to follow through with the behaviors. It will take care of the rest. If you're going in the direction of getting leaner, then you're doing the right thing--relax and stop being so hard on yourself.

That Time of the Year Again

2009-01-05T09:29:00.000-08:00

It's that time of the year again. All the TV shows that give advice to people are having segments on starting your 2009 diet, how to lose those pounds from the holidays and so on. This could be the first year in a long time that you will decide that you will not buy into the gimmicks anymore. This time you will focus on gradually changing your lifestyle to one that will take you, not only in the direction of getting leaner and fitter, but more importantly, in the direction of making these changes last a lifetime. Remember the tortoise and hare? The hare is like the people who go on diet after diet only to lose weight and regain it time and time again. The tortoise knows exactly what he is doing and keeps his focus even when the hare seems to be passing him by. The tortoise will reach the goal before the hare even if at a slower pace. The tortoise wins.

Why I Wrote the Book

2008-12-28T11:35:00.000-08:00

I've been asked why I wrote my book Mind Over Fat Matters: Conquering Psychological Barriers to Weight Management. I spent over 20 years studying and treating eating disorders. I saw many women completely recover from their eating disorder and go on to be normal eating individuals. I realized for some time that, in our day and age, it's not just people with diagnosable eating disorders that are preoccupied with weight, size and appearance; that have unrealistic body images; that have mistaken ideas about what is the best way to be fit and lean; and that are obsessed with dieting. If my methods had been so successful with the extremes of eating disorders, they could be doing some good to the average person out there. As a psychologist, I knew how the human mind thinks and I understood that the typical diets that people are expected to follow are incompatible with the way people think, resulting in failure time after time. I wanted, not only to help people realize that their failures at dieting were not their fault, but rather the fault of the methods used which make the mind resist. I also wanted to show people how to easily set things up so that their efforts to manage their weight would not be resisted by their brain. Instead, the brain would be their ally and help them succeed finally.

My second goal was to write a book which would be concise-explain complicated concepts in simple ways. I wanted a book that someone could read in a day but that would contain all the information someone would need to be successful at managing their weight for a lifetime. From the feedback I'm getting, I may have accomplished my goal.

Mind Over Fat Matters: Conquering Psychological Barriers to Weight Management

2008-12-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

Check out the website:

www.fatmatters.com

Holiday Challenge

2008-12-25T12:52:00.000-08:00

When working with someone with an eating disorder or weight issues during the holidays I would often give my patient a challenge. "For the first time, in a long time, put weight at the bottom of your list of priorities for the holidays." By this, I mean make each decision during the holidays based on what will make the holidays most enjoyable rather than things that will produce stress such as being harried, worrying about appearance and weight, and having things go perfectly. The objective should be to be calm, relaxed and have a good time. Just try it during the holidays. Take everything one step-at-a-time. Forget about how you think others go about their holidays-what would make you savor yours better?

The interesting thing about the challenge has been that the people that take it find out that things don't get as out of control as they expected with weight, eating or anything else.

I got into a habit many years ago of asking myself as each holiday season approaches, "What can I do this year to make these holidays less stressful?" I've tried many things during the years which I have incorporated year after year. The holidays have become so much more enjoyable that it has become harder to find more things that will make them better.

Try it, you'll like it.

Holiday Resolutions

2008-12-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

It's almost that time of the year again when people think they should set New Year's resolutions. Somehow we've been led to believe that if we set resolutions, that will be enough to effect change. The most common resolutions have to do with losing weight. Almost all these resolutions are never realized. At best, a few people may start a diet only to drop it at some point and end up making the same resolution the following year.

It's time to face the facts. Weight loss resolutions don't work. If you wish to lose weight, it would work better to make resolutions that:

1. aren't specifically about losing weight.

2. have to do with other behaviors that will lead to losing fat such as becoming more active, eating more nutritious food, going out to eat less, taking more time to relax, thinking more positively, and being more self-accepting.

3. are based on gradual, small changes in these behaviors. People are more successful making behavior changes when they focus on small, rather than big, steps.

So, don't continue to do something that has never worked-it's time to take a different road to get to where you want to be.

The Holidays

2008-12-13T12:55:00.000-08:00

Many people approach the holidays with dread for many reasons but particularly when it comes to issues of eating and weight. The holidays are supposed to be joyous and should be enjoyed. The least enjoyable way to approach the holidays is with stress and fear-fear that you'll eat too much or gain weight. It just so happens that the more uptight you are, the more likely that you will eat more than you intend. Relax, don't expect perfection and don't beat yourself up if you eat more than you wanted. You will finish the holidays the best way possible if you do the following:

Relax and focus on enjoying and savoring the experience.

Be physically active each day in some way. Walk, jog, play tennis, go up and down the steps-just move.

Don't skip meals-it will only make you hungrier and less able to control your eating later. Besides eating more often increases your metabolism which will burn more of the calories you eat.

Focus on eating nutritiously during the day when not at parties or events so that your brain won't be urging you to eat as much. Yes, the brain gives us signals when we are lacking in some nutrition but we don't always interpret them right.

Don't arrive at an event hungry. If you must, eat before the event so you're not hungry and will be more naturally in control.

Don't set unrealistic goals during the holidays ("I'm not eating anything at the party." "I'm only going to eat one meal a day during the holidays." "I'm not having any sweets."). Keep your goals small, realistic and focused more on activity level, nutrition, and not letting yourself go hungry, rather than on actual weight. You will be more successful.

Finally, don't feel guilty. Managing a lean and healthy weight should be a lifetime issue not one just for the holidays. If you really want to keep struggling with weight and food all your life just get uptight about it, set unrealistic goals, be sedentary, and beat yourself up about it.

New Book Available!

2008-12-11T09:49:00.000-08:00

My new book, Mind Over Fat Matters: Conquering Psychological Barriers to Weight Management, is now available for sale. Just check out the website for more information: http://www.fatmatters.com/

Who are the experts on how to be thin?

2008-08-28T13:33:00.000-07:00

You know those people who have always been thin and have never gone a diet? They are out there and nobody seems to notice them other than on the occasional time when someone says they hate someone because they can eat what they want but don't get fat. We notice overweight people more and, who do we usually talk to about dieting and food? It's those people who diet and have problems with their weight. These people are constantly sharing dieting information, as well as what they consider to be their successes and failures, as if the person they are talking to is the expert on losing weight.

Little do they know that it's those people who have always been thin and never diet that are the experts on being thin. Why is that, you may ask? Well, if you just look at the facts, it becomes clear. Dieters go on diet after diet, lose weight, only to regain it and go on another diet. Whatever the thin person is doing is keeping them thin. So instead of talking to the dieter, we should be talking to chronically thin people and picking their brain about what they do.

I've done just that for over 30 years since I started studying and researching the area of weight management, fitness, obesity and eating disorders. If you take this information and compare it to what science has discovered about how the body gains and loses fat, it all becomes clear as day. Stay tuned and I'll show you.

Why Dont' Diets Work?

2008-07-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is a question that will take several entries to answer. For a diet to work it has to not only accomplish the goal of weight loss but the weight should not be regained. Most consider a diet to have been successful if the person has lost weight. Almost any diet will produce weight loss. But statistics have shown that over 90 percent of the people who go on diets regain their weight-with many of these regaining more weight than they lost. Is this success? If you've been on diet after diet, you have to consider that those diets didn't work. The marketplace would not be inundated with diets and diet products if diets worked. For some reason, the more unusual and illogical a diet is, the more people are attracted to it as the possible panacea. This is why each year at least one more fad diet or diet product comes out on the market. People tend to think, "Wow, this sounds easy and powerful. I haven't tried this before. How much? Where do I sign up?" It's a money maker, plain and simple. These companies aren't caring about helping you be successful with your weight. They make more money if you don't succeed because you'll continue to try their next expensive weight loss method. Have you ever noticed that diet ads for "quick weight loss" aids like pills say something like, "Along with diet and exercise....?" It's the diet and exercise part that really causes the weight loss. Why don't diets work? I'll tell you. (to be continued)

Why do most diets fail?

2008-07-20T10:20:00.000-07:00

...because most diets are incompatible with how we, as humans, psychologically function best.

What is a diet?

2008-07-17T13:44:00.000-07:00

A diet is any food plan which stipulates what foods you should and shouldn't eat and/or how much you should or shouldn't eat. Some diets give you menus to follow. Some tell you how to combine foods. Many list specific foods that are not allowed on the diet. Some will even tell you what time of the day is appropriate to eat certain foods. A diet typically has little to no flexibility.