Healthy Weight Loss — Without DietingWhat does it mean, to “step out of our lives?” On many weight loss
diets, it means giving up one of the most natural of human pleasures—
the pleasure of eating! It means giving up the delicious tastes and
aromas of food, giving up the pleasures of robust, shared meals with
family and friends, and giving up our very self-determination with
respect to food choices and food portion sizes. Many weight loss
diets ask us to temporarily step out of our lives and to turn our lives
completely over to a predetermined script not of our making. We
are often asked to build our breakfasts, lunches, and dinners around
prepackaged foods that we didn’t select, cook, or even choose from
a list of favorites. By letting someone else make all of these deci-
sionsfor us, and by stepping out of our normal role as human beings
whose everyday lives include the joys of eating, we are told that our
chances of losing weight will improve.
Research studies repeatedly show that weight loss works best when
we practice self-determination and self-regulation in our everyday
food choices, when we enjoy the foods we eat, and when we make
healthy lifestyle choices at every step along the way during weight
loss. Here is one very specific but telling example from a fascinating
study that compared intake of solid versus liquid foods in obese and
non-obese individuals.
In this study, risk of excess calorie intake was studied in forty
participants who alternated between consumption of a variety of
foods in both solid and liquid form. On the solid side were foods
like watermelon, cheese, and coconut meat. On the liquid side were
foods like watermelon juice, cow’s milk, and coconut milk. In this
study, half of the participants were obese and half were healthy in
body weight. Interestingly, the risk of consuming excess calories
was only modestly greater in the obese versus healthy weight partic-
ipants.What overshadowed the role of body weight in this study
was the role of food texture and food form (liquid versus solid).
Participants were most likely to overeat when consuming liquids
versus solids—regardless of whether the food involved was a high-
carb food (watermelon), a high-protein food (dairy), or high-fat food