Weight Control: A Fierce Struggle

Just today, I’m not going to eat between meals and I’m not going to take seconds. And I’m going to use the tools in The Hacker’s Diet to help me reach my goal.

I can see why this obesity thing is so hard to cure control. It seems like most days I struggle to stay on track — and my goal isn’t even that difficult. I’m just trying to cut back a few hundred calories a day. The problem is that a few hundred calories a day are so powerful. Eat a few hundred less and we can lose a pound a day. But absentmindedly eat a few hundred calories more and suddenly we’re gaining a pound a week.

I’m not there, but it’s a fierce struggle.

John Walker, in The Hacker’s Diet, says:

How can you guarantee you’ll never regain the weight you lost? Suppose your weight goal is 150 pounds and your appetite feedback curve is the disastrous one shown above. If you rely on your appetite alone, every time you eat too little you’ll get an unmistakable signal to eat more, but overeating raises no warning. Overeating actually tends to make you eat more, since once your weight begins to creep upward you’ll get depressed and seek solace in food. When you end your diet at 150 pounds, you’re treacherously balanced on the flat part of the curve there. As long as you stay close to 150 all will be well. You’re like the backwards-wired thermostat on page which didn’t cause a problem as long as the temperature stayed close to 70 degrees. Eating too little is no problem; smooth negative feedback tells you to eat more. But inevitably, sooner or later, you’ll eat a little too much: over the holidays, at a party, or when you can’t gauge portion sizes accurately. Then, as your weight begins to creep upward, the malign influence of positive feedback takes command, and weight gain begets additional overeating in a process that literally feeds upon itself.

The initial overeating that set off the destructive feedback loop was probably an isolated incident, not a permanent change in diet. It may even have been inadvertent, the result of additional calories added to a regular meal or reduced physical activity unaccompanied by lower calorie intake. The correction needed to restore balance is usually small and easy to make. But if the slow creep upward isn’t spotted and arrested in time, before long you’ve gained 10 or 15 pounds and you’re in a real mess. Losing that much weight requires a serious diet and the very thought of going back on a diet, particularly so soon after the last one, is hard to entertain. The temptation to abandon weight control is tremendous once things have gotten this far out of hand; you’re well on your way to giving back all the gains of your diet.

Lately I’ve added mentioning The Hacker’s diet in my affirmation. It wasn’t a casual decision to put it there.t I’ve mentioned my feelings about Weight Watchers — it’s a wonderful weight loss program. But, it thrives on repeat business from customers who’ve regained lost weight.g The Hacker’s Diet has a more powerful goal — to help us reach our perfect weight and stay there forever. And the author has lived through this process himself and successfully followed The Hacker’s Diet for over 15 years.

With all the bad news about how hard it is for an obese person to control her weight, it’s a very real comfort to have this guidance from someone who’s been successful in the struggle.t I’m glad that I’ve got my chart. It’s showing my weight as sinkers to the trendline, not floaters (sinkers indicate that your weight is falling, floaters that it’s rising.)t I woke up ‘feeling fat’ so without the chart I’d be feeling pretty low today. And you know what a fat girl does when she’s feeling low.

(shaking myself)

I’m not low, I’m in control.a And just today, I’m going to keep my new journal close and write down everything I eat. And if I think about eating when I shouldn’t, I’ll write about that too.

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