This past Sunday 60 minutes re-broadcast a story about the 'diet industry' in Durham, NC. They did not focus on any paticulars of any of the programs, but a few thinks did strike me.

One was people kept mentioning how they needed to be taken out of their routines and lifes and family and friends. That doesn't sound like a good approach to me...if you ever want to get your life back with a healthier you. I have been successful in weight loss, I am not even going to qualify it as 'fairly' successful. I have done it and I knew that I needed to make changes but have those changes be part of my life and something that was ongoing with no end point. I was changing to healthy habits not...dieting and not losing my life in order to 'diet', but keeping my life with a healthier me.

Which is the second thing I found out about the broadcast. They kept mentioning the word diet, diet, diet. Almost never eating habits and lifestyle habits. And they said at least 4 times that over 90% of diets fail. Well I don't know about that but I think it is a big mental commitment and a one that will pay off to think of weight loss as a series of changes in your life not a 'diet'. Not all at once but a few positive steps and then a few more and that is the way to start, mantain, and be successful with weight loss. I mean who is gonna eat rice all the time for the rest of their lives? It made no sense to me at all. The only explanation I could see is that people who were seriously over-weight needed something dramatic like the rice diet thingie to get started but I can't see it being a long-term solution.

By the end of the program I was pretty cynical. It seemed to me that a lot of the basic, common-sense, things that will work were not being conveyed and in their place these hookie weight off and weight on approaches were being used. Which, of course, lets those programs get the same people back over and over spending 1,000s of $. That is also why these forums are very valuable. Lots of good advice here, no need to go visit 'fat city', where the only thing getting fatter besides the 'dieters' is the bank accounts of the people running the 'show'.

[QuilterInVA]

Despite your negative attitude, the rice diet at Duke University has helped people for decades. These are not people who need to lose 20 or even 60 pounds. This is more an alternative to surgery. When you become morbidly obese, it becomes very difficult to lose the weight. These people do have a reentry program, no one expects them to eat rice for the rest of their lives although the Orientals seem to be much more healthy than we are and they do....

then the producers did not do a very good job at explaining what was going on. They never mentioned 're-entry', nor did they ever explicity state that this was for a certain segment of overweight people. Also I am not sure that what is going on in Durham is the same as what is done in the Orient. But at least in the Orient it is part of peoples lives not something a-part (literally meaning not a part ) of someone's life both before and after.

I am sure it has helped a lot of people in Durham and that and the other centers have been doing weight loss much longer then I have. It just seemed like the going away to a center and the strict, limited, and unbalanced diet isn't a particularly good approach. And just because something works doesn't mean its the best. I can get to work hopping on one leg, but it will take me hours and give me a pretty sore knee as well. Bottomline though if it has helped people and not hurt too many; more power to people doing it. I just hope it helps people for longer then the time they are at the center.