Dietitians — Time to Look the Elephant in the Eye.

Why do weight loss transformations go universally wrong?

I came to this point where my research, my strong gut feel, told me there was something wrong with our entire approach to weight loss. Not just mine, but the entire weight loss industry -- not just the dietitian/trainer professions. If our results were so wrong…as measured two or more years after we worked with a client...then how could we be saying we were weight loss experts. 

We aren’t helping people lose weight. 

We are giving them an interlude of less weight. 

The difference is critical. 

What we were doing, was entirely focused on the weight loss — an easily measured quantity — not the longer-term result, weight re-gain (does anyone even track that?). Clearly, the entire lot of us were missing something BIG. Something so big it was the proverbial unaddressed elephant in the room. 

We all knew about weight re-gain, of course. But we blamed the inevitable re-gain on our “non-complaint” clients. After all, we were the experts. We got them to lose weight. And we had the proof (client weight loss records) to show that we were very good at what we were doing. 

Then… 

…Why do over 90% re-gain? 

That elephant was staring us in the face. We couldn’t answer that question without blaming almost every client we ever had. How could we really believe that virtually no one that we had helped — most had become good friends — could keep their lost pounds off?

Was it a massive moral or motivational failure on their collective part? Could we really believe that? 

Or…looking the elephant directly in the eye…were WE, the trained, ardent professionals, all doing something terribly, universally wrong? 

Seeing the overwhelming re-gain data, with the elephant slowly and finally walking away…

…We have to admit there are only three reasons everyone re-gains:

1. Something was going on with our clients BEFORE we saw them, that made them highly susceptible to re-gain…or…
2. We were doing something DURING our work with our clients, that made it almost inevitable that they would re-gain…or…
3. We didn’t do a good job of helping our clients know how to keep the weight off AFTER they are back on their own, without us watching over their every calorie and logging each exercise minute.  

Wasn’t it possible (watching the elephant tail receding) that ALL THREE REASONS were the cause of the re-gain epidemic? 

Could it be that our weight loss transformational strategies were triply wrong? Have we been so intent on crafting a short-term transformational butterfly-life for our clients that we didn’t grasp the significance of the longer-term re-gain factors that accumulate BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER we work with them? 

With our butterflies all re-gained, how do we get them crammed back into their chrysalises? 

More importantly, how do weight loss professionals make sure the butterflies they helped transform, stay transformed? 

One thing for sure…we have to start by keeping our eye on the elephant.

The UnDiet Project ? 2019 Boyd Jentzsch. All Rights Reserved.