1. health and fitness
2. weight loss

Copyright ©2013 Dr Khandee Ahnaimugan
All rights reserved.
Published by Takagi Press
The information included in this book is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice. The
reader should always consult his or her healthcare provider to determine the appropriateness of the information for their own
situation or if they have any questions regarding a medical condition or treatment plan.
Introduction
When I first started writing articles for online news services, I found that the only way to make sure
my articles were displayed anywhere where someone was likely to see them, was to include a
celebrity’s name in the headline. It was the difference between front page glory and languishing in
the back pages.
Fortunately times have changed, and at enlightened news websites like the Huffington Post, my
random musings about weight loss can be celebrity-free and still feature on the front page.
But that’s not to say that the celebrity weight loss example is not useful. An example makes a weight
loss concept or strategy easier to understand and because celebrities are people who are supposed
to be well known, it can help bring the example alive.
This book is a collection of articles I’ve written that relate to celebrities and weight loss.
I believe that the point of a celebrity weight loss story is less about the celebrity themselves but
more about how you can learn something from their success (or failure) to therefore make your own
life better.
For each of these articles, where appropriate, I’ve added some commentary and tried to clearly
signpost the main take-home points of the article, indicated by “What you need to know”.
Enjoy!
Dr. K
London, April 2013.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Table of Contents
1. Jamie Oliver: How Can a Celebrity Chef Manage Their Weight?
2. What Dawn French And Adriana Lima Teach Us About Celebrity Weight Loss.
3. Some Advice for Adele About Weight Loss.
4. Gwyneth Paltrow – Why You Don’t Want to Look Like Her.
5. How Nigella Lawson Lost Weight Without Dieting And How You Can Do the Same.
6. Lady Gaga’s Diet Tips.
7. Khloe Kardashian Loses 20 Pounds in a Week … and Other Bad News.
8. How Do You Make an X-Factor Star More Marketable? Get Her to Lose Weight.
9. The Canadian Mayor Who Failed to Lose Weight.
10. You Are Luckier Than Beyoncé.
11. What’s a Krispy Kreme Hamburger?
12. Jessica Simpson is Stressed About Losing Weight.
13. How Carrie Fisher Can Avoid Yo-Yo Dieting.
14. Epilogue – 16 things celebrities can teach you about losing weight
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Jamie Oliver: How Can a Celebrity Chef Manage Their
Weight?
Initially published on March 21st 2012
Jamie Oliver was recently in the news after a journalist rudely asked him about his weight.
But this begs the question: how does a celebrity chef lose or manage their weight?
Specifically, Jamie Oliver has three things going against him:
1. He’s in an industry that is all about food, so he’s surrounded by it ALL THE TIME.
2. He can’t go on a regular diet with a strict eating plan. Can you imagine Jamie Oliver on a
deprivation diet? It is just wrong.
3. He has very little time
So, before we talk about solutions, what’s he currently doing to manage his weight?
According to the interview he said that “he eats fresh food and trains twice a week”.
Let’s take a look at each of these in turn:
1. Eat’s fresh food.
A recent study showed that many people equate the words “organic” with “low calorie”.
Organic simply represents the manner in which the food is produced and has nothing to do
with calories. But you can understand the confusion. It’s called a halo effect. We assume
that because something is good in one way, that it must be good in others.
Similarly, with the word “fresh”, people equate it to other good things. Of course fresh food
is great. It’s certainly better than “processed” food. But this does not mean that you can’t
get fat eating it. Butter can be fresh. Nuts can be fresh. Olive oil can be fresh. All of these
things are great, but you will get very fat if you eat a lot of them.
It all comes down to calories. If you eat more calories, and everything else in your life stays
the same, you will gain weight. Butter, nuts and oil are high in calories.
Jamie Oliver may be eating the freshest food available, but if it is high in calories then he will
be gaining weight.
2. Works out twice a week
Exercise is fantastic. It is so good for you in so many ways. But the fact remains, if you rely
on exercise alone to manage your weight, you are setting yourself up for failure.
First of all, it’s often difficult to do enough exercise to balance off indulgence in your eating.
And secondly, what happens if you get injured, or ill or even just busy? What happens if you
don’t get around to exercise for a few weeks. That small window of no exercise will be
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enough to gain a few pounds. And if that happens a few times a year, next time you look
you’ll be significantly larger in the mirror. Exercise should always be combined with cutting
down what you eat.
So what should Jamie Oliver do?
It all begins with scrutinising what he eats. Usually I would suggest keeping a food diary. This
is the method par excellence for recognising patterns in your eating and isolating trouble
spots.
However, as a chef, Jamie is often doing a lot of tasting of dishes in the kitchen. This is very
hard to keep track of with a food diary, unless you have it with you at all times and this of
course can be impractical. But you can bet that over many, many tastings this accounts for a
significant amount of his daily calories.
In Jamie’s case, rather than keep a food diary for a long period of time I would settle for
even just ONE DAY. This would be illuminating in terms of how many calories he is taking in
over and above his normal meals.
And this highlights an important point. Our brain and body are not very good at
acknowledging our calorie intake. Presumably, on some days, Jamie would be eating almost
half a meal worth of extra calories just through tasting of various dishes. But that probably
doesn’t stop him sitting down for a hearty breakfast, lunch or dinner. In other words, his
natural appetite and fullness mechanisms don’t compensate for the extra calories he has
between meals. And it’s like that for most people.
What would be crucial here, is increasing the awareness of how much he is eating during his
work day and compensating for it during meal times. As a young man and with a very small
amount of weight gain, it won’t take much to get him back on an even keel.
In other words, if he was just to slightly reduce the amount he ate at mealtimes, he would
probably balance off the increased amounts he’s eating while working.
If this seems too simple and easy, that’s because it really is that simple and easy for man in
his 30s. Very small changes can make a big difference over time.
Commentary
Jamie Oliver isn’t the only one who eats fresh food and does exercise and wonders why they are
gaining weight. But it’s a clear example of how frustrating weight gain can be
Ultimately, weight gain comes down to calories. If you’re taking in more than you’re burning you will
gain weight. And like it or not, exercise usually can’t compensate for a high calorie intake. If this is
true of a young man like Jamie Oliver, even more pertinent for a woman over 40.
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What you need to know:
-
Awareness of your eating patterns is crucial for making sensible changes
The best way to increase awareness is to keep a food diary
Even a busy celebrity chef can benefit from a food diary
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What Dawn French And Adriana Lima Teach Us About
Celebrity Weight Loss
Originally published: November 8th 2011
The comedienne Dawn French has lost 4 stone. And when pressed to reveal the secret
behind her weight loss, she has been quoted as saying:
“I’m eating healthily, taking care of myself and feeling very happy indeed.”
Which made me reflect on the entire nature of celebrity weight loss and the media coverage
of it.
1. People love to hear about a celebrity that has lost a lot of weight but the media “story”
always travels better when the reason behind the weight loss is a particular programme or
procedure. This is why Dawn French saying that she ate “healthily” is not what people
wanted to hear. It’s too vague and offers no actionable solution. If you read any of the
coverage about Dawn French’s weight loss, you’ll see that the article “dies” as soon as they
quote her response.
2. There can be commercial motivations involved in revealing a particular method of weight
loss. Some celebrities can become spokespeople of particular weight loss programmes. In
other cases, there may be a chance to release a Christmas exercise DVD.
3. As far as the media is concerned, the more drastic and sudden the weight loss, the better.
This means a tendency to focus on “diet” style approaches over “lifestyle” approaches.
The diet mentality focuses on short term drastic changes to get quick results. But
maintaining weight loss is a long term goal. The ideal way to lose weight is to weave it into
your life.
4. There is often an emphasis on intense exercise as a requirement for weight loss.
Adriana Lima, the supermodel was recently reported as working out twice a day before
fashion shows. She is quoted as saying: “It is really intense, it’s not really the amount of time
you spend working out, it’s the intensity”. This certainly works for her but for most women
this is terrible advice.
First of all, most women don’t have the time or inclination to work out twice a day. Secondly
intense workouts might seem like they are helpful (“no pain, no gain”), but for most women
they are intolerable. And anything that is perceived as painful is unlikely to be maintained. If
you hate your workouts because they are so intense, you are very likely to abandon them
the first moment life gets in the way.
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And thirdly, while exercise is important, eating less has a much larger impact on weight loss.
Even Ms. Lima doesn’t rely on exercise alone. She goes on a 9 day no-solids diet before a
show (I don’t recommend this either).
Yes it’s interesting to read about how celebrities lose weight. But we must keep it in
perspective. The danger is that, even on a subtle level it influences our attitudes and
approach to weight loss.
Celebrity weight loss makes us think that losing weight requires a special one-off effort, a
grand gesture and extreme intensity.
But it’s not true.
Losing weight and keeping it off, comes from changing the way you do things (your habits).
Whatever changes you make need to be sustainable. You need to be willing to do them for
the rest of your life. Make it easy, make it enjoyable. And be patient. Dawn French didn’t
lose her weight overnight, and you don’t need to either.
Commentary
One thing which I still find curious and don’t have an exact answer why it happens, is the
tendency of celebrities to emphasise the importance of exercise over food restriction.
Especially with women, it’s quite clear that exercise is far less effective for weight loss than
cutting down what you eat, but when you read most celebrity articles they emphasize their
training regimes. Is it because exercise is more socially acceptable than eating lettuce?
What you need to know:
1. Always take media stories about weight loss with a (huge) pinch of salt
2. Drastic measures might make a good news story, but what we should be focussed on
is how sustainable someone’s weight loss is, before we take any lessons from it.
3. Exercise sounds “sexy” as a weight loss method for some people, but for others it
scares them off. The fact is, without watching what you eat, exercise is rarely enough
to lose weight, especially for women over 40.
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Some Advice for Adele About Weight Loss
Initially published on April 2nd 2012
It’s reported that Adele (the 23 year old, Grammy award-winning singer) has gone on a
health kick to lose weight after a health scare.
She’s done this by quitting smoking, going on a vegetarian diet with her partner and working
out twice a week with a personal trainer.
So far, so good. In fact, she is reported to have lost a stone of weight (14 pounds/ 6.3kg)
over the last month.
But one of Adele’s friends is quoted as saying: “The weight is dropping off the pair of them
and they plan to keep dieting until the end of April.”
Which goes to show that even with all the best intentions in the world and all the resources
to make it happen, people can still fall for the same traps.
“Dieting till the end of April” is not a good sign. Why? It sounds like this is a short term plan.
Sure, Adele has lost 1 stone in a month, and maybe in another month she will lose another
stone. Great. There will be some great photos in the papers touting her “miracle weight
loss” etc.
But then what?
If she intends to stop dieting after another month, what will she do after that? The obvious
answer is probably go back to old habits. And this is the disaster of dieting. It is steamrolling
your old habits and lifestyle with a drastic, unnatural and (often) unpleasant new way of
doing things. And if like Adele, you only plan to do it for a month, then your old habits will
be back with a vengeance.
So what happens when Adele switches to her old habits? Of course, she starts to gain
weight again. Lose weight then gain it back again. Does that sound familiar? Yes, it’s a good
old fashioned yoyo diet.
But it really doesn’t have to be that way. Instead of “going on a diet” which is destined to
fail, she could try for a more sustainable approach to weight loss.
Here’s 3 things Adele could do differently:
1. Change her mindset.
Adele appears to be totally in the short term dieting mindset. She needs to switch to
a more long term approach. “Is this change something I am willing to do for the rest
of my life?” is a good question to ask. If the particular behaviour you are introducing
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is one that you are not willing to do for the long term, then you are setting yourself
up for yoyo dieting.
To this end:
- Make small changes instead of drastic big ones. I prefer for people to work with their
existing diet, and make modifications to that, rather than completely overhauling their
eating.
- Always make sure that changes are both pleasant and realistic. If something is not pleasant
for you then you will drop it at the first opportunity. I see so many people start unrealistic
fitness regimes only to stop them as soon as work gets busy.
- No deadlines. I don’t know if Adele has deadlines for her weight loss, but as soon as you
start setting time limits, you focus on short term fixes rather than sustainable strategies
- Adjusting things as you go along – you won’t always get it right the first time. On a
traditional diet, you are either sticking to it perfectly or you are “off the diet”. Life doesn’t
work that way. You have to give yourself permission to make mistakes and learn from them.
2. Prepare for when life gets busy.
I presume Adele’s life can get very busy. It’s easy to stick to a new diet when you
have all the time in the world. When life gets busy however, is when the challenges
start. When your work and social life take over, managing your eating is often the
last thing you have time for. And most people do not prepare for busy times. They
just hope for the best.
It’s worth looking at your life and understanding what are the danger times and situations.
For some people, when work gets busy, they don’t have time to cook and have to rely on
fast food. For others, they often eat out or attend dinners where they have less control over
what is served.
All of these situations can be anticipated and dealt with. But if you don’t prepare and just
hope you’ll be able to deal with them when they come up, then you will most likely revert to
old habits. This is where many people’s weight loss plans go wrong.
3. Take some control over her environment.
I have no idea what Adele’s work environment is like, but for most people, their
work environment can contain lots of temptations. The thing about temptations is
that you often end up eating food that you didn’t really even want in the first place.
In fact if it hadn’t been sitting in front of you, you wouldn’t have even thought about
it.
This is why it pays to try and change your environment to remove temptation.
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Losing weight when you are 23 years old is not too difficult. Keeping it off on the other
hand, can be very difficult. But only because most people choose short term diets over long
term changes.
If Adele takes a more sensible, sustainable approach, she will find that her likelihood of
success will be much greater.
Commentary
You would think that it’s easier to help a 23 year old lose weight, than a 53 year old. And
you’d be right. But when it comes to helping someone lose weight and keep it off, then it’s
much harder to help the 23 year old.
How can this be? Because, as in Adele’s case, for a 23 year old, it’s quite easy to lose weight
quickly on any old fad diet. And so that’s what they do. And while fad diets might help you
lose weight when you’re 23, they won’t help you keep the weight off.
In contrast, for a 53 year old, the fad diets don’t have as much allure, simply because they
no longer work. So they are more inclined to think about long-term solutions.
What you need to know:
-
Losing weight should not a short-term project. You will be much better off if you think in
terms of changing your lifestyle.
Don’t practice “foolish optimism” and trust things will just work out alright. Plan for different
food situations, so that you can handle them better.
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Gwyneth Paltrow – Why You Don’t Want to Look Like Her
Originally published on February 9th 2012
How do Hollywood stars maintain such great bodies? A recent article in Harper’s Bazaar
about Gwyneth Paltrow offers a glimpse into the regime she uses to maintain her slim
physique
This sort of information is interesting because while most of our society struggles with being
overweight, celebrities have to maintain not just healthy bodies, but often dangerously
skinny ones too.
That’s not to say that Ms Paltrow is dangerously skinny. In fact the article states that she is
“lean and toned, with the streamlined contours of an athlete.”
So how does she do it? Good genes? Good luck?
The truth is, even with the best of genes, to maintain a body like Gwyneth Paltrow’s you
have to work very hard. Especially as you get older. Indeed, Ms Paltrow was quoted last year
as saying “Everything in my life that’s good is because I worked my ass off to get it and to
maintain it.” This is not a woman who just coasts through life. The Harper’s Bazaar article
states that she does a 1.5 hours physical training session every weekday and is currently on
a 12 week detox program of no gluten, no dairy and no sugar.
Do you want to work out for 1.5 hours every weekday and do a 12 week no sugar detox?
Most people wouldn’t. But the reality is, if you want a body like Gwyneth’s you have to put
in that kind of work.
We can admire the effort it takes to maintain a movie star body, but the danger arises when
it corrupts our perceptions of health and fitness.
“I either look like a movie star or I am not healthy”
Not only is this misguided, but it makes a lot of people think that they only way they can be
healthy is by replicating the diet and workout regimes of celebrities. Don’t get me wrong, if
you are motivated and able to replicate your favourite celebrity’s health regime, then that’s
great, but for most people it’s not going to happen. And then what? They give up. They
reason that if they can’t stick to an intense diet and fitness programme, then there’s
something wrong with them.
And there is no shortage of fitness and diet professionals to confirm the no pain – no gain
message implicit in intense workouts and diets. But it is precisely this all or nothing
approach that makes millions of people around the world feel guilty and repulsed by
exercise and weight loss at the same time.
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The mistake here is dealing in absolutes. You don’t need to have washboard abs to be
healthy. You don’t need a supermodel physique to feel better about yourself. You don’t
need to look like a celebrity to feel great and look great. And you don’t need to kill yourself
at the gym or starve yourself on a fad diet.
There is an in-between. For most people, just increasing their day to day activity and cutting
back what they eat a little can have dramatic effects on health and wellbeing. And that’s
something all of us can easily do and stick to.
It’s all very well to admire celebrities health regimes, but the fact is, for most people in our
society, just losing a few pounds of excess weight would be far more life-changing and good
for us (as well as realistic) than aiming to look like Gwyneth.
Commentary
The title of this article sounds a little nasty, but it wasn’t meant to be. I appreciate the attitude of
someone like Gwyneth Paltrow who could have just taken life easy, but works hard to achieve even
more.
As far as weight loss is concerned though, it’s important to have some perspective. The choice isn’t
between having a supermodel body and being unhealthily, dangerously obese. There is a middle
ground. And you don’t need to work as hard as Gwyneth to achieve it.
What you need to know:
-
Instead of focusing on looking like a supermodel, most of us would just be better off losing a
few pounds.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
How Nigella Lawson Lost Weight Without Dieting And How
You Can Do the Same
Initially published on April 23rd 2012
The celebrity chef, Nigella Lawson, had been reported to have lost up to three stone
recently. However, unlike most celebrities who lose weight, she had not attributed this to a
miracle diet programme, which was highly unusual.
As it turns out, the reason for her weight loss was actually surgery. But not the “stomach
stapling” kind but a double bunion operation that meant she was off her feet for a few
months (or at least hobbling around a lot).
In her own words, being unable to get around made it harder for her to get to the fridge and
she felt it was awkward to ask other people to get her “a second slice” of cake.
Since celebrities losing weight is only really interesting if we can use what they have done to
help ourselves lose weight, here are some observations:
1. Nigella is/was probably a “grazer”
Many years ago, when I was a junior doctor working in a cardiology department in a
Melbourne teaching hospital, I remember many of the patients admitted with heart attacks
being very overweight middle-aged men. And I would be amazed at how often, when asked
about their diet, they would insist that they “only ate sandwiches”. It made me wonder
what they put in these sandwiches. But it also made me wonder how people could not be
aware of how much they were eating.
But fast-forward to the present day and at least one of the reasons for this is very much
apparent to me: grazing.
Just recently a client told me that she had no idea how she could be overweight, since she
ate very small meal portions. When we asked her husband for his opinion however, the
answer was clear:
“You walk past the fridge once or twice an hour and you don’t leave there without getting
something to eat”
This sort of grazing behaviour can really be a problem because it goes under the radar. Each
snack on its own doesn’t seem like much but it can add up quickly. But what it shows is that
if you can limit grazing, you can actually make a big difference to your weight.
2. Forget willpower, remove temptation.
While many people make a fuss over using willpower for losing weight, it’s clear that a much
more powerful way to control what you eat, is to remove the temptation altogether.
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The fact is, the more accessible and convenient food is, the more we will eat it. On the other
hand, if getting food is difficult we eat less. The effort of getting up and hobbling over to the
fridge was enough to deter Nigella from snacking.
How can you use this to your advantage? Well it doesn’t mean debilitating yourself so that
you can’t walk to the fridge, but instead putting up obstacles to getting food (more on that
later).
3. Her operation made her lose weight.
I find it interesting that being unable to walk was Nigella’s reason for losing weight.
It is much more common for people in similar circumstances after surgical operations to find
that they gain weight. This is often blamed on “being less active” and therefore not burning
as many calories as when they were fully mobile.
But this is only a part of the reason. In most cases, boredom and long periods on the sofa in
front of the TV lends itself to more snacking which leads to weight gain.
4. In the Telegraph article, they mention three other factors that may have contributed
to Nigella’s weight loss:
“Lawson also attends Pilates classes and employs the services of a personal trainer. And she
has cut down on alcohol consumption.”
The alcohol is almost mentioned as an afterthought compared to the exercise class and
personal trainer.
However if you were to rank those three things in order of which has the most effect
on losing weight, this is how the top three would pan out:
1. Cut down on alcohol
2. Cut down on alcohol
3. Cut down on alcohol
This isn’t to say that more exercise isn’t good for you, of course it is, but when it comes to
losing weight, cutting back alcohol trumps it completely. Remember, alcohol is liquid
calories, and the amount of exercise needed to burn off the calories in 2 glasses of wine is
more than most people would muster in a day, even with a personal trainer.
This doesn’t mean you have to cut out alcohol altogether, but cutting back a little can have
dramatic effects.
So what are the overall lessons here? Aside from having an operation, how can you use
Nigella’s example to take control of your own weight?
5. You don’t need to diet to lose weight.
When I tell people that I help women lose weight without dieting, some think that I’m
speaking of an impossibility. But you would hard pressed to call what Nigella did a diet. And
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yet this accounted for quite significant weight loss. The fact is you don’t need to diet to lose
weight. You just need to make some small changes to your eating patterns and the results
take care of themselves.
6. Put up physical barriers to food.
The success of Ms. Lawson in losing weight seemed to be largely down to the barriers that
immobility put up to her eating. But you don’t need an operation or to put up a fence
around your fridge to get the same effect.
For instance:
a. Don’t keep tempting food at home. It might seem comforting to have chocolate in the
house, but the mere fact that it’s there is enough to make you eat more of it. And often our
cravings for food are activated just by seeing it in front of us. Out of sight, out of mind.
b. Spend as little time in the kitchen as possible outside of meal times. i.e. don’t do work on
the kitchen table with all the food at arms reach
7. Put up mental barriers to food
This is simply a matter of making “rules” that you follow that minimise your chances of
incidental eating due to food being so accessible.
For example:
a. Make a rule that you only eat in one room of the house.
b. Make a rule that you don’t eat in front of the TV
I think Nigella deserves credit for her attitude to weight and weight loss. She has resolutely
resisted the urge to get caught up in unnatural or drastic weight loss attempts. And through
a rather unusual set of circumstances she has demonstrated how one can lose weight
without resorting to fad diets.
Commentary
It might not catch on as “diet of the week”, but the set of circumstances around Nigella’s
bunion op, show that most people’s preconceptions about how to lose weight are wrong.
In this example, a combination of making it harder to eat (the food was in another room and
Nigella was immobilised) and cutting out alcohol lead to significant weight loss.
What you need to know:
-
Grazing can account for a lot of calories that you don’t even realize you’re having.
Better than using willpower or self-control to resist temptation, is removing the
temptation altogether.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
-
You can use physical barriers to separate yourself from food. E.g. placing food in
another room, so that you have to go and get it if you want to eat it.
Weight loss is much easier when you cut down alcohol.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Lady Gaga’s Diet Tips
Initially published on April 18th 2012
Lady Gaga has recently been in trouble for this tweet:
“Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat
#IwasBornThisWay”
Lady Gaga found out that it’s ok to dream of a cheeseburger but it’s not ok to say “Pop singers don’t
eat”.
It must be hard being a celebrity with 23 million followers on Twitter. You want to communicate
with your fans regularly, but every time you tweet, there’s a risk of saying the wrong thing and a lot
of people reading it.
And celebrities are under immense pressure to conform to unrealistic body expectations.
When a celebrity makes a statement showing unhealthy attitudes to eating, we are faced with two
conflicting notions.
1. Why should we care what a pop star says about health? After all, she’s not the Chief Medical
Officer.
2. With such a huge fanbase and influence, her musings on dieting are more likely to be heard than
those of the Chief Medical Officer.
So while it might be easy to dismiss the health advice of a pop star, we have to acknowledge that
there are a lot of Little Monsters (Gaga fans) who will be affected by seeing a tweet that seems to
endorse starving yourself to lose weight.
On the other hand, is Gaga saying anything that isn’t true? Most of the women who grace our
magazine covers are probably in varying states of deprivation and starvation. Kate Moss’s statement:
“Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels” was another window into the attitude needed to survive in
the fashion/ celebrity world. The irony is even Gaga gets photoshopped. Is anyone thin enough to
make it onto a magazine cover untouched?
Our society has built up an image of beauty that even starving popstars can’t achieve. And when
they try to, we castigate them for it. And the negative impact that this has on children and others is
perpetuating the message that weight loss is about starvation and deprivation.
The fact is starvation is not a healthy, sustainable way to lose weight. And for most people it’s not
even an effective way to lose weight. Gaga has a history of an eating disorder so this doesn’t make
her the ideal role model in this area.
What this sort of attitude does though, is suggest to people that there is a clear choice here. Either
starve yourself or be overweight. There are lots of people out there (you probably know a few) who
think that because they don’t like starving themselves they can’t lose weight.
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But this “all or nothing” thinking bears no resemblance to reality. Remember there are different
goals in weight loss. For most overweight people, rather than look at celebrities as role models they
should be focussed on two admirable goals:
8. Losing 5 % of body weight as a bare minimum. Even a 5% reduction can make a huge
difference to your health
OR
9. Try and get down to your normal body mass index. I know that there are lots of flaws with
body mass index, but for the majority of people, it’s a reasonable guide.
To achieve either of these goals, you don’t need to starve yourself like Lady Gaga.
Gaga may have been tweeting how she felt, but we must be conscious of the societal drivers that
have created and promoted such feelings. And we must be quick to draw a line between a popstar’s
weight expectations and those of the average person who just wants to be healthy and feel good
about their weight.
Commentary
On one hand I think people make too much of a fuss and get too offended by incidental things
people in the public eye say. Often their intentions are twisted and misrepresented anyway.
On the other hand, when we realise how influential Lady Gaga is amongst large numbers of young,
impressionable fans, then a bit of vigilance is indicated.
The fact is, Lady Gaga is a pop star; she should not be a role model for weight loss ... but she
inadvertently is.
What you need to know:
-
We all want to look good. But don’t let celebrity bodies put you off what could be realistic,
health affirming, sustainable weight loss.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Khloe Kardashian Loses 20 Pounds in a Week … and Other
Bad News
Originally published on May 9th 2012
I have to admit, living in the UK, I don’t know much about Khloe Kardashian.
She’s recently lost 20 pounds of weight (1 stone 6 pounds / 9kg) in 20 days and this has
been enough to get her some good press coverage.
But as far as I can see, weight loss “success” stories like these are a disaster for our society.
Why would I say this? Shouldn’t I be pleased that a 27 year old woman has managed to lose
20 pounds of weight in a few weeks? Isn’t she setting a good example and giving people
hope?
Well, frankly, no.
“Dramatic” weight loss like this is often “short term” weight loss. Especially when you are in
your 20s, it’s possible to lose weight very quickly, but keeping it off is the true test of a
successful weight loss programme. Most people will struggle to maintain rapid weight loss.
Indeed, for Khloe, it’s hard to bet that this will be a long term success.
Much of the press coverage has glorified the speed at which she has lost so much weight.
This is really the wrong emphasis. Someone losing 20 pounds over a year (compared to a
few weeks) and maintaining it for several years is much more impressive, but of course it
doesn’t make a very good news story.
And this kind of story affects all of us, in terms of our perceptions of what a good level and
speed of weight loss is. On a conscious level, we might hear a story like this and dismiss it as
unrealistic and unsustainable but on a subtle unconscious level, it’s hard not to hear these
stories and have it affect your perceptions.
This is most apparent when people are trying to lose weight. A woman in her fifties might
lose two pounds over a few weeks. This might be a great accomplishment (especially if their
weight had been increasing prior to this) but most women would feel like it was too little
and too slow. Why? Because they have been affected by stories of people losing weight
much quicker.
And for women trying to lose weight without help, a feeling of not having achieved results
fast enough, can be the trigger to give up their weight loss attempt altogether.
So it could be argued that a celebrity losing weight really quickly might be good news for
them (and even that’s doubtful in the long run) but it’s definitely bad news for the rest of us.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Commentary
I was initially reluctant to write about Khloe Kardashian, mainly because no one in the UK
knows who she is. But the media story really captured something dangerous. We all love to
get things quickly. In our society we want everything now. And the media reflects this with
their coverage of overnight weight loss that is trumpeted as a success.
The effects of this desire for quick results is one of the biggest problems in losing weight.
Unrealistic expectations lead to many people giving up on losing weight, even though
they’re actually doing quite well.
What you need to know:
-
Don’t let unrealistic expectations sink your weight loss.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
How Do You Make an X-Factor Star More Marketable? Get
Her to Lose Weight.
Originally published on May 22 2012
This story came into my inbox over the weekend about an American X-Factor winner who
has been told to lose weight to help her be more marketable.
What the article describes is quite expected, but also a little sad.
The singer in question is called Melaine Amaro and she won the first season of the US XFactor.
According to the article:
- Melanie has lost 6 pounds out of a planned 30 pounds
- She is working with a personal trainer
- She is following a strictly regimented diet
But this is the best quote of the article:
“So far the hardest part of Melanie’s weight loss is her love for her family’s unhealthy homecooked meals, and her lack of motivation in the gym”
Shame on her for loving home cooked meals and lacking motivation to go to the gym!
Of course, I don’t have accurate detailed knowledge about her weight loss programme, but
the average person reading the article will probably draw the following conclusions:
1. I must follow a very strict diet to lose weight
2. Home cooked meals or other enjoyable foods are the enemy
3. If you lack motivation to go to the gym, then you are bad and don’t deserve to lose
weight.
I would say that for most people, Melanie’s weight loss is a blueprint for how NOT to lose
weight. It is the typical short-term-focused plan that our society equates with weight loss.
i.e.
1. Replace your normal diet with something completely different
2. Focus on it very intensely to get the results you want
3. The quicker the weight loss, the better
4. No pain/ no gain. If you are enjoying it, you’re doing it wrong.
5. Similar to point 4, stop eating any foods that you enjoy.
Now having said that, for Melanie, this might work in the short term:
- she is 19, so weight loss is much easier now than it will be in 20-30 years
- she has a strong motivating factor (promised career success) to lose weight
- she also probably has a lot of people “pressuring” her to follow this plan.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
But Melanie will not learn long-term ways to manage her weight. She will resent not being
able to enjoy home-cooked meals. She will crave the foods she loves. She will hate the
deprivation until one day, she will “snap” and want to revert to “normal” eating. These
(totally understandable) moments of wanting to eat normally, will mean that she gains
weight back and then yoyos between slim and not so slim states, depending on how
motivated she is to deprive herself.
For the rest of us, without the same pressures as Melanie, we would struggle to even lose
weight with her approach. Most people would give it up long before they got results,
because it is so unpleasant.
So what’s the ideal solution? For Melanie? For you?
1. Aim to lose weight in a way that you know you can maintain
2. Make small changes that you know you can live with.
3. Don’t set deadlines. This is hard when you have a recording contract or a wedding
coming up, but deadlines are like poison for weight loss. They make people take
shortcuts instead of making sustainable changes. As I like to ask my clients, would
you rather lose weight over 4 months and keep it off, or lose weight over 2 months
and be doomed to keep losing it over and over again?
4. Make changes as pleasant as possible. If you love home-cooked meals, design your
life in a way that you can enjoy them as well as manage your weight. It is possible. I
help people do it every day.
Commentary
Imagine you’re in Melanie’s situation. You’ve just won a popular song contest. A career
doing what you love beckons, if only, you can lose weight. Quickly. And you’re told that the
quickest way to do this is by turning your back on the family meals and hit the gym even
though you hate exercise.
What’s wrong with this scenario?
1. It’s very hard to deprive yourself of things that you love.
2. It’s very hard to do things that you hate.
There are lots of “diet” and “fitness” professionals that will tell you that you SHOULD do
things you hate and cut out things you love, in order to lose weight.
Of course, we need to make changes, if we want different results, but the fact is, the more
unpleasant your weight loss regime is, the less likely you will stick to it. That is why so many
people fail to lose weight, or fail to maintain their weight loss.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
What you need to know:
-
Don’t make losing weight like a punishment, by denying yourself all the finer things
in life. Otherwise it will create pressure and cravings and undermine your weight loss
attempt.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
The Canadian Mayor Who Failed to Lose Weight
Originally published on May 30 2012
The mayor of Toronto, Canada, Rob Ford has abandoned his weight loss attempt. He had
declared in public that he was going to lose 50 pounds (almost 4 stone), however five
months later, with slow or non-existent progress, having missed his last five public weighins, he decided to abandon his effort partway through.
On the surface, this sounds like a familiar story of:
1. Good intentions. Deciding to reduce one’s weight
2. Telling everyone about one’s weight loss plans (in this case, everyone was three million
people)
3. Despite high hopes, struggling to keep to the “diet” because of poor willpower
4. Eventually realising that the weight target was never going to be reached
5. Giving up and feeling (possibly) humiliated
This sort of experience is enough to put people off even trying to lose weight. And many
people after a few such experiences decide that they are incapable of losing weight.
But let’s look a little closer at the chain of events.
1. Deciding to lose weight is good.
2a. I am not so sure telling everyone else about your weight loss intentions is a good idea.
Better to let them see your progress.
2b. I don’t believe in weight loss deadlines. If you set a goal with a deadline, you are going to
be more likely to make short term changes rather than try for more long term habit change.
3. The mayor had what can only be described as a deprivation diet:
“He says he is “eating like a rabbit,” running laps around a track, gulping water, and, to
distract himself from hunger pangs, returning constituents’ phone calls.”
This sort of diet, might deliver some short term progress, if you can tolerate it. But most
people can’t. It’s a poor choice of strategy.
4. Relying on willpower to lose weight is also a poor strategy. Willpower is a limited
resource. It is not a long term solution.
The media response seems to be bordering on mockery as if his failure to lose weight was a
reflection of character weakness. But having chosen the worst way of achieving his dramatic
weight loss goal, the mayor was always likely to fail. Nothing to do with character and
everything to do with his chosen method and approach.
So how does this relate to you? 6 steps to take to losing weight:
1. Set a reasonable goal with an initial goal that is easily achievable.
2. No deadlines
3. Don’t tell anyone
www.doctorkweightloss.com
4. Don’t rely on willpower
5. Don’t cut out ALL the foods you love
6. Make steady small changes towards your goal
Commentary
Some people think it’s good to tell others about weight loss intentions. The evidence is that this is
not a good idea.
The other interesting aspect of this, is that when you are trying to lose weight publicly, others will
project onto you, their image of what a proper weight loss effort should be. And usually what people
imagine to be a proper attempt to lose weight is eating lettuce and spending hours on a treadmill.
Forget the fact that it doesn’t work, that’s what most people think you need to do.
You need to be resistant to other people’s influences. 2/3 of the population is overweight or obese,
so it’s fair to say that most people have no idea how to manage their weight. You must be strong
enough to absorb their misguided opinions and stay to true to the course you have set, of
sustainable weight loss.
What you need to know:
-
Ignore others when it comes to losing weight. Make your plan and stick to it, regardless of
what other people say.
Set a motivating goal, but always have an “initial” goal that is easier to achieve in the shortterm.
Focus on making small changes each week.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
You Are Luckier Than Beyoncé
Initially published on May 29th 2012
Beyoncé recently described her weight loss efforts as:
“I had to lose 60 pounds. They had me on that treadmill. I ate lettuce!”
Prior to this, having just had her baby, she was reported to be on a diet of “protein shakes,
egg-white omelettes, pineapple chunks and lots of ice-cold water”. Slightly more than
lettuce, but not that much more.
Beyoncé epitomises an extreme approach to weight loss that is “necessary” for celebrities
like her, but not for everyone else. Beyoncé has concerts to perform at, photoshoots to pose
for, and has to generally look as good as she can as quick as she can. This urgency means she
must do ridiculous things like eat pineapple chunks and lettuce and kill herself on the
treadmill.
But you are lucky. Compared to Beyoncé you can take it easy. There is no good reason why
you need to lose so much weight so quickly. You can do things slowly but surely. While
Beyoncé is suffering, you can make small, pleasant changes to your eating patterns. You
don’t have to cut out chocolate or anything else you love. You can lose weight in a way that
lasts.
I often say to clients, in one years time, you won’t remember whether you took 4 months or
5 months to lose a stone of weight. That sense of urgency lots of people have, is an illusion.
What’s more important is if you have done things the sensible way (by changing your habits)
you will most definitely see a difference in the long term. Because you are much more likely
to have kept the weight off, if you have taken a more sustainable approach.
Commentary
I generally notice with clients that as they get older, the urgency to lose weight seems to
dissipate. I usually attribute this to maturity. Some clients tell me that it’s the result of
previous yoyo diet failures.
Whatever the reason, being patient about weight loss is definitely a strength. It makes you
do the right thing, not the short-term thing. And this is why women over 40 have a huge
advantage when it comes to losing weight for the long-term.
What you need to know
-
Beyoncé might be in a hurry to lose weight, but you don’t need to be.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
-
Deadlines are like poison to your weight loss. They make you focus on short-term
strategies instead of ones that will lead to long-term weight loss.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
What’s a Krispy Kreme Hamburger?
Originally published on July 5 2012
Paula Deen is apparently a celebrity chef in the US. She is famous for the Krispy Kreme
Hamburger which is:
“a half-pound beef patty topped with bacon and egg fried in butter, served with glazed
donuts in lieu of a bun”
After being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes she decided that she needed to lose weight.
Here is quote from her from a recent article in the Hollywood Reporter after she lost 30
pounds:
“It took me a couple of years to get to this point. You can make a few small changes, they
can add up to big results.”
I love this quote. It encompasses two key points:
1. She took 2 years to lose 30 pounds. Most people do not have the patience to wait 2 years
to lose weight. And so, in the space of 2 years they will try 4 or 5 fad diets that promise to
shed “30 pounds in 30 days” and by the time the 2 years are up, they have either lost no
weight or are significantly heavier than when they started.
While clients on my programme would not take two years to lose 30 pounds (more like 6
months) the most important thing is keeping the weight off. And so the underlying attitude
must be about patience. You took a certain amount of time to gain the weight on, so be
patient in losing it. The more relaxed you are about timeframes the more likely you will use
long-term strategies to lose weight rather than short-term deprivation.
2. Small changes really do add up. Instead of making drastic changes and cutting out
everything you used to eat. Isn’t it much better to make small changes that you know you
can live with? Each change on its own might not seem like much but added up and over a
period of time, they certainly add up.
Commentary
I found this story fascinating because of the juxtaposition of Krispy Kreme hamburgers and
weight loss. Not that I think that you can’t indulge and still manage your weight. But for
someone so identified with indulgence to turn things around and lose so much weight
sustainably, is admirable.
What you need to know:
1. If someone who indulges so much can make such healthy changes, then anyone can.
2. Small changes do add up
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Jessica Simpson is Stressed About Losing Weight
Originally published on June 29th 2012
Pop star Jessica Simpson is stressed. Why? Because she has a contract with Weight
Watchers worth $4 million that stipulates that she must lose 50 pounds in 5 months.
That’s a lot of weight and not a lot of time, hence the stress. She has also apparently said
that “She wants to teach her daughter to have a healthy lifestyle.”
It’s true for pop stars and it’s true for everyone else. Deadlines are a bad idea.
If a client came to me and said “I want to lose 50 pounds in 5 months” I would tell her to
look elsewhere. I would certainly not work with her. This is because my programme is based
on long term change. I want to help people change their lifestyles so that they can maintain
their weight for the rest of their lives. Someone who is preoccupied with a deadline will not
be able to engage with this approach. As soon as you are worried about a deadline, you will
start to do short term things like starving yourself or hitting the gym extra hard. These are
not long-term strategies.
I have always said it is hard to be a celebrity. Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai, who has
recently had a baby has been copping flak from the media about not losing weight soon
enough. They are under tremendous pressures that most of us can’t fathom.
But the facts are, if you want to lose weight and keep it off, the strategies you need to
employ are quite different to if you want to lose weight as quick as possible.
Jessica Simpson has signed on for a strict deadline and this completely undermines her
desire for long term weight loss. She will not be teaching her child any good habits, if she
struggles and strains to lose weight within the allotted timeframe by extreme measures.
If you’re not being hounded by the media to lose weight quickly, I suggest taking a more
relaxed approach. Only do things that you know you can maintain and throw out any
deadlines. Let the weight come off naturally as you make sensible changes to the way you
eat.
Commentary
One of the interesting aspects of this article is Jessica Simpson’s desire to pass on good
habits to her daughter. Suffice it to say, if children see their mother using fad diets and
other short-term strategies that revolve around starvation, then it’s a terrible message to be
passing down.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
You can say all you like, but actions speak louder than words. And the best gift to give a
child is to show them that you can manage your weight naturally without the love-hate
relationship with food that so many people have.
Of course in this example the good intentions of setting a healthy example run head-on into
the fact that Mummy has promised a weight loss company that she will lose weight by a
certain deadline. This pretty much undermines the healthy lifestyle message and positive
relationship with food.
What you need to know;
1. You have a responsibility to show (not just teach) your children how to have a
positive relationship with food.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
How Carrie Fisher Can Avoid Yo-Yo Dieting
Carrie Fisher, the actress who played Princess Leia in Star Wars has apparently gained back
weight after announcing a 50 pound weight loss last year.
What went wrong?
With anyone who loses weight and gains it back, I believe that most people focus on the
period after weight loss. They blame things like a lack of discipline for people straying off the
path, even after achieving so much.
I don't think is the correct way of looking at things. With most cases of yoyo dieting, the
mistakes are often made while losing weight.
I believe that in the case of anyone who has lost weight and then gained it back, they should
ask themselves two questions.
1. Were the changes I made sensitive to my underlying lifestyle?
All of us have different eating habits. These are often a result of many factors such as
convenience, fitting in with what other people at home eat and eating for pleasure. If it
wasn't for these factors why else would you do them?
The problem with a diet is that it forces you to jettison all the things you used to do and
instead follow a prescribed eating plan. A diet doesn't take into account what's convenient
for you, what's enjoyable or how your family eats. You either do what the diet says, or
you're not on the diet.
But the fact is, the more drastic the changes involved are, the harder it is to stick to them.
You might be able to stick to a strict diet for a few weeks, but it's much harder to continue
indefinitely. And especially when people are under stress they revert to old habits.
Therefore the ideal weight loss programme is one that fits in with your current lifestyle, not
one that completely overhauls what you were doing previously.
2. When I lost the weight, was I confident that the method I was using was one that I was
comfortable doing for the rest of my life?
So many people do things to lose weight, that if they were being honest with themselves,
they had no real inclination to keep doing them forever.
This includes the person who decides they are going to run 5 miles every morning but knows
that as soon as the weather turns cold it's going to be much easier to stay in bed.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
It also includes the person who doesn't eat at restaurants while trying to lose weight or puts
off their weight loss until after their holiday. If you intend to keep eating out and holidaying
after you've lost weight, then you have to learn how to cope with those things while you're
losing weight.
If you make changes to your eating and exercise that you only want to do while you're losing
weight (but not after), then you are condemning yourself to yoyo dieting.
What these two questions emphasise is that you need to think about how you are going to
maintain your weight loss, even before you lose it.
So how do we ensure that the changes we make will be long-term ones?
1. Make small changes. Drastic changes are too difficult to integrate into your current
lifestyle. Make small changes each week over a longer period of time to ensure
sustainability.
2. Make the changes, ones that you feel confident continuing for the long term.
3. Make the changes fit in with your life. You want to still be able to eat out, travel and enjoy
life while maintaining your weight. If not, your weight loss won't last.
When I help my clients lose weight, I am much more concerned with weight maintenance
than weight loss. When you change your habits in a sustainable way, the weight loss will
inevitably follow.
Commentary
One of the essential rules of sustainable weight loss is “start as you intend to continue”.
Most people “start and hope they can finish very quickly”. In other words they do things
that they really don’t like and can’t tolerate, just to get the result as quickly as possible. But
this is pure short-termism and most women over 40 find that the quick and nasty approach
doesn’t work anymore anyway.
So it’s better to do things right from the very beginning. A key part of the behavioral
approach is only doing things you’re happy to do for the long-term. If something feels wrong
or unpleasant, then don’t do it.
What you need to know:
-
Don’t do anything to lose weight that you’re not confident that you can keep doing
for the long-term
www.doctorkweightloss.com
Epilogue
If we were to assemble the lessons we’ve learned from the articles we’ve just read, here are
16 things celebrities can teach you about losing weight:
1. Don’t listen to anything celebrities say about weight loss. (They teach us by (bad)
example, not by what they say)
2. Increase awareness of your food behaviors by keeping a food diary.
3. Drastic measures look impressive, but what’s more important is sustainable weight
loss.
4. Exercise is good for you, but if you want to lose weight, you have to cut down the
number of calories you eat.
5. Plan for different situations that might come up. Don’t just hope for the best.
6. Grazing can account for a lot of calories that you don’t even realize you’re having.
7. Better than using willpower or self-control to resist temptation, is removing the
temptation altogether.
8. You can use physical barriers to separate yourself from food. E.g. placing food in
another room.
9. Alcohol and weight loss co-exist very uncomfortably.
10. Don’t make losing weight like a punishment, by denying yourself all the finer things
in life. Otherwise it will create pressure and cravings and undermine your weight loss
attempt.
11. Ignore others when it comes to losing weight. Make your plan and stick to it, regardless of
what other people say.
12. Set a motivating goal, but always have an “initial” goal that is easier to achieve in the shortterm.
13. Focus on making small changes each week.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
14. You have a responsibility to show (not just teach) your children how to have a
positive relationship with food.
15. Deadlines are like poison to your weight loss. They make you focus on short-term
strategies instead of ones that will lead to long-term weight loss.
16. Don’t treat weight loss like a short-term project. Don’t do anything to lose weight
that you’re not confident that you can keep doing for the long-term.
www.doctorkweightloss.com
About the Author
Dr Khandee Ahnaimugan (Dr. K) is a medical doctor, weight loss expert and bestselling author based in London, England. At his clinic, he helps women over 40 lose
weight without dieting.
For more free resources visit:
www.doctorkweightloss.com/resources
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