Professor loses weight, keeps it off by eating whatever he wants

[Roxie]

from ajc.com

By BROCK VERGAKIS
Associated Press
Published on: 12/05/05
SALT LAKE CITY — When Steven Hawks is tempted by ice cream bars, M&Ms and toffee-covered almonds at the grocery store, he doesn't pass them by. He fills up his shopping cart.

It's the no-diet diet, an approach the Brigham Young University health science professor used to lose 50 pounds and to keep it off for more than five years.

Hawks calls his plan "intuitive eating" and thinks the rest of the country would be better off if people stopped counting calories, started paying attention to hunger pangs and ate whatever they wanted.

As part of intuitive eating, Hawks surrounds himself with unhealthy foods he especially craves. He says having an overabundance of what's taboo helps him lose his desire to gorge.

There is a catch to this no-diet diet, however: Intuitive eaters only eat when they're hungry and stop when they're full.

That means not eating a box of chocolates when you're feeling blue or digging into a big plate of nachos just because everyone else at the table is.

The trade-off is the opportunity to eat whatever your heart desires when you are actually hungry.

"One of the advantages of intuitive eating is you're always eating things that are most appealing to you, not out of emotional reasons, not because it's there and tastes good," he said. "Whenever you feel the physical urge to eat something, accept it and eat it. The cravings tend to subside. I don't have anywhere near the cravings I would as a 'restrained eater.'"

Hawks should know. In 1989, the Utah native had a job at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and wanted to return to his home state. But at 210 pounds, he didn't think a fat person could get a job teaching students how to be healthy, so his calorie-counting began.

He lost weight and got the job at Utah State University. But the pounds soon came back.

For several years his weight fluctuated, until he eventually gave up on being a restrained eater and the weight stayed on.

"You definitely lose weight on a diet, but resisting biological pressures is ultimately doomed," Hawks said.

Several years later and still overweight at a new job at BYU, Hawks decided it was time for a lifestyle change.

He stopped feeling guilty about eating salt-and-vinegar potato chips. He also stopped eating when he wasn't hungry.

Slowly and steadily his weight began to drop. Exercise helped.

His friends and co-workers soon took notice of the slimmer Hawks.

"It astonished me, actually," said his friend, Steven Peck. "We were both very heavy. It was hard not to be struck."

After watching Hawks lose and keep the weight off for a year and a half, Peck tried intuitive eating in January.

"I was pretty skeptical of the idea you could eat anything you wanted until you didn't feel like it. It struck me as odd," said Peck, who is an assistant professor at BYU.

But 11 months later, Peck sometimes eats mint chocolate chip ice cream for dinner, is 35 pounds lighter and a believer in intuitive eating.

"There are times when I overeat. I did at Thanksgiving," Peck said. "That's one thing about Steve's ideas, they're sort of forgiving. On other diets if you slip up, you feel you've blown it and it takes a couple weeks get back into it. ... This sort of has this built-in forgiveness factor."

The one thing all diets have in common is that they restrict food, said Michael Goran, an obesity expert at the University of Southern California. Ultimately, that's why they usually fail, he said.

"At some point you want what you can't have," Goran said. Still, he said intuitive eating makes sense as a concept "if you know what you're doing."

Intuitive eating alone won't give anyone six-pack abs, Hawks said, but it will lead to a healthier lifestyle. He still eats junk food and keeps a jar of honey in his office, but only indulges occasionally.

"My diet is actually quite healthy. ... I'm as likely to eat broccoli as eat a steak," he said. "It's a misconception that all of a sudden a diet is going to become all junk food and high fat," he said.

In a small study published in the American Journal of Health Education, Hawks and a team of researchers examined a group of BYU students and found those who were intuitive eaters typically weighed less and had a lower risk of cardiovascular disease than other students.

He said the study indicates intuitive eating is a viable approach to long-term weight management and he plans to do a larger study across different cultures. Ultimately, he'd like intuitive eating to catch on as a way for people to normalize their relationship with food and fight eating disorders.

"Most of what the government is telling us is, we need to count calories, restrict fat grams, etc. I feel like that's a harmful message," he said. "I think encouraging dietary restraint creates more problems. I hope intuitive eating will be adopted at a national level."

Sounds good to me. Get me a treadmill and some chocolate chip cookies! ;)

[FireWolf238]

my diet is better: eat wut ever and than run it off

[Roxie]

Um....I think that's what he did..if you read closely...maybe not running, specifically.

[FireWolf238]

ohh well i'm too lazy to read all that. and heck, all working diets have only one idea:
in order to lose weight, one must burn more energy than they consume

[hapacheese]

If I followed that advice, I'd go through a gallon of ice cream, 3 boxes of chocolates, and a tub of soda a day.

/kinda hard to run that off =\

[nameplease]

If you think about it, it's kind of strange that this is viewed as a new idea. Shouldn't this be the way that all people (except those with nutrition-related diseases) eat?

[FireWolf238]

very true, but than my parents always joke on that subject in the line of wutever's new is just a forgoten old

[Snake eyeS]

going on a diet is the same as stopping with smoking, if your not 100% sure you want to do it... then dont.

if you want too... its piss easy.

[Soli]

That seems logical in a way. I guess as long as you stop when you're full and never eat more then your body needs you won't gain any weight.

[FireWolf238]

*and burn of the energy* :P
anyone wanna start an e-ruuning club:P?

[Idlethought]

Dude, youre a little obsessed with running...

[Praetorian]

He's like Forrest Gump. He'll get bored of it.

[Idlethought]

Or die of exhaustion

[FireWolf238]

emm the die of exhaustion part is more possible...when i got bored of running, i only ran 45 miles per week :D and that lasted like 3 weeks

[ruaidhri]

Eating and diets. That’s something I can write about. Warning! Stop reading here if you don’t want to learn about an old man’s tribulations with fat, medicines and fighting back.

The key to intuitive eating is stopping when you’re full. That is hard for a lot of people. We’re all in such a rush that we shovel food into our mouths. We don’t even give our stomachs the chance to tell us we’ve satisfied our hunger pangs. We also don’t eat simply because we’re hungry. We eat to do something. We eat because the food tastes good. And, we eat too much because as the old commercial used to say “bet you can’t eat just one.”

I’m 64. When I was a young man dinner plates were much smaller. It took less food to fill them. People generally ate less. Look at an old black and white movie or TV show. You could count the overweight people on one hand. Today, it’s the other way around. Walk down the street and you will have to look hard for anyone that’s not overweight, especially if they’re older. We’ve lost the ability to stop eating. We reward ourselves with food and we don’t stop until we’re stuffed.

Now, I don’t doubt that Steven Hawks’ diet worked for him and would work for others if they were able to “eat just one.” But, how many of you could eat a couple of bites out of a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder With Cheese? How many could have a couple of fries and throw the rest away? And, how many still feel hungry after eating that culinary treat?

But then, what do I know about dieting? Well, when I was younger and in my teens, 20’s and even 30’s, I was thin. Heck, when I was 25, I only weight 118 pounds, which at 5’ 8” tall made me very thin. I could eat anything without putting on weight. My high metabolism burned it up immediately. But then I started eating more and more and not stopping when I was full. I also really enjoy straight bourbon and snacks. I would have a couple of drinks and Brie Cheese on crackers before eating dinner. Then, I would have my meal, and if it was really good I didn’t hesitate to take seconds. High metabolism or not I started packing on the pounds.

I took note that one by one my overweight friends and family were diagnosed with diabetes. That scared me. Also, I didn’t like the feeling of fat. I didn’t like 44” pants. I didn’t like all the pills I had to take. I didn’t like taking pills for high blood pressure. I didn’t like the cholesterol medication the doctor prescribed. And, I mostly didn’t like the hiatal hernia I developed and the acid reflex it produced, which rewarded me with vurps (combination of burp and vomit) while I slept. Believe me, there is nothing like a vurp to wake you up in the middle of the night. They taste terrible, they burn and they make you feel like shit.

So, last January, I really looked at myself in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw. I suggested to my wife that we both join Weight Watchers. She agreed. We started the last week of January 2005. We learned to eat properly. We chose their core program, which means that we don’t count calories. We eat healthy foods in the core group without counting but do have to count “junk” food, which the diet also permits up to a specific count.

This Weight Watchers diet is not hard for my wife and me to follow. We eat well and we stop when we are full. We don’t skip meals because we’ve learned that makes a person so hungry that they gorge. I never go to bed hungry. I never feel deprived.
The Bourbon and Brie cheese are gone from my diet. I’ll have Bourbon if we go out. I usually don’t even finish the first drink. It doesn’t have the same appeal. What I’ve learned is that no food tastes as good as being thin feels.

So, what are the results. Well, I still have a fast metabolism even at 64. In under 11 months, I’ve lost 70 pounds. I’ve lost 10 inches off my waist. I no longer have problems with stomach acid or the dreaded vurps. My doctor took me off the cholesterol medicine and I expect that with my next visit the doctor will also take me off my blood pressure medicine.

Weight Watchers worked for my wife (lost 45 pounds) and me because it promotes the healthy way to lose weight and it teaches its members how to eat properly. Mostly it teaches its members how to recognize that single big factor of stopping eating when we are full.

[Roxie]

I love you ruaidhri.

You need to start a thread, "Ask ruaidhri". You've got alot of knowledge and experience to give and I'm sure some of us could use it!

[Jon885]

Walk down the street and you will have to look hard for anyone that’s not overweight, especially if they’re older.

You must live in one of the fattest cities in America because most of the people I see are at a normal weight when I go out. It's usually the other way around for me anyway.

[FireWolf238]

here it's one to one. that's cuz al the skinny asians compensate for the few fat rednecks around here who still have not fled

[BlackLiger]

bah. I do that anyways. That diet is MY invention. I've eaten what I liked when I was hungry ALL my life.

[co_delphi]

The easiest way to curb your weight is to invest in those triple chocolate lovers truffles. They are so rich that you can only eat like one or two before you feel sick. This will curb your appetite quite well.

[zheader]

I'm a wrestler, and if wrestlers know anything, it's how to lose weight. (It may not always be the healthiest way, but we do it.)
Personally, that's the diet I use, but when I need to lose some weight, I'll switch over to eating something I may not want to, but is healthier. My daily workout takes care of all my extra calories.

[eyez0nme]

Is that so, old man. Unfortunatly, none of us will be able to do what you did; unless we also are plagued with diabetes, and all sorts of other disease related to unhealthy food. Tell me--what is unhealthy food? What exactly did you do at weightwatchers? Those are the things this generation cannot accomplish, and 80 percent of us will be diagnosed with diabetes, because we are addicted to fat, grease, fried, sugar, salty, meaty food. All the food that tastes good. And all the food that tastes like shit--what you ate at weight watcher--will not accomplish anything for us. Just let us die in agony, and do not give recommendations.

[jindojim]

That's cuz Americans raka dishipurin! (lack discipline)

[mawande]

Is that so, old man. Unfortunatly, none of us will be able to do what you did; unless we also are plagued with diabetes, and all sorts of other disease related to unhealthy food. Tell me--what is unhealthy food? What exactly did you do at weightwatchers? Those are the things this generation cannot accomplish, and 80 percent of us will be diagnosed with diabetes, because we are addicted to fat, grease, fried, sugar, salty, meaty food. All the food that tastes good. And all the food that tastes like shit--what you ate at weight watcher--will not accomplish anything for us. Just let us die in agony, and do not give recommendations.

Here, let me try for you.

First: Cut your eating in half. Eat half a sandwich. Eat a cup of cereal instead of a bowl. Note that this is a cup as in a standard measurement, not as in a honking big cup bigger than the average bowl, and that half a sandwich does not mean piling the fixings for a whole sandwich on one piece of bread. When you feel peckish, eat fruits or vegetables. This does not mean salad piled with bacon bits or other fatty stuff. Salad dressings tend to be heavier than the salad themselves, hahah. Stop eating fried foods. This means things fried in oil especially. If you have a lack of strong grasp of nutritional eating like I do, purchase vitamin and mineral supplements.

Find out if you have any food allergies. I'm allergic to shrimp. Some people are allergic to wheat and things like that, which make them fat and since they don't know it's an allergic reaction, they get frustrated trying to lose weight and failing. Last but not least, don't expect any sympathy from someone like me, who now weighs 107 pounds and expects to weigh less tomorrow, and who weighed 125-130 pounds before she put her foot down and dieted for two and a half months until she hit 106 pounds and decided hovering around there was quite the shock enough. I'm only five feet tall.

Every so often I have ice cream. The guys at the local Baskin Robbins know I like to try out different flavors and pull out a sample when they see me approach. Every so often I have french fries. Had them yesterday, in fact. Every so often I have cheesecake. I have also learned the average calorie-count of these things, and know how to burn them off if I feel I've had more than I need for one day. My meals mainly consist of... okay, I'm still relatively unbalanced, but the balance has swung in the direction of fruits and vegetables. I have steak sometimes, I have hamburger sometimes, I have chicken, etc. I have food! But I don't have the portions I used to eat, because I used to eat more than my body could deal with at one meal (much less in one day).
The end.

[PiccoloNamek]

Like others have said, it really comes down to simply burning off more than you take in. I've been jogging just one mile per day for the past three weeks, and I've lost 10lbs already. Nice. Imagine if I jogged five miles, or ten.

I'm also feeling hungry more often, but much less inclined to stuff myself at each helping.

[Jancarius]

I've always eaten as the article described (for whatever I was hungry for), and I maintain around 190 pounds at six foot five.

[yao_yao]

i've always eaten like that (eat when hungry, stop as soon as i feel comfortable). except when there's a great feast that's really good, or its nearing winter and I'm having meat cravings

i've always been somewhat comfortable with my weight, except during winter time but that can be ignored since i'm wearing so many layers anyway. i'm not fat, but i have a tummy. I've had it since i was a baby, and i cant seem to get rid of it. doesnt feel like fat, curiously enough. my parents joke that i have another few feet of intestine or an enlarged organ or two. =.=;;;;

[mawande]

Or a twin that didn't part from you! Perhaps that is no joking matter.

[yao_yao]

Or a twin that didn't part from you! Perhaps that is no joking matter.

lol. no that's not possible because i've had an ultrasound done on my abdomen (i was having immense abdominal pain, but it didnt seem like appendicitis but hte doc ordered an ultrasound to doublecheck)

but lol.

[ruaidhri]

I agree with most of the posters to this thread. The key to losing or maintaining weight is to eat less calories or no more than your body burns. That usually requires that you stop eating when your body is satisfied. The problem is that many people have lost the ability to recognize when they are full or they eat for purposes other than hunger.

Jon885, I’m curious. Where do you live where most of the people you see are of normal weight. They certainly are not in my community of the greater metropolitan area of Milwaukee, WI. I remember being told that at one time Milwaukee was the fattest city in America. Well, no more, according to Mens Fitness Magazine, which ranks Milwaukee as the 15th most fit city in 2005. Regardless, when I look, I see more considerably overweight people than thin people. The question then is: What is fat, what is thin and what is fit?

Roxie, thank you for your kind comments. It appears that my son Anders took your suggestion and started a new thread titled “Ask Ruaidhri”. I will attempt to answer all questions with respect for the writer.

EyezOnMe, don’t underestimate yourself. There is nothing different between us other than our ages. I joined Weight Watchers because I couldn’t do it by myself. It helped to be with other people that had the same problems with food and overeating. Weight Watchers worked for me as it does for many other people of all ages, young and old. I like their program because it doesn’t require that you buy their food and it promotes healthy, good tasting food. I am not depriving myself. I eat good tasting food. I had a delicious Lamb Sirloin Chop fried in olive oil and big salad and a baked potato for dinner. I’m satisfied when I stop eating. Weight Watchers allows its members to eat Junk Food if they want. The only catch is that they can’t eat as much. While Weight Watchers isn’t the only path it is the one that worked for me and the only one with which I’m personally familiar. If you’ll listen to one suggestion from me it’s that you not surrender to fat. It really does feel much better to be thin than any food tastes.

[fa11en87]

I hate being skinny. I don't want to be overweight, but I wish I were thicker. And I hate it how people try to starve themselves to lose weight and never exercise...People need to learn how to diet the proper way!

[FireWolf238]

i consume 2.5k calories per day

[Jon885]

ruaidhri I live in PA. I still see more thin people than fat. maybe they hide it well.

also i'm trying this diet.


most of the people i see are in the 120-150 pound range..so i don't know if that counts as overweight.

[Glitch ErrorWeaver]

www.coolrunning.com

[eyez0nme]

Here, let me try for you.

First: Cut your eating in half. Eat half a sandwich. Eat a cup of cereal instead of a bowl. Note that this is a cup as in a standard measurement, not as in a honking big cup bigger than the average bowl, and that half a sandwich does not mean piling the fixings for a whole sandwich on one piece of bread. When you feel peckish, eat fruits or vegetables. This does not mean salad piled with bacon bits or other fatty stuff. Salad dressings tend to be heavier than the salad themselves, hahah. Stop eating fried foods. This means things fried in oil especially. If you have a lack of strong grasp of nutritional eating like I do, purchase vitamin and mineral supplements.

Find out if you have any food allergies. I'm allergic to shrimp. Some people are allergic to wheat and things like that, which make them fat and since they don't know it's an allergic reaction, they get frustrated trying to lose weight and failing. Last but not least, don't expect any sympathy from someone like me, who now weighs 107 pounds and expects to weigh less tomorrow, and who weighed 125-130 pounds before she put her foot down and dieted for two and a half months until she hit 106 pounds and decided hovering around there was quite the shock enough. I'm only five feet tall.

Every so often I have ice cream. The guys at the local Baskin Robbins know I like to try out different flavors and pull out a sample when they see me approach. Every so often I have french fries. Had them yesterday, in fact. Every so often I have cheesecake. I have also learned the average calorie-count of these things, and know how to burn them off if I feel I've had more than I need for one day. My meals mainly consist of... okay, I'm still relatively unbalanced, but the balance has swung in the direction of fruits and vegetables. I have steak sometimes, I have hamburger sometimes, I have chicken, etc. I have food! But I don't have the portions I used to eat, because I used to eat more than my body could deal with at one meal (much less in one day).
The end.

Good for you; but as always you'll end up worse than before once you can't control what you eat and how much, just like us. You'll fall. Trust me--you'll fall--and end up eating crap, like us, even if you tried not to.

[Roxie]

Good for you; but as always you'll end up worse than before once you can't control what you eat and how much, just like us. You'll fall. Trust me--you'll fall--and end up eating crap, like us, even if you tried not to.
Actually, Weight Watchers works and it works because it lets you eat the crap you love--just not so much of it.

And geeze! way to be a party pooper! Misery loves company for sure!

My only concern about the professors diet is that when I start working out, I become much more hungry and I know I start eating more than I should. I wonder how he would advise on that?

[mawande]

Good for you; but as always you'll end up worse than before once you can't control what you eat and how much, just like us. You'll fall. Trust me--you'll fall--and end up eating crap, like us, even if you tried not to.

*pats you gently on the head* You just go on telling yourself that. You can't bring me down.

[B RoCkS1010]

im kinda like that its just that i usually end up eatting while on the computer lol. another ironic thing about me is i lost weight and people didnt notice a change then i gained weight and people said i looked thinner but now that i think about it i think i turned it into muscle weight...hmmm

[Jon885]

Well I tried the diet and wasn't able to follow it. I only have a general idea of how it works since I've only read this article about it. I ended up having cravings for the food I already ate after about 10 minutes. Maybe somebody is more qualified to test this type of diet. I was interested because I'm overweight.

[CNagy]

For me, it has to be all or nothing until I am at the weight and figure that I want to be at. I've tried eating only when I was hungry, and I did lose some weight rather quickly, but it tapered off far too quickly. Multivitamins and five meals of rice and turkey a day are working alot better for me, working out every day is also helping.

When I get where I need to be, I can look into substituting a regular meal or two into my diet, since working to maintain is much easier than working to lose.

[Bob]

This thread is subpar

[Trump]

I eat way too much ice cream. Granted, I am also very very active so I don't gain weight. I still wonder if I should cut back though.

[FireWolf238]

depending on your age, metabolism and such. I also eat alot but even with all my running i need to start controling my intake.

[more cheerios]

Someone posted this a while back on the other forum I attend. I'll say what I said there, "LOLCAPTAINOBVIOUSHALLO!"

[Galeros]

I think my main problem is sodas, not food, but sodas. I can wolf down several plates at a chinese buffet and my weight will stay the same. But I have to get water with my meal to do that, as I have a tendency to drink too many sodas at restaurants. So, I am one of those people who could order a ton of fatty foods and McDonalds and get a diet soda with good reason.


I suppose I wish I could loose weight, but as of now I lack the discipline to do it.

[mawande]

Well I tried the diet and wasn't able to follow it. I only have a general idea of how it works since I've only read this article about it. I ended up having cravings for the food I already ate after about 10 minutes. Maybe somebody is more qualified to test this type of diet. I was interested because I'm overweight.

Which diet? The Weight Watchers or some other?
Who could be more qualified than you? Unfortunately, it takes self restraint. And a LOT of that.

[Jon885]

The diet mentioned in the first post. But I only had a general idea of how it worked but it seemed pretty simple. Somebody who might know more about the diet would probably be more qualified. Oh and I read your other post..127 pounds isn't really that overweight in my opinion but to each their own I guess.

woops got your height wrong.

[Pierrot le Fou]

First of all, the reason that people think those around them are thin, and ruaidhri doesn't see the same thing, is because of the difference in age groups. When I was in college, overweight people were in the minority -- the vast minority. Now in the real world, there are plenty of 30+ folk who have sizeable guts as their metabolism slowed down but their eating habits didn't keep pace.

I had a metabolism straight outta Hell until 21 or 22. Then the liquor started taking it's toll and I went from a very trim 6'2 185lbs to a far less trim 6'2 210 or so. I dieted (calorie counting) for a month and dropped a whole boatload off of my waistline to get back under 200. I started working out more, and that raised my muscle bulk and whatnot so I went back up to 200 or so, and then ballooned upon arriving in Japan up to 220.

I'm now 94 kilos or so, which is, uh, 208 or something? But my body fat is under 15%, so I don't mind that much.

Things I have learned:
- Soda is the devil. Juice is its closest associate. Swap to water and watch the weight disappear.
- Dieting while trying to put on muscle is silly. Don't starve yourself while working out, and then diet while taking a break from the heavy weights while working on tone and waist line.
- Get a reason to stay thin. Mine is my girlfriend. Hers is herself. I like sex. She provides it. She enjoys it more when I haven't been over-extending my beer belly with a heavy lager workout.
- Don't count on your metabolism staying the same. It won't. I used to be able to consume over 3000 calories a day with no change to my weight. Now it takes 2300 before I turn the corner from maintenence to expanding my waistline.
- Excercise. This much should be obvious.

But really, when it comes down to it, everyone is going to find different ways that work (and many more that don't work). Stick with what works for you. A crappy diet and a quick metabolism is not working for you, it's just postponing the struggle you're likely going to face in 5 years when it slows down and your eating habits suck.

Multivitamins are a godsent. Eat them. Eat your veggies too. They taste good, balance your diet, and kick arse.

Breakfast is the bane of my existence.

And remember, sex burns ungodly amounts of calories. You're all young and vigorous, right? Get fucking already. Twice or three times a day. After every meal. Like teeth-brushing.

[Jon885]

The reason I see less fat people is well..because there's less fat people in my area. Also I rarely go outside my neighborhood. So in my case it has nothing to do with a generation gap in my case. unless you consider people in the 120-150 pound range overweight.

[mawande]

The diet mentioned in the first post. But I only had a general idea of how it worked but it seemed pretty simple. Somebody who might know more about the diet would probably be more qualified. Oh and I read your other post..127 pounds isn't really that overweight in my opinion but to each their own I guess.

woops got your height wrong.

Or my weight. No, the problem was that I was starting to get overweight, which led to me dieting, which led to the discovery that a lot more of my softness was excess than I knew. I'm just trying hard now not to over-do it and make myself ill.

[karob]

I think that this diet is better then most but still a bad idea. What if you only end up eating complete junk because thats all you crave. That's is so unhealthy.

[CNagy]

Then you are the weakest link. Seriously, the limited findings seem to point at the idea that if you are surrounded by junk food, you won't indulge as often or as much. It's no longer anything special, and you'll balance your food intake because you'll want to eat other things. If that does not happen, then this is not the diet for you.

[karob]

Bah... not many people have that self control. More healthy food with a little junk every now and again + lots of exercise. It's hard to disagree with that approach if you really want to not only lose weight but improve your health in the process. I know lots of people who are nowhere near overweight but still completely out of shape.