Why is Weight1Minute™ Different than any other Weight Loss Programs?

A few days ago, a friend asked me why Weight1Minute ™ was different from all the other “diet” websites. Because I’m the Chief Executive Officer of Weight1Minute ™ , the answer was always clear, but I didn’t realize it wasn’t clear to everyone else, so I want to dispel any confusion about this important matter.

In today’s marketplace, there are basically five ways to “diet.” (I’m putting the word diet in quotations because I believe that by solely focusing on the idea of dieting is wrong. The word diet usually equates to a short term change in eating for the purpose of losing weight. In order to really make a change that will last a lifetime, you need to make small changes in your daily eating plan, which will, over the course of a your life, lead to big changes.)

The problems that exist with many of the current popular methods of “diet” and “weight-loss” programs are structural, expensive, and even unsound, such as the following:

1. The meeting based diet in which a person attends local meetings, which includes a public weigh-in process. The diet is based on a point system, with different foods assigned a number. Participants are given a daily point total to achieve. In addition, some of the recommended foods are sponsored by the same diet company. Planning time to go to the brick and mortar meetings is sometimes difficult to fit into a busy schedule. Over the long term, these programs are moderately expensive.
2. A diet based on prepared foods delivered to your door, is probably not sustainable for the long term. Although most of the food is probably nutritional, this program is very expensive, and the delivered foods do not contain any fresh fruits or vegetables, so there is an additional cost to purchase these basics from your local grocery store anyway.
3. Online diet trackers, are just that. They only track the foods you’re currently eating with little or no suggestions as to what you should be eating. Although these trackers are usually free and not a bad idea, they are only a tool to be included within an overall weight management program, not a diet in and of itself.
4. Diet books that make suggestions for recipes. These recipes meant for you or your family may not include meals that you like, or may not be realistic, such as giving you a reasonable amount of time in your busy schedule in order to have the time to cook them. Some of these “diet” programs are only meant as a short term solution, and are not a realistic plan that can be implemented or followed for a lifetime.
5. Fad diets or diet supplements promising unrealistic, quick weight loss. These are usually unhealthy, and designed for the very short term. They can be, in fact, dangerous.

After careful observation, and research regarding the availability of both well known and not so well-known weight loss companies, I decided to create my own company--Weight1Minute™.

W1M™ has:

• A completely customizable eating plan, using the recommended calories, fats, proteins, and carbohydrate levels from the U.S.D.A, which is based on your food preferences. This was designed to be incorporated into your daily lifestyle, giving you the tools that will last a lifetime
• A comprehensive food database
• An interactive caloric measurement feature incorporating both your exercise and daily eating 365/24/7
• A Learn-by-Doing approach to food and exercise
• A social network, Iowa Avenue, made up of friends and family to motivate and support you, or better yet, join you
• A behavioral modification program to teach, motivate, advise, and most of all, assist you reach your weight loss goals, and assist you maintain those goals over the long term
• A food diary
• An exercise diary
• Charts and graphs to monitor progress

Furthermore, based on current research, including the Diabetes Prevention Program, long term prevention of chronic disease by incorporating weight management is best achieved with a combination of diet, exercise, and behavioral modification. This multi-disciplined strategy has also been proven to a “good value for the money.”

When comparing a low-fat diet against a low-carbohydrate diet, it is proven that neither may be optimal for all overweight or obese persons, and dietary guidance should be individualized, to allow for specific food preferences and individual approaches. Based on the general guidelines of the American Heart Association’s “Eating Plan for Healthy Americans,” Weight1Minute ™ ’s program allows for both weight loss and individual food preferences as displayed in the Table below:

Under the auspices of behavioral modification, dietary self-monitoring has been positively related to meeting both weight loss and activity goals, and meeting the activity goal was positively related to meeting the weight loss goal and sustaining it. Obese individuals generally underestimate their food intake by 30% to 50% when eating a diet of conventional foods. This is attributable to misjudging portion sizes, failing to recognize hidden sources of fat or sugar, or forgetting some foods eaten. Weight1Minute ™ helps solve these problems by providing a diet tracker available 34/7/365, so after you eat, you can input the actual foods that you consume.

Our food based program and exercise information that is delivered via an online intervention, has also been proven successful. Data from t he National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) have proven that continued exercise is one of the mainstays of long term weight maintenance, and the benefits, both physical and mental, of a continued exercise program are undeniable. Thus, exercise is a major component in proper weight loss and maintenance. Walking, the activity most frequently recommended, was prescribed in the DPP. Coming soon will be W1M ™ ’s “Steps around the USA ™ ” program. Details will be forthcoming shortly!

An extremely serious barrier for overweight individuals to enrolling in a community weight loss program was travel time. An Internet based community solves this particular problem. Therefore, for the prevention of Type 2 diabetes and other long term diseases, an effective method of reducing their effects, is proper weight loss and maintenance. Weight1Minute ™ has overcome this barrier by incorporating the power of the Internet as an efficient and long term sustainable strategy to prevent overweight and obesity.

Long-term care vis-à-vis weight management has been established as a predictor of weight loss success, which is consistent with the guidelines for weight loss and maintenance by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. They stress and emphasize that after an initial 6 months of weight loss treatment, losses will be regained unless a weight maintenance program is continued indefinitely. In addition, once patients leave treatment, they are confronted daily by an environment that explicitly encourages them to consume large quantities of foods, high in fat and sugar. Weight regain appears to be a nearly inevitable response to this environment, as witnessed by our nation’s epidemic of obesity.

By and because of these facts, Weight1Minute ™ presents an innovative new way to implement various initiatives for full scale, cost-effective strategies to promote diet, exercise, and lifestyle modifications for preventing or reversing overweight and obesity for the short, medium and long term.

Using a comparable model of a community based program, Weight1Minute ™ ’s social network provides similar effects of people connecting in a meaningful way, providing an on-line forum for support, motivation, and sharing of a common interest in weight loss and weight maintenance. For the highest probability of success, long term ongoing care is needed, but professional treatment is labor-intensive and costly. The use of the Internet for a long term strategy solves of one of the key components that has prohibited the effective retardation of the pandemic of overweight and obesity.

In conclusion, Weight1Minute ™ was built from the ground up—technologically, content, accessibility, and customization-- for people to take control of their weight management, their need for education, support and information, and to have friends and family assist them in their journey for a healthy lifestyle.