Interviews
An Interview with Dr. Shari Lieberman
Barnes & Noble.com: In our society, the word "diet" has come to symbolize a temporary state of deprivation, usually ending with the dieter's frustration at not being able to maintain either the program itself or the results. How will Dare to Lose change the way we conceive of diets?
Shari Lieberman: It is not only the deprivation or restriction that makes diets fail, but the fact that you severely restrict your calories in an effort to lose weight. Dare to Lose is not a diet, it's a way of life. And because it is not a diet, it does not mean saying no for the rest of your life to desserts, bread, steak, fries -- the "no-no" foods that you may love and adore. Dare to Lose is about learning how to eat -- and for many of us this means learning all over again! Yes, you need to avoid "bad" carbs; yes, you need to avoid lots of fat. But my book goes beyond such simplistic all-or-nothing thinking and realistically allows you and encourages you to "cheat." How can I do this? By telling you about specific dietary supplements that will allow you to do so. For example, there are supplements that will absorb the fat in your food and ones that will allow you to better tolerate carbs so that you will not gain weight when you eat them. There are even supplements that will boost your metabolism and burn body fat. This controlled cheating takes the frustration and temporary state of deprivation out of your life so you can follow a plan that works and get permanent results.
B&N.com: Yo-yo dieting and sedentary lifestyles are two of the main culprits in weight struggles. Why are these bad habits so much more prevalent in America than in other parts of the world?
SL: We are encouraged to yo-yo diet because of the "quick fix" mentality that is so prevalent in our society. We want fast results. But what happens when we do the meal replacement diets, supervised fasting, etc., is that we drastically cut down our calories, and this throws us into "starvation mode." This mode slows our metabolism into a storage mode since the brain thinks we are starving. You may lose weight quickly dieting this way -- at least the first few times. But trust me, you will gain back every pound and inch you've lost and more, even if you start eating a well-balanced diet. People that have done this over and over again are fatter than when they started. In other cultures, they are more aware of the rising amount of overweight and obese adults and children due to fast foods and sedentary lifestyle -- a more Western way of life. This way of life is relatively new for them, not yet ingrained in their society. So it is easier for them to go back to a more native way of life -- eating less refined and processed foods and being more active. There is still less reliance on fast food in many Asian and European nations. What I feel has the most impact on this epidemic is the fact that many U.S. schools no longer make physical education mandatory. It is mandatory in any other school anywhere else in the world. This is setting the stage for overweight and obesity later in life. I travel all over the world, and there is nowhere with the degree of overweight and obesity as seen in the USA. We eat tons of sugar, fat, and refined products and become more and more sedentary by the minute. This is still not the case in most other nations -- but recent studies show they are starting in this direction.
B&N.com: Tell us about the role that stress plays in weight gain and unsuccessful attempts at weight loss.
SL: Emotional stress seems to be a major player in unsuccessful attempts at weight loss. Stress can elevate cortisol levels -- and this particular hormone can cause insulin resistance and carbohydrate sensitivity, and this in turn leads to fat gain -- particularly in the abdominal area. When you gain weight in the stomach or abdominal area this makes you more carbohydrate sensitive. So even if you weren't very carbohydrate sensitive to begin with, a major stress can put you over the top, and suddenly you can gain weight from things you've been eating all along. It's really important to deal with chronic excess stress: stress reduction, therapy, tapes, self-help groups -- there are so many things to choose from. Also, the way in which we deal with stress differs from person to person. If I am stressed, the last thing I want is food -- I will tend to lose weight. But someone else can have the opposite reaction and want to eat all the time. I think that these differences have to do with how food was perceived when we were children. My parents never used food as reward, punishment, or comfort, so I was lucky. You can't necessarily make stress go away, but you must find better ways to deal with it.
B&N.com: I was surprised to read that the 3 p.m. energy lull I thought everyone
experienced actually indicates a sensitivity to carbohydrates. What are some of the other signs of carbohydrate sensitivity that most of us are completely unaware of?
SL: In addition to the 3 p.m. "crash and burn," people will also experience memory and concentration problems, mood swings and crankiness, difficulty sleeping, and carbohydrate cravings. Gaining weight around your stomach is a particular sign that you are or may become carbohydrate sensitive.
B&N.com: Aside from reading your book -- which includes a great chapter on vitamins and supplements -- what is the best way for people to distinguish between supplements that are safe and effective and those that are not?
SL: Actually, unless they read the research, as I do, it would be difficult. However, there are some newsletters and magazines that have some great articles. Always make sure there are scientific references at the end of an article or in a book that you are reading about supplements. This helps raise the probability that you will be getting accurate information.
B&N.com: Can you share some of your best tips for staying motivated and not getting discouraged?
SL: I think that women more than men tend to beat themselves up when they fall off the wagon. What I make clear in my book is that I expect you to cheat. Stay motivated by knowing that I want you to cheat. I just don't want you to do it every day! So when you cheat -- do it, enjoy it, and get back on the program the next day. You are not overweight because you cheated on occasion. And of course, I tell you about specific supplements that you can use to take control of your metabolism, fat intake, carbohydrate intake -- so that you can continue to lose weight even with occasional cheats. I think what blocks motivation is the thought that you have to eat perfectly every day of your life and never deviate or you won't lose weight. This is simply not true. Another stumbling block is that women in particular have been brainwashed into thinking they must be model-thin order to be attractive. This is also not true, and I guide you toward setting a more realistic goal -- one that you can actually achieve and that is not painful to maintain.
B&N.com: You make a really interesting point about the misinformation out there
regarding high-glycemic foods and how they affect blood sugar levels. Can you please straighten us out?
SL: The glycemic index (GI) of a food tells us how fast that food will raise our blood sugar. For example, cakes, cookies, and sugary foods generally have a GI over 90. Beans, lentils, high-protein foods, and most vegetables generally have a GI under 50. When you eat a high-GI food, your blood sugar goes up, your insulin goes up, and this signals your metabolism to switch into a fat-storing mode. Once this happens, anything you eat can be stored as body fat. Now, the GI of a food goes up if it is processed, cooked, ground, etc. Many people have wrongly been told not to eat carrots because they have a high glycemic index. But, firstly, most people will not eat ten carrots; they may eat one or two large carrots (or several of the small ones). If they are raw and whole, the GI is actually quite low. But if they are juiced, the GI is high because you have removed the fiber. The same holds true for most fruits such as apples, oranges, and grapefruit. The whole fruit has an acceptable GI, but when you juice them the GI is higher. In addition, most low- or no-carb advocates do not take into account the fact that other foods you eat together will modify the GI as well. So telling someone not to eat vegetables and just eat protein is absurd! I'd like to meet the person who is overweight from just eating too many carrots or fruits! It just doesn't happen.
B&N.com: In Dare to Lose, you encourage readers to examine their reasons for
wanting to lose weight and to anticipate the repercussions, as well as the reasons why they might actually sabotage their efforts. It never occurred to me that some of us are afraid of accomplishing the thing we seem to want most: losing weight. How do your patients react when you dare them to think about this possibility?
SL: They tell me incredible stories. I've heard about husbands or wives sabotaging their spouses' efforts because they were afraid of losing them if they became slim and more attractive and self-confident. I've had patients express a fear of intimacy and being overweight was a way of avoiding this. Some use being fat as an excuse for all sorts of things -- not trying harder in their careers, their social lives -- and are afraid that once this excuse is gone, they will have to face the fact that these failures are due to something else. I think that it is important to find out what may get in the way so it can be dealt with. If you don't face the facts head-on, whatever success you achieve will not be permanent. For example, some people just simply have a fear of failure, because they have tried so many things. So I must explain, as I did in the book, why this program is different, that we are talking about permanent results, and that there are specific supplements to help deal with specific issues. And once again, knowing that you can cheat, and that this will no longer sabotage your efforts, takes a great weight off -- literally!
B&N.com: I loved the "Weight-Gain and Fat-Loss Profiles" at the end of the book. What is your all-time favorite or most inspiring patient story?
SL: One of my favorites, that is not in the book is a patient who went from a size 22 down to a size 14 and looks absolutely incredible. She is rather tall, around 5'9", and actually looks like a size 10. She does not live in New York, but we do keep in touch. She has kept the weight off for almost 15 years, and she is now in her late 60s! Incidentally, since she lost the weight, her blood pressure became normal, and her physician was able to wean her off her medication. Some time ago, she unfortunately had a back injury and was scared to death that she would gain the weight back. She was not able to exercise for many months. However, she stayed on the eating plan, took her supplements religiously, and gained only about three to five pounds over a one-year period of disability. Her blood pressure did not go up, she did not change a dress size, and once she was able to start exercising again she easily lost the pounds she gained.
B&N.com: Is there anything else you would like to add?
SL: Yes. If there is one thing that I can do for each and every person reading this is to let them know that they are not fat because they are a failure, or cannot commit to a program, or cannot follow directions. Some of you have heroically followed diets that were next to impossible to follow. The point is that diets don't work. They never did, they never will. The diets failed you. If you really want results, you must be willing to make the commitment. We make commitments to friends, family, loved ones, colleagues -- all sorts of things. This is no different. If you dare to lose, you can achieve success with my four simple steps to a better body.
