Dr. Allan Horowitz, published newspaper article, Richmond Hill Liberal, Copyright January 24, 1990


For the next few weeks I will be discussing what many people made up their mind to do this week – lose weight!

As everyone knows there are many different ways to lose weight, some better than others, some quicker, some more healthy than the others, some more appetizing, and some more boring. Some diets you can manage yourself and others require professionals to help you along. Some diets will cost you a lot of money, some are quite inexpensive and some will actually save you money. Some diets are good at allowing you to reduce your weight. While other diets are good at keeping the weight off for the long term.

The first question is whether or not you actually have to lose weight. Do we look at those height-weight tables in our doctors’ offices? You know, those charts that say you should be 8 feet tall for your weight. (You’re not fat, just short for your weight.) Definitely not. You know when you have to lose weight. If you don’t, your doctor will tell you, if you ask.

Some doctors will not mention anything to you if you are only 10 per cent or so over your ideal weight. If you are grossly obese, it is their duty to tell you that you are killing yourself. If you are just a bit “chubby” they should still tell you but many will not. No one, not even your doctor wants to hurt your feelings.

Do you feel “fat”? How are your clothes fitting you? Are you feeling more fatigued than usual? Does your back hurt for no apparent reason? Do you seem to be a bit “stiffer” than you used to be? Are you becoming less active, and are you content to sit around and do nothing, rather than getting out to do something?

Once you decide that you really do want to lose weight the next thing for you to decide on is how much weight you want to lose.

This is really not as important as most professionals make it sound. It is important for you to have a goal, but that goal should be to lose enough weight to make you feel good, healthy and happy. I don’t like placing a bottom line on weight loss, i.e.: lose 20 pounds, 40 pounds, etc.

When on a weight-loss program you should change your eating habits so that your excess weight starts to come off. It should keep coming off until it stops coming off, or until you feel like you can again modify your eating-exercise habits so very slightly that your weight will stabilize within five pounds on either side of your ideal, or comfortable weight.

Go up or down a few pounds, but your eating habits should be changed so that you are not going on a diet and off a diet. There should never be an on-off mentality to dieting. When you make up your mind to lose weight, you should find some way of changing your habits, lose the weight you want and by continuing with these new habits, your weight will stabilize and should remain fairly stable for many years.

Get away from the idea of saying you are on a diet or you will soon be back on your diet, or another, better, new and improved, guaranteed diet. (You know the one. It has been used for 300 years in Jamaica, but they didn’t want to tell anyone because they knew we would commercialize it and take it away from the island where it all began. They don’t have any fat Jamaicans. When they start to get fat they just take one of those magic berries and the fat just “melts” away within seconds).

What we have learned today is that only you can really tell for sure if you need to lose weight. Do not go by averages. If you feel fat, you probably are.

If you are a bit overweight (five per cent) but you feel good, strong, healthy, flexible, your endurance is good, you have no health problems that weight loss will help and if you are not gaining any weight, then stay five per cent over your so-called ideal weight if you want. No one ever died because they were five per cent overweight. As a matter of fact being five per cent overweight is healthier than being five per cent underweight.

We have also learned when to stop losing weight. Again go by your own feelings and listen to your own body. You will know when you feel right.

Too many people set out to lose 50 pounds, do so, and are then so proud that they reached their “goal” that they begin to treat themselves a bit. They go off their diet and soon enough the weight has been put back on again. The last thing we learned is that we really shouldn’t go on a diet to begin with. We should just say that we are making up our minds to lose some weight. Change some bad habits (and everyone knows what their own particular bad habits are), and the pounds will begin to come off if you keep to your new way of eating.

If you need some help, there are many groups to help you. These groups will be discussed in the upcoming weeks.

Now, go eat some celery.