Trim360 - the only real way to lose weight and keep it off in modern day America

Aug. 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Trim360 is a practical, realistic step by step way to lose weight through clinically proven technique used to help thousands of patients and clients with diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea, arthritis and other weight related problems.

The Rachmans bring the expertise and experience of a successful weight loss center to those who have no time or means of accessing one.  Trim360 weight loss program (http://www.trim360.com/weight-loss-program.html) requires no great sacrifices or heroic upfront commitments to radical lifestyle changes, enormous expenditures on organic ingredients to exquisite dishes requiring "only" 15 minutes to prepare.  

After all, if we could change our lifestyles and devote 15 min a day to healthy home cooking, why would we still be looking for a solution to the problem of too much weight. Trim360 is not about (complaining about the Big Food, genetically modified foods, food deserts in underprivileged communities, etc).

The Rachman principle of weight loss success: make it eatable, convenient, engaging

1. Eating is a primal natural activity that all of us engage in multiple times a day.  For our ancestors, food-seeking activities were among the most dominant daily pastimes, since in nature high-calorie delicious foods are scarce; getting enough calories and nutrients to support one's needs and those of their family was a time-consuming affair.  Technological inventions like refrigerator and consumer-driven societal preferences favoring 24/7 access to food have tapped into our natural desire to consume palatable foods.  With no barriers to access and our senses overwhelmed by promotional food images, we have self-indulged ourselves into a large scale obesity epidemic.

So, with this general picture of a well-known problem out of the way, lets talk about solutions.  From my experience of helping many people lose weight, the easiest and the most reliable way is to surround oneself with "safe" foods - foods we can reach for when our internal or external cues stimulate our appetites.  The combination of enormous ubiquity of high calorie foods that tempt us and the inner stressors that stir up the urge to eat, demand that we build a protective barrier of low calorie hunger-quenching alternatives.  

The reality of our lifestyles is such that self-prepared meals are rarely the best place to start our weight loss journey.  Most of us underestimate the time demands and overestimate our ability to stick with any program based on complex calorie tracking and meal preparation.  It has become quite obvious to me from seeing what worked for people in our program, as well as for patients in well-controlled clinical trials, that starting with a meal-replacement program is the ONLY realistic way for most people to succeed.

Meal replacements are low calorie high protein snacks or small meals that come in variety of forms.  As I alluded to before, it all comes down to taste, convenience and appeal.  Most people who start on a weight loss path get bored with limited "allowed" foods and frequently "relapse" due to sense of self-deprivation.  Sounds familiar?!

Are there alternatives to this self-depriving pattern?  What if I told you that there are meal replacements and diet snacks out there that carry such appealing names as macaroni and cheese, omelet and even chocolate cake?  Indeed, these are high protein low calorie single portion items that allow us to enjoy our favorites without the calorie overload.  Hey, unless we plan to relocate to a different society, we better acknowledge reality and equip ourselves to thrive in our present-day environment.

That all sounds fine, you might say, but does that mean that I have to be on these meal replacements forever?  Fortunately, not.  In my clinical experience, I find that it takes most people around 12 weeks of being on the “Active Weight Loss” phase of meal replacements to get used to feeling full on smaller volumes of food.  During this initial weight loss phase, most people lose 2-5 lbs per week.  

So, the expected weight loss is usually 25-60 lbs, more than enough to produce significant improvement in well-being and weight-related health conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, sleep apnea and high cholesterol.  For people looking to lose less than 25 lbs, the active phase can be shortened to 4-6 weeks.  After the Active Phase, I recommend for people to transition to a maintenance phase, where you introduce low calorie self-prepared meals and fall back on meal replacements during busiest or stressful times of day or when it is impractical for you to get to low calorie quality foods.  Remember, using meal replacements is not a sign of weakness, failure or something unnatural - it is a smart, sensible way to deal with a modern lifestyle scourge.

2. Managing stress
One of the most insidious and difficult to manage problems is stress overeating.  As if little demon inside us, that pesky little voice keeps nudging us toward that sweet dessert or salty snack.  We all know that little nagging feeling that comes over us every so often, yet only few have mastered to control it.  

Unfortunately (for seekers of instant gratification) the only way to conquer this monster is to restructure the synapses in our brain that process stress stimuli and learn to separate true hunger from stress-induced wanting (appetite).  And, here is the kicker - as many of my patients have experienced, consuming high quality meal replacements coupled with an educational program actually helps our brains to develop strong stress-protective skills and break the viscous cycle of stress-overeating.  Because meal replacement-based programs allow for multiple meals throughout the day, they are an ideal starting point for people who are driven to eat by stress, without causing feelings of guilt or frustration over the repeated failure to lose weight.

3. Physical activity
Or the third milestone, as I call it, physical activity elevates our metabolic rate and helps sustain long term weight loss results and, more importantly, to improve our fitness.  But, at the risk of going against the conventional wisdom, I will reveal that my own clinical experience, as well as a wealth of published data demonstrate that exercise is NOT critical for effective weight loss during the initial phases.  

Simply put, most people would do much better if they focused on one thing at a time and not overwhelmed themselves unnecessarily.  Start your diet.  Make sure you are comfortably losing pounds.  Incorporate small lifestyle changes incrementally and then add physical activity to your day.  As before, be honest with yourself and assess what it is that motivates you - you will never stick with an exercise program that is too strenuous, boring or inconvenient to access.  Some of the tried and true options are getting an exercise body or enrolling in a local sports league.  Remember - there is nothing more motivating to our brain than engagement with others and that is precisely why I chose the options above.  

The ultimate goal is to have these positive changes become habits that require no will power or conscious effort to execute.  Willpower and conscious effort are fatigable and cannot be relied upon over the long-term.  Habits, on the other hand, are effortless and can easily last for years to come.

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http://www.trim360.com/ - Trim360 is a clinically proven program that helps clients lose weight faster and more effectively than traditional diet programs. Trim360’s portion-controlled, nutritionally designed, low-fat meals replacement products come in individual packets and are available in a wide variety of foods and flavors, including shakes, soups, pasta, chili, oatmeal, scrambled eggs, fruit drinks, hot beverages, bars, desserts, puddings, pretzels and variety of snacks.