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This surgical technique involves vacuuming the fat out of the hips, abdomen, or other areas and has some value in dealing with stubborn, localized fat. Responsible surgeons often ask me to help their patients reduce their general body fat down to healthy, slim levels before their localized fat is sucked out. This is a surgical procedure that, like all surgeries, carries definite risks, including infections and, very rarely, even death. One patient I know suffered severe peritonitis after a very good plastic surgeon removed her abdominal fat. A full year passed before the poor woman completely recovered. Even if your liposuction procedure goes perfectly, it’s not necessarily the end of your problem, because the fat cells that remain can grow to

tremendous size if your poor eating and lifestyle habits continue. In any case, this procedure has little to do with your actual health. It’s merely cosmetic. You may look better, but you won’t feel much different.

This is another version of the allergy diets that pop up regularly. Its author, Marshall Mandell, M.D., says that we may be simultaneously allergic and addicted to certain foods. Eating those foods makes us ill and overweight, but we can’t help eating them. The doctor’s solution to this allergy/addiction is the Rotary Diet, which dates back to 1934. The diet employs a 21-day rotation of 10 foods per day, with no single food eaten more than once every 4 days. Although the premise is enticing,
it simply does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. Many people are allergic to various foods, but there is no evidence that this diet will help them or you become healthier and slimmer for life. The basic premise of the diet is unsound. While it may have some value for dealing with food allergies, I do not believe it has value as a weight-loss diet.

Immune power diet-Presented by Stuart Berger, M.D., the author of The Southampton Diet, this diet is based on the unproved premise that fat cells cause a terrible “tug of war” between you and your own immune system. As your immune system weakens, so the theory goes, you are more likely to become fat. Although Dr. Berger was correct in asserting that excess fat is bad for the immune system, his 1,200-calorie-a-day program is unbalanced and far too rigorous, and his theory that a weak immune system makes you fat is unfounded.

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It’s virtually impossible for most people to follow a diet that provides too few calories for more than a short period of time.

Such deprivations hurt us literally and figuratively. In the course of our evolution, severe food shortages were commonplace. Therefore, we learned to grab for all the food we could get when the shortage was past. Those who didn’t exhibit a sufficient level of gluttony didn’t eat enough to survive the next famine—and their restraint genes died out with them. There is, therefore, nothing in our makeup to induce us to voluntarily quit eating. Of course, we can force ourselves to override our evolutionary pulls for a while. But, before long, we are bound to give in and grab for the food we want. Thus, we suffer the rebound effect that is almost inevitable after severely restrictive diets. We may go on a binge and eat everything in sight or at the very least, become frustrated and depressed because we feel like failures.

To counteract the feeling of being too restrained in eating, my Fat Blocker Program never demands that you diet to the point of deprivation. Eat what you feel you must have, I insist, but try to cut down just a little. Let the Chitosan help you lose weight. As you lose it (and find yourself moving about more) your desire to eat will tend to slacken off and you will eat a little less.

I am a great believer in using positive thinking in every aspect of life. In my 40-plus years as an internist and cardiologist, I’ve seen first hand how our thoughts have a profound impact on our physical health. Unfortunately, many of us have filled our minds with the kind of unhappy thoughts that invite disease by weakening the immune system. Millions of Americans are suffering from depression, anxiety, irritability, “hatred and hurted,” and other emotional problems. These thoughts can actually change the body’s chemistry and promote cancer, heart disease, immune system disorders, and many other diseases. I have no doubt that unhappy thoughts can also contribute to a slowed-down metabolism and obesity.

It helps to visualize something before doing it. That sets in your mind a picture of success, a goal to strive for. Sports psychologists do this when they teach their athletes to visualize the roar of victory that will emanate from the crowd as they touch the finish line first. At a more common level, we do this constantly, every day, even though we may not be aware of it. We think, for example, “I need to take a drive,” and we imagine getting our keys and wallets, getting into our cars, and driving along a mountain road. Only then do we actually get the keys and wallet, leave the house, and hop in the car. We saw it in our minds before we did it.

Visualizing a positive end result is a very effective way of achieving a goal. But some people have difficulty doing so, for their ability to visualize a goal depends on their belief in what they are visualizing. It is difficult, for example, for a runner who always loses and whose times are known to be worse than those of his competition to imagine himself winning races. He feels that he cannot possibly see himself winning unless there is a logical reason why previous history won’t apply to the next race .. . perhaps a new training technique. So, rather than visualizing success, he sees himself losing. And that unhappy vision makes it even more difficult to triumph. Unhappy past experiences become self-fulfilling prophecies of future performance.

This is exactly what happens to many dieters. They “know” from bitter and repeated past experience that diets don’t work. Therefore, instead of imagining themselves as slim and

beautiful, they see themselves as even pudgier and more out of shape. They find it a lot easier to fantasize about eating a scrumptious toffee nut chocolate candy bar than a bunch of carrot sticks. Of course, with such unbidden images of candy bars and the like filling their imaginations—and without any counteracting images of ultimate success with which to fight back—the goodies become even more difficult to resist. Many of us can’t.

But matters are wholly different once Chitosan is added to the mix. At last there is an entirely logical reason to believe we can lose weight. Indeed, there is no doubt that, with a degree of self-control well within our reach, we can. As a result, we can start visualizing positive weight-reduction scenarios without boggling our imaginations with their sheer impossibility. Now we have a reason—and therefore the tools—to convert our fantasy about Snickers bars into a more productive fantasy about luscious, juicy peaches, or fresh-baked bread, or. …

The obvious solution is to exercise in bursts of high energy several times a week. Most experts believe that exercising for at least 30 minutes at least 4 times a week is needed to keep the body in good shape, and 5 times a week for at least 45 minutes is considered optimal. That is not so tough to do under normal conditions, and many people who are serious about keeping their good health and want to keep their weight down do manage it. (Remember, that includes the pickup basketball game, moving furniture to rearrange the living room, and shoveling snow.) In addition, low-energy exercise, when added to the impact of high-energy bursts, also helps to consume calories. Walking a few blocks instead of driving can help balance intake and output.

Some people may find it difficult to stick to even a relatively doable exercise program while dieting. They find that the body wants to take it easy. “Hey, isn’t there a good movie on TV?” it asks as they begin to put on their track shoes. “Oh, and while you’re up, why not make some popcorn? And not that air-popped stuff either!”

We may resist for a while, but for many of us, the temptation becomes too great and we succumb to behavior that while admittedly unhealthy in today’s world, was entirely appropriate over the course of our 2 million years of struggling for survival.

Fortunately, reducing caloric intake with Chitosan circumvents this standard bodily slow-down reaction. Our bodies remain comfortable with the same amount of exercise they did before. Even a reasonable amount of added exercise is no great burden. As a result, the whole regimen of calorie reduction becomes effective.

Now a new and thoroughly pleasing effect starts to be felt: As our bodies lose fat and become lighter, they function better. We feel healthier. If our joints have a touch of osteoarthritis, they feel less stiff because they carry less weight. Since we are carting fewer pounds of fat around, we have more energy to spare for other things. The result of all this is that it becomes easier to exercise more. Perhaps we jog an extra lap, or finally get around to building that tool shed, or even have enough spare energy to work out an extra day a week. Or maybe we get up earlier in the morning and spend an hour a day just moving around more. Whatever we do, that extra energy expenditure naturally uses up calories and further reduces our weight.