10 Steps to Change Your Eating Pattern

Do you alternate between following a meal plan and losing weight (being "good") and falling off the plan and regaining weight (being "bad")? It's a frustrating but common cycle.

Nutrition experts Ellie Zografakis, RD, and Dale Huff, RD, CSCS, coowners of NutriFormance Personal Training and Sports Nutrition in St. Louis believe that behavior modification strategies-rather than diets-can help you break this self-defeating cycle and make lasting lifestyle changes.

Enlisting the aid of qualified professionals (e.g., a registered dietitian, a physician, a personal trainer and/or a psychologist) will make it easier to interrupt old behavior patterns. You can also begin to practice the following lifestyle change principles developed by Zografakis and Huff:

1. Stop Dieting.

How can you lose weight if you don't diet? Creating a deficit of about 500 calories a day for one week should result in a 1-pound weight loss. Most people can incur a large part of this 500-calorie-a-day deficit by exercising and making moderate changes in food intake. In choosing this approach you avoid the negative consequences of rigid dieting.

2. Become Physically, Not Externally, Connected to Eating.

Internal hunger cues-such as a rumbling stomach, a slight headache, fatigue, irritability and decreased concentration-are meant to remind you to meet your energy requirements and maintain your natural set point weight. Reconnecting with your physical signals of hunger and satiety can help you acquire the internal power to regulate your food intake.

3. Use the Rating of Perceived Hunger (RPH) Scale.