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Over the past 40 years, the incidence of obesity has increased from 13% to 27% in 2003. In response to this growing health risk to my medical patients, I established the Albright Bariatric Clinic (or ABC) in 1993. I have, over the past 10 years, refined this program for safe and effective weight reduction and long-term control. The purpose of this guide is to give you an understanding of the goals and methods we use.

The first goal of the program is, of course, fat loss. We are not interested in "losing weight." You can lose weight by losing water and losing protein (muscle). Most "crash" diets (you know the ones - advertising "lose 30 pounds in 30 days") will have you losing weight but mostly in the form of water and muscle. When you stop the diet - and you always do - you immediately gain back water and not the lost muscle, but more fat. Then you start the cycle again. And it gets harder to lose weight every time. We are interested in losing fat at a steady and safe rate - not merely weight..

The second goal, equally important, is the prevention of regain of weight. This is usually neglected in weight loss programs you might have tried in the past. But what good does it do to lose your weight if you gain it all back in the next few weeks or months? We emphasize weight loss and long-term maintenance of the new, healthier you.

Most of the patients who enter our program have already tried many different weight loss programs and have had varying success. They have tried everything from the "Peanut Butter Diet" or the cabbage diet their neighbor read about in Good Housekeeping to expensive (and sometimes dangerous) over-the-counter medications. These herbs and green tea "miracles" are advertised to - by themselves, with no effort on your part - "make" you lose weight - maybe (as ridiculous as it sounds) "while you sleep!".

Here's your first rule: Nothing will make you lose weight. Hopefully, after all you have been through, you are ready to make yourself lose weight.

Why all diets work - for a while…