ANYONE WHO ENJOYS A SPORT
like tennis or golf knows that partners
can motivate you to practice more and
play harder. Reason: Partners help
benchmark your progress, offer encouragement,
and trigger healthy competition.
Just as important, they inspire guilt:
If someone wants to see you improve,
you don’t like to let them down. “Why
wouldn’t that same dynamic work for
people who lose weight together?”
wondered Rena Wing, PhD, a behavioral
scientist at Brown University and a
founder of the National Weight Control
Registry, a group of more than 4,000
people who have dropped at least 30
pounds and kept it off for a year or more.
To explore her question, Wing studied
109 dieters and discovered
that those who had a successful
partner shed twice as
many pounds after a year
of serious effort as those
who dieted solo. And
when partners fell by
the wayside, the
edge evaporated.
In fact, that’s the problem with partners: They may not always be there for you. But what if you had an inexhaustible source of faithful support? We looked into options for broadening the universe of weight-loss buddies and found these five ways to get the friendly encouragement you need.
WALK A DOG. Taking a jaunt is good for both the dog and you: In a yearlong study at Northwestern University, dieters who walked with their dogs lost more weight than those who didn’t exercise regularly with a pet. When Jill Schmidt of Chicago rescued a malnourished Jack Russell terrier that had spent most of its life caged, daily strolls put muscle on the dog and led Schmidt to drop 45 pounds over 2 years in tandem with an eating plan that emphasized fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Thirty of those pounds came off in just 5 months. Pet partners are best for people who don’t travel often and are willing to accept the costs and responsibilities of animal care. But—as anyone who’s faced the pleading eyes of a pooch whining by the door can attest—you will be encouraged to get out.
GO ON THE WEB. Web sites like eDiets.com, southbeachdiet. com, and absdietonline.com offer what you never had in a flesh-and-blood partner with things such as: around-theclock chat support, meal plans tailored to your food preferences, exercise advice tuned to your fitness level, and e-mails with recipes, shopping lists, news, and tips. The eDiets site provides dozens of programs, some directly from eDiets and others developed by sources such as the Mayo Clinic, Atkins, and Slim-Fast. You have to interact with the site for it to work: A University of Pennsylvania study found that eDieters who made minimal use of the site’s resources were slightly less successful than dieters using a weight-loss book. But the site’s own 2-year study of 244 members found that all participants lost weight after 6 months no matter how often they went online. Bottom line: diet Web sites can be helpful for people who travel a lot, value anonymity—or sometimes need middle-of-the-night advice.
LOAD A PDA. If you carry a personal digital assistant, software at sites such as Handango.com and DownloadJunction.com can help you track your calorie consumption and fat intake, giving you a digital record for on-the-go benchmarking. Your PDA won’t give you a sympathetic ear or a shoulder to cry on (or, for that matter, any advice), but if you’re more motivated by cold, hard facts, it could be the kind of partner you need—especially if you’re a tech head or don’t like scratching notes on paper. In a study at the University of Hawaii, dieters who used PDAs had better attitudes about monitoring their diet, did so more often, and met their eating goals more frequently than when they didn’t use a PDA.
JOIN WEIGHT WATCHERS OR JENNY CRAIG. Talk about support: Diet organizations like Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig are the original buddy system, and both have far-flung networks. Weight Watchers alone has 46,000 meeting locations in 30 countries. Both groups feature weekly meetings or consultations, including a confidential weigh-in, so there’s a steady personal connection. (Online or phone services can keep you in touch the rest of the week.) Costs vary by location and plan, but expect to pay about $11 per week—more with Jenny Craig, which encourages members to buy its branded meals—after a one-time registration fee of at least $15 to $30. Results could be worth the price: A 2003 study of 423 women and men published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that Weight Watchers’ members lost up to three times as much weight as those who tried to diet on their own.
GET COACHING AT CURVES. This fitness franchise is best known for its women-only, mirrorless exercise rooms. But if you want a boost beyond the communal, supportive atmosphere of the club’s 30-minute metabolismboosting workouts, Curves also offers a 6-week eating plan built on the same individual coaching provided in the gym. The Curves 6 Week Solution suggests eating a variety of food (two plans emphasize either carbohydrates or protein) throughout the day rather than in three big meals, to rev your metabolism and squelch cravings. Programs, which include regular meetings of small groups, cost $69 and are open to nonmembers.
