Weight Loss Online - Does it Work?
Apr 26th, 2008 by Christine Sutherland
It used to be thought that live weight loss programs, with weekly diet meetings, were the best way to lose weight. The alternative, online weight loss with its self help connotations, was looked on as a “soft” or even useless option in comparison.
With the benefit of modern scientific analysis, we now know that these old beliefs couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s become very clear that dieting and eating plans are a recipe for disaster (even so-called “healthy” diets), with experts saying that dieting adds, on average, an extra 6 lbs per dieter every year!
In addition we now know that online programs equal or outperform live programs, even when compared to having your own personal therapist or counsellor.
Of course people with serious issues like trauma or personality disorders will still require more intensive support, but for the overwhelming majority of people seeking help with weight loss, or smoking cessation, relationship problems, depression, anxiety, etc, online programs present the cheapest and best quality result that they can possibly get.
Any program, if it’s to be effective, must build self reliance and individual accountability - online programs utterly depend on those factors and work to enhance those in each individual.
Not all online weight loss programs are equal. Be careful to avoid charlatans (use Google to discover their background) and disproven methods like hypnosis, dieting or eating plans, or new-age hocus pocus. Choose only those programs with proven results, run by qualified health professionals.
Just as new-age approaches are mostly ineffective, not every conventional treatment is worthwhile either. Talk therapy is all but useless in most cases, and the “gold standard” of therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, has almost no scientific proof behind it. In fact some studies show it to be no better than placebo.
Another consideration in choosing an online weight loss program is whether or not the site uses testimonials to try to convince you to purchase. Professional therapists do not use testimonials for 2 reasons. Firstly it’s unethical, being a serious breach of the client/therapist relationship, and secondly all the testimonials in the world in no way provide “truth”.
Why don’t testimonials mean anything? Because for every testimonial praising the program, there are likely to be several hundred people who got zero result!
So the bottom line is, we encourage you to use a self-help approach to freeing yourself from your weight problems, and at the same time we urge you to examine your chosen treatment method carefully to make sure you select a proven method, with good support facilities.
Have you read enough to feel interested in a refreshingly different, yet proven approach to weight loss online? Without spending money or risking money? At TopLifeSolutions.com you’ll find 2 great free books that comprehensively describe the simple lifestyle mistakes that lead to weight gain, and the solutions to those, as well as giving you an amazing technique that can actually switch off a food craving permanently. You’ll have to actually join TopLifeSolutions.com to get those (and other) freebies, but that’s free too. Why? Because TopLifeSolutions.com is part of the Kind Communities Initiative and its aim is to help people live bigger, better and brighter through sharing proven health strategies.
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