BOOK REVIEW: "The Ultimate Weight Solution," by Dr. Phil McGraw

Published on: September 13, 2003

What can you say about a weight loss book in 2003 that doesn't use the word "carbs" until page 162? And that doesn't ever use the word "Atkins"?

In this case, you can say that Dr. Phil McGraw - host of the "Dr. Phil" syndicated television program, best-selling author, counselor to Oprah Winfrey, and one-man pop psychologist with a "tough love" and "let's get real approach" to therapy - has seen the future, and it is the weight loss business.

So, not being one to shy away from opportunity, McGraw has written a new book, The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution: The 7 Keys To Weight Loss Freedom ($26 - Free Press). He co-hosted a special on NBC last Friday with Katie Couric addressing the same subject. He plans to address the subject (and not coincidentally, promote his book into certain bestsellerhood) regularly on his TV show this season. And, he even has his likeness on a line of nutrition bars that has just found its way into stores.

Hence the question you can't help but ponder as you read The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution: Is McGraw a psychologist or a really shrewd businessman who knows more than a little about synergy?

The answer, it seems, is both.

The fact is that on the one hand, The Ultimate Weight Loss Solution reads like a glass of warm milk drinks. There's nothing remarkable about it, almost nothing surprising.

(Actually, the most surprising thing in the book - and the item that everybody should read - comes as early as page 28, where McGraw has Body Weight Standards that he says is a "modified and more realistic version of height-weight tables" that generally have people perplexed about how much weight they should lose to be "ideal." McGraw writes, "Though not perfect, these body weight standards are more reflective of what can be achieved, and certainly a better measure of where most people should be, weight-wise. Read it. You'll almost certainly feel better about your weight.)

To be fair, McGraw isn't just jumping on a consumer trend bandwagon. He notes that earlier in his career, he spent eight years counseling severely overweight people, "hopeless cases" who needed to lose anywhere from 100 to 300 pounds or more. And he claims an 80 percent success rate at helping these patients lose weight and keep it off.

And, he certainly takes a more balanced position than the people who offer miracle diets for miracle solutions…because we all know that there is no such thing.

If there's a problem with the book, it is that it is almost too predictable. You can practically hear McGraw's firm but soothing drawl reading the book, telling you what to do: You have to be productive, not counter-productive in your approach to weight loss. You have to heal the feelings that make you want to overeat, and establish that you are in control of your own life. You have to create a "no fail" environment, so that temptation is at a minimum. You have to identify all your old, bad eating habits, and replace them with "actions designed to weaken their hold over you." Eat good foods, not bad foods. Exercise. Make sure your family and friends support your efforts.

Now, granted, this is a extraordinary oversimplification of the more than 300 pages of advice, anecdotes, charts, tables and suggestions that make up the book. But the thing is, just based on a cursory knowledge of McGraw's work, both in books and on television, we had pretty much guessed most of these before we ever cracked the cover.

McGraw is right. Weight loss and weight control (two very different things) is a life-long process and complicated process that can't be stripped down to one kind of food or one kind of philosophy. And for people who find these kinds of books useful, The Ultimate Weight Solution will be a guided tour of emotional pitfalls and victories that can reassure them through tough times.

There is something that this book has in common with many diet books that in fact is more problematic for many who are trying to lose weigt -- The Ultimate Weight Solution and its author espouse an "eat to live" philosophy, as opposed to a "live to eat" approach. Which for many is the prime problem, and getting that light switch to turn is the most difficult.

The fact is, good food is fun. The key to long-term weight management is keeping them in balance; and if Dr. Phil could have helped his viewers and readers do that...the book would rate an A+...without it it falls in the pile with all the others.

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