Weigh Down Diet: Good Weigh to Health

by Pete Holzmann

I got curious about Karen Railey's Weigh Down review, as I and many friends have successfully completed the course (no, I'm in no way affiliated with the program. Just a happy "customer"...). While I agree with some of the reviewer's criticisms, I also feel she went too far, and actually missed the fundamental focus of Weigh Down.

Here are some comments on what Karen wrote:

Weigh Down teaches that the body is the temple of the Lord and we should not do anything to hurt or abuse it. The content of the food doesn't matter all foods are OK because God put all food here for us to enjoy.

Note the tension here: it is more that all foods are *potentially* ok. God put food here for us to enjoy. Certainly, some man-made foods aren't particularly helpful. If we learn to listen carefully to the signals God places in our bodies, we DON'T have a true desire for much junk food!

One theory put forth in this program is that the stomach is the size of a fist so that is about the amount of food that should be eaten at one sitting and that all people need that same amount of food.

That's not quite what they communicate. They *do* mention that the undistended stomach is about the size of a fist, but that we're all different sizes, with different size fists! And this is all an approximation anyway. It's just a good place to begin, when learning to listen for my body saying "I'm full now!"

The body should be given a variety of foods and needs to be listened to and given what it is asking for. Drinking water, diet sodas, and artificially sweetened teas is emphasized, but it is not important to consume several glasses of water a day.

This is a distortion. Drinking lots of fluids is emphasized. If you have a particular dedication to making sure it is N glasses of pure water, that's fine. Weigh Down allows consumption of many kinds of drink. There's no particular over-emphasis on artificial sweeteners. (In fact, if anything the emphasis is on use of non-artificial sweeteners and foods, as they generally taste better! On this diet, there's no need to avoid real butter (vs diet margarine) or whatever -- you simply learn to eat less of the richer foods, because your body doesn't need so much!

The signal to stop eating is when you are "pleasantly full." You are to train yourself to eat between the boundaries of true hunger and satisfaction (not stuffed); your body will automatically crave those things that it needs to be nutritionally sound.

NOTE this! I think Karen forgot about this important point in the rest of her critique...

This program teaches that exercise is not necessary and that there is no need for it unless you enjoy it and really want to exercise.

Not quite true. It teaches that exercise is not necessary FOR WEIGHT LOSS. And that's a fact. Exercise is a good, healthy thing, but studies have shown it has little long-term effect on weight. The food you eat is what is important.

The main benefits of the program are seen to be: ... A sense of "control" - I am in control of the food, it no longer controls me.

Close: *GOD* is in control of the food.

Following are my comments on the points made by the counselor during our conversation: The main philosophy behind the program is good. It is good to have the focus on God and not on worrying about the food you eat. It is simple then to look at those foods that God has actually created and eat those in preference to man made non-foods....

And certainly that's a general emphasis of the program. At the same time, Gwen recognizes that God has gifted mankind with skills enabling us to create some wonderful, tasty, nutritiously safe/beneficial foods... none of which grow on trees.

These are the foods that were created for us and are physiologically compatible with the human body and conducive to creating and maintaining health, quality of life, and longevity.

I'd hope that Karen would agree bread is a "man made" food that is used throughout history and throughout the Bible. :-)

Personal responsibility is a significant issue in all areas of life as well as the nutritional arena....It is very cut and dried to tell everyone that their weight problem is caused only by over eating. Denying the possibility that there can be other factors other than eating too much involved concerning weight problems is unfortunate.

Sadly, Karen has *completely* missed the point here! One of the primary benefits of Weigh Down is that students discover the many non-food issues that are the true root causes of their weight problem. For example, students are told in the first class that they may lose little or no weight at all during their first (or second!) time through the program... because they'll be working through other issues.

This element can't be emphasized enough: healthy nutrition and good exercise are often minor issues compared with other factors that hurt us physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Denying the possibility that there can be other factors other than eating too much involved concerning weight problems is unfortunate.

Completely false conclusion. Weigh Down agrees with Karen here. It does NOT "deny" other factors, rather it teaches people to discover and deal with those other factors.

The personal responsibility is side stepped in this program when it comes to being responsible for what you eat.

I don't see this at all. We're taught to listen to our God-created bodies, and to take responsibility for what we eat. There is nobody else we can blame it on!

It is a point well taken that the body is the temple of God and we should not do anything to harm it....Many of the foods advocated in this plan are detrimental to the body. This is contradictory to the goal of not hurting or abusing the "temple."

Actually, Gwen doesn't *advocate* junk foods. She advocates limiting our intake of junk/heavy foods. She advocates using natural foods in preference to artificial alternatives. Karen has missed the point.

...The foods God created will satisfy those requirements. Fresh, whole, unprocessed, or minimally processed foods are best. By contrast, the concoctions that are man made or foods that have been adulterated by man lack the proper nutritional content to maintain life and/or contain substances that are toxic and disruptive to our health and our bodies.

While there is a strong kernel of truth in this statement, it is a broad overgeneralization that is demonstrably false. Throughout history, people have eaten "concoctions" that combine a variety of ingredients into a wholesome, nutritious meal. Longevity is not dependant on eating fresh/whole/unprocessed foods. (Think about Italians, who eat olives and olive oil -- rather highly processed foods! -- with long, long lifespans.)

The amount of food one needs to eat is not totally determined by the size of one's stomach. Metabolism, activity level, individual differences in physiology all come into play, as does the type of food being eaten....

Karen missed the point. Weigh down teaches EXACTLY what Karen is saying here!

I like the concept of listening to our bodies. ...It takes some retraining of our taste buds and our bodies signaling system, by eating healthful foods and experiencing the results of that, before we can fully depend on our innate ability to determine what our body needs.

Again, Karen missed the point. Weigh Down teaches EXACTLY what Karen is saying here!

Advocating the use of diet drinks and artificially sweetened teas is not health promoting advice. Aspartame is a substance that is a neurotoxin, and has caused a whole host of problems for people consuming it: headaches, memory problems, joint pain, weight gain, and brain tumors to name a few.

Karen has bought into an urban legend here. If you examine the studies, you'll find: 1) There's little or no difference between incidence of most of these symptoms in the control (placebo) group and the test (Aspartame) group. 2) The guy promoting the idea that Aspartame causes brain tumors blew it, VERY badly. Using his own data, one must conclude that if anything, increased use of Aspartame REDUCES brain tumors! Yes, there has been an increase in brain tumors that correlates with use of Aspartame in the general population. But if one breaks it down by age group, one discovers that the age group using the most Aspartame has seen REDUCED incidence of tumors, while the group with the biggest increase in tumors uses relatively little Aspartame. Gotta be careful with our use of statistics! :-)

The advice concerning water consumption is misleading. Our bodies are made up of a great percentage of water and we need water for life. It helps flush toxins from our bodies, aids in weight loss, and is necessary for hydration.

Weigh Down in no way disagrees with this statement, from what I've seen. The program suggests we drink when we're thirsty (and learn the difference between thirst and hunger --- more often than not, we eat when we should be drinking!)

...What this program does not address is the hunger caused when the body is being fed empty foods and is crying out for nutrients; something it can really use to rebuild its cells.

Karen completely missed the point. The program EXACTLY addresses this. This is a major portion of what it means to "listen to your body" and learn what it is *really* asking for. The world tries to tell us our bodies want/need junk food. God has built in to us a natural craving for healthy foods, if we can only regain our ability to listen.

The idea that exercise is not important is an unhealthy idea, because exercise will help with losing weight as fat, will raise the metabolism, and increase lean tissue mass. Dissuading exercise contributes to discouraging beneficial life style changes in the lives of the participants.

Weigh Down doesn't dissuade from exercise. We briefly discussed the beneficial health aspects of exercise. It was just pointed out that exercise is a separate issue related to health, not to weight/eating.

I do not believe eating the SAD, even less of it, is God's original plan for eating. To encourage focus on God and spiritual growth the following could be implemented into a program:

(Not sure what the "SAD" is, but Karen's recommended program is basically what Weigh Down teaches, with significantly more depth. As far as I can tell, the main disagreement here is over what are "truly healthful foods". Weigh Down allows for a far broader range of foods than Karen does.

The emphasis of Weigh Down Diet is on weight and eating less and it totally disregards the issue of health.

Sadly, Karen missed the entire point of Weigh Down. The emphasis is NOT on weight, in spite of the title! The emphasis is on spiritual, emotional and physical health, with a particular focus in the physical arena on learning how God has taught our bodies to eat properly.

"Good health is more related to when you eat and how much you eat than what you eat, since most meal selections are so similar in chemical and nutrient content." I do not see a nutrient similarity between a breakfast of a donut and coffee and one of a fruit smoothie, or whole grains. What you eat is just as important, or more important than when and how much you eat.

This is a question of emphasis. In terms of the food I eat, which will introduce the larger health change:

A) Switch from eating 5x too much food, of any kind, to eating normal quantities of foods (even some junk foods!)

B) Continue eating 5x too much food, but switch from junk to "healthy" food (still 5x overeating).

Weigh Down claims, and I agree, that (A) is the more important change. Not that a switch to healthy foods is unimportant by any means.

"If organic means chemical free to you, think again. All foods are chemicals. God made your body (without your having to worry about it!) to detect and rid itself of harmful chemicals that are a part of the normal dietary process" -- "So if you like foods advertised as being "organic," fine. Just do not count on their being better for you -- just more expensive."

Note what is said here: "harmful chemicals that are a part of the normal dietary process" -- Karen misses the point! Weigh Down does not suggest that pesticides are somehow good for you or easily removed by bodily processes....

"Your body does not know if it ate honey, unrefined sugar from the sugar cane plant, refined table sugar, or bread because all the units are converted to glucose in the liver then dumped into the bloodstream to be used by the body cells." Some sugars contain vitamins, minerals, and enzymes and some - such as sucrose, do not. Our bodies know the difference. Sucrose will rob our bodies of the vitamins, minerals, and enzymes it does not contain so that is can be metabolized.

Karen misses the point. When it comes to the sugar molecule itself (not the additional vitamins, minerals, etc.), our bodies really do NOT know the difference (basic biology class). Certainly, we need to get the other vitamins and minerals somehow, and its better to get them via food than via man-made chemicals.

"We propose that we are not what we eat, but that health is adversely affected when we deny the body the kinds and amounts of food it wants." If we eat empty foods with little or no nutrient content, our bodies will not be able to build cells properly. Sooner or later there will be a break down in health. There is a myriad of research that shows what we eat has a direct relationship to health and disease.

Uhhh -- I think Karen and Weigh Down are in strong agreement here!

"The liver is a large (silent, thank goodness) organ that converts Fritos, M&Ms, Doritos and dip, and Twinkies into usable substances that are sent into the regular circulatory system." The liver is not going to make usable substances out of something that has none to begin with. These foods can be extremely harmful to our livers. If this were true we could eat Twinkies and Ice Cream all the time and it wouldn't make any difference.

I think Karen missed the point. The point is not that junk food is full of valuable nutritional content (it isn't), but that our bodies do an amazing job of extracting whatever good stuff there is in such things.

Weigh Down goes to great lengths to teach us to listen to our bodies' cravings for Real Food. Not just junk food!

I think the key is this: Weigh Down is all about introducing a comprehensive lifestyle change, *one step at a time*. The switch to more healthy food is a core element of learning to listen to our bodies. For many people, who have been eating garbage all of their lives, that is not an easy change. It takes time. So rather than slam people with instantaneous "radical" changes in their diet, Weigh Down teaches spiritual principles, and over time shows people how to listen to their own bodies to discover what is nutritionally best.

It's easy for me to believe that God gave me a body that can identify what is truly healthy for me.

It's hard for me to believe that ANY human being has True Wisdom about what foods are or are not valuable for my body's health. Especially when so many so-called "experts" are proven wrong, year after year. (How do low- fat advocates deal with the fact that a diet high in olive oil is associated with the longest living people on the planet?)

The more I have read of this book the more I am appalled at the total lack of understanding of nutrition, the needs of the human body, and foods that can cause or contribute to disease or those that can heal.

Somehow, Karen has completely misunderstood many of the main points of the program, as demonstrated above. That's sad.

The testimonials indicate that people are losing weight on this plan. My question is how is it impacting their health and what kind of health problems are they going to eventually develop as a result of eating this way?

What I've seen is people who have seen their health GREATLY improve through this program. I've seen nobody whose health went downhill. This program has even been used successfully by people who supposedly cannot diet, such as hypoglycemics and so forth.

It is inevitable that there will be a day when health problems will come. As a whole I believe this program is a great disservice to those participating in the Weigh Down Workshops.

I think Karen ought to actually *participate* in the program, with an open mind. To be sure, I was extremely skeptical at first. So was my wife. So were several of my friends. But we saw how God worked through it, and saw the Biblical soundness of almost everything said... and realized that this is a Good Thing.

Click here to read Karen Railey's response to Pete Holzmann's critique of her original commentary.

Click here for details on ordering the Weigh Down Diet.