Weigh Down: Another View

Weigh Down, which is both a workshop course and a book, was created and by a dietitian named Gwen Shamblin, who claims to have kept weight off for 20 years thanks solely to her Christian faith and spirituality. According to Shamblin, the key to successful weight loss is...God, and lessons taken from scripture. Shamblin opines that you can banish hunger and find strength to stop overeating by finding and nurturing a relationship with God through scripture that will "nourish your soul". According to Shamblin, God has a plan for our bodies, and a plan for eating. That is: eat what you like, eat what you want - but eat only what your body needs, do not take more. She does not offer dietary recommendations of any kind, only the promise that once you have accepted God's plan for you - given your weight loss over to God - you will lose weight because God has filled the void in your life that you were filling with food.

With regard to the psychological aspects of weight loss, exploring spirituality and the influence of a higher power is an interesting premise for people of faith to examine. And a fair amount of what is imparted by Weigh Down is simply common sense - don't eat too much, eat only when hungry - but the philosophy goes off the rails when Shamblin does not recommend sensible dietary guidelines but says you can eat whatever you want. A steady diet of chili dogs and fries - even if it's all your body needs - will impact the waistline of the faithful no differently than it impacts that of the agnostic. Furthermore, Shamblin contends that things like aerobic exercise and vitamin supplements are unnecessary and unhelpful, based on the fact that her grandparents' generation didn't partake of such things, and they did just fine. That's nonsense, given that lifestyles in this day and age are far different (more sedentary, more convenient, more processed food) than they were a couple of generations ago. Additionally, while Shamblin says that exercise is important for good health, she also says that exercise is not necessary in order to lose weight. That philosophy is contradictory and confusing. Losing weight and good health are not mutually exclusive. If you are in good health, no doubt exercise is a part of your life and contributes to keeping you healthy. Losing weight in a manner that is not risky to your health is best achieved with a combination of good nutrition, common sense and exercise. Keeping that weight off is possible only with a lifetime commitment to the same. If Shamblin is suggesting that God has got you covered on the exercise component of a weight loss regimen, then she must have her head in the clouds.