Note: 1 stone = 14 lbs. A gill is 5 fluid ounces, but we won't get into that, nor rods, poles and perches. It wasn't easy learning math in Britain.

ET

ISSUE 2146 Tuesday 10 April 2001

Fat is all in the mind Leading sports psychologist Pete Cohen has an excellent track record in helping dieters succeed.

Barbara Lantin investigates

ANGELA SMITH used to have two sets of clothes: "thin" and "fat". Her "thin" clothes - worn for a month every summer - were size 16; the rest were two sizes bigger. Around Easter, Angela would start to diet frantically and to exercise, losing two stone in preparation for her holiday. By the time she returned, she had gained seven pounds. By the autumn, she was back to 15 stone and rising.

"I did this yo-yo dieting without fail for about 20 years," she says. "My life and everybody else's was a misery. When we went out, I'd try on everything in the wardrobe. Nothing fitted properly and I'd end up in tears. If I saw somebody in the street whom I hadn't met for years, I'd make a beeline for the nearest shop. I'm quite an outgoing person, but your confidence goes when you feel fat."

In June 1999, Angela, 45, attended a one-day workshop run by sports psychologist Pete Cohen. "By lunchtime, my whole mental attitude had changed. My brain had been cleansed of rubbish about dieting and I felt free. I told my husband that within two months all my clothes would fit me and I would never be fat again and that was what happened. By Christmas I had lost three stone and I have kept it off. I still get a thrill when I open the wardrobe and realise that I can wear everything inside."

Pete Cohen describes his Lighten Up programme as "slimming from the head down". Its aim is simple but ambitious - to change the way people think. Using the kind of motivational techniques that help athletes improve performance, Lighten Up teaches slimmers to focus on what they want and helps them to achieve it.

Mainstream slimming organisations are now starting to mimic this approach, placing more emphasis on the psychological factors behind weight gain. Boots is introducing "weight management" courses at its larger stores.

"Obviously in sport some people have more potential than others," says Cohen, whose clients include Sally Gunnell, Olympic javelin silver medallist Steve Backley and yachtswoman Ellen McArthur. "But at the top, the physical gap between the champions and the also-rans is very small. The mindset makes the difference.

"The most obvious difference between somebody who manages to lose weight and somebody who doesn't - apart from their size - is their belief in themselves. Small changes in the way people think can trigger big behavioural changes.

"When people say they want to lose weight, what they see in their mind is the weight. The more time they spend picturing the flab they want to lose, the more energy they are investing in themselves as a fat person. When they are asked what they want, they should answer that they want to be slimmer, fitter, healthier - anything as long as it is positive - and, at the same time, picture what that will look like."

Visualisation is Cohen's key weapon. From the start he encourages slimmers to imagine and to put in writing how they would like to be, what benefits slimming would bring, and how it would make them feel and look.

This is not an intellectual exercise: clients must actually see the hoped-for result in their mind's eye. In one task they envisage their future selves framed in their own front doorway. They then step into their new slim, fit and healthy body. In a relatively short time the slimmed-down version ceases to be a flight of fancy and becomes an achievable goal.

The Lighten Up programme does not come with rules or a cookery book. There is no calorie counting, no weekly weighing, no "sins" and no punishment. Its aim, using dozens of different strategies, is to re-educate slimmers so that they break their bad eating habits, adopt a healthy diet and exercise.

For those who are overweight, the most common cause - after lack of exercise - is eating when not hungry. Slimmers are taught to recognise real hunger and to differentiate it from thirst, anxiety, boredom or the need for comfort, all of which can lead to snacking. Every time you eat, ask yourself how hungry you are on a scale of one to 10. If the answer is five or below, you are probably not truly hungry. In that case, try to identify what you really want - a glass of water, a chat with a friend, a change of scenery - and have that instead.

"Whatever it is that makes you turn to food when you aren't hungry, it is just a habit that you have learnt, practised and mastered," says Cohen, whose book on the Lighten Up programme is out this week.

Pinpoint five bad habits that you think may contribute to your weight problem and work out how to eliminate them. These could include eating in the car or in front of the television, ordering a take-away when you are too tired to cook, skipping breakfast and snacking mid-morning.

Angela Smith says her eating habits have changed subtly but significantly in the past two years. "If I make a ready meal, I'll have vegetables or a salad with it. I try not to eat after dinner but if I do, it will be fresh fruit salad and yoghurt instead of chocolate or crisps.

"If I want steak and chips or a dessert when I'm out I will have it and enjoy it. The next day I can move on, which I have never been able to do before. I am in control. Losing weight wasn't an effort, because I never felt at any time that I was on a diet."

According to Cohen, 95 per cent of dieters gain all the weight they lose. In contrast, a Lighten Up survey showed that about 70 per cent of its clients are slimmer, fitter and healthier six months after completing the eight-week course.

"I have seen extraordinary things happen," says nutritionist Amanda Ursell. "People whom I would have said had no chance have changed their views about themselves and then changed the way they eat and exercise. It is particularly useful for people who have a poor opinion of themselves and who have tried lots of different diets."

Sarah Tay, 28, admits that low self-esteem lay at the root of her eating problems. From the age of 11 she counted the calories of everything that she ate. As a teenager she developed anorexia and, although she recovered, "mentally, I wasn't sorted out".

Last year, Sarah, a Cambridge graduate, followed the Lighten Up programme at home. "I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted from me: I was no longer ruled by food. For years, I had been obsessed with my body but I wasn't really listening to it. This put me in touch with my body and made me happier and more relaxed with myself. It has given me the confidence to do what I want."

Lighten Up courses and workshops: 0845 603 3456; www.lightenup.co.uk

Lighten Up by Pete Cohen (Century) is available from our retail partner, Amazon. Click here to order a copy online.

Think thin, because you are what you eat

Focus on how you want to look - and keep that picture in your mind Eat only when you're hungry If you reach for food but are not hungry, do something else instead Eat slowly, chew your food and rest your knife and fork between mouthfuls for at least 30 seconds Separate eating from other activities such as watching television or using a computer Find an exercise method that you enjoy and incorporate it into your daily life Put 5p in a jar every time you walk briskly for 15 minutes. When it is full buy a non-fattening treat Drink plenty of water and eat a varied, balanced diet Choose fresh rather than processed food Choose an affirmation - "I'm slim and getting slimmer" - and repeat it dozens of times a day Give yourself lots of non-food treats

-- Anonymous, April 12, 2001