This book picks up where other diet books leave off. It covers the maintenance phase: How to keep the weight off after you’ve lost it. It addresses key aspects that are often overlooked—the what, when, and why of eating choices. It uniquely examines these hard questions around why people eat in the first place, what causes some people to struggle with weight, and when this struggle began. This book straddles self-help and science, balancing the emotional reasons for weight gain with the physical requirements for weight loss.

This book is for those of you who are at the end of your rope. You’ve tried every program under the sun, losing and regaining the same amount of weight countless times. You know in theory what’s required to sustain weight loss, but in reality, you just can’t seem to do it. This book is for those of you who are frustrated, overwhelmed, and confused by what and how you should eat. This book is for those of you who just want to figure it out, for once and for all, and start enjoying your life. You might be asking yourself, “When everything else in my life is under control, why can’t I just get control over my eating habits and weight?” There are countless health and wellness books out there, recipes for weight loss, expert tips for losing fat fast, and more tips on how to maintain it.

My approach to lasting weight loss is a bit different. My hope in offering this fresh perspective is to simplify the science and make it real-life applicable. I want to make weight loss relatable to you. The chapters that follow offer strategies for reaching a calorie deficit (without depriving the body of what it requires) AND explanations for why weight loss is so much more than calories in, calories out. We’re emotionally complex beings. We are not machines. As such, emotions and cultural norms have a huge impact on when, what, and why we eat. So, the million-dollar question in a billion-dollar weight loss industry: Why do we eat in the first place?

By the time people walk through my door, they’re usually at the end of their rope. They realize that what they are doing isn’t working anymore. They’ve tried every weight-loss program under the sun, and lost and regained their weight 10 times over. They know what to do, but just can’t seem to do it. Or, they actually don’t know what to do anymore. They’re confused, don’t know who to turn to, or where to go. They know they need something, but they can’t do it alone. I want this book to be that something for you. I want it to be the place you turn for sound advice and helpful tools. But in order for it to be that, you have to be open and willing to make change. Doing the necessary work, the hard work, will create the reality of lasting results. What you need is an honest look at the hunger associations and underlying imbalances that are keeping you from choosing what you know intellectually is best.