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Photo by Steve
Goldstein
In his new diet book, Professor David Heber urges readers
to attain their "personal-best shapes." |
a taste of his own medicine
The 'shape doctor' who can help you lose weight
by ajay singh
ucla today staff
A few years ago, internationally renowned nutritionist David Heber
was barely a poster boy for his own cause: eating healthfully. Too
much work and a knee injury had left him considerably overweight.
Determined to trim down, Heber, professor of medicine and public
health at the Geffen School of Medicine and director of the UCLA
Center for Obesity Research and Education, went on a diet and exercise
regimen. In six weeks, he lost 24 pounds and reduced his waistline
from 38 to 34 inches.
The key to Heber’s success is his idea that people who want
to slim down should work on changing their body shape rather than
their weight. Shape trumps weight, Heber believes, because people
can be of normal weight and yet pack fat in the wrong places, notably
around the belly, thereby increasing their risk of developing obesity-associated
illnesses such as heart disease.
Those are just a few of Heber’s thought-provoking views
in his new, best-selling book, “The L.A. Shape Diet: The 14-Day
Total Weight Loss Plan.” Although his book is about a “lifetime
program,” said Heber, it can change your shape (and consequently
your weight) in as little as two weeks.
Generally, some shapes are more changeable than others, and the
idea is to attain “your personal-best shape” by following
a personalized diet and exercise plan.
All of us, Heber writes, resemble an apple or a pear and are big
or small, fat or lean. Apple-shaped people tend to have fat in their
upper body, pear-shaped people lower down. Medically, losing upper-body
fat is not only more beneficial, but contributes to the loss of
lower-body fat.
Our bellies attract fat because abdominal fat cells are related
to infection-fighting white blood cells. “The primary reason
people die from malnutrition is a simple infection, so we have evolved
this special tissue that both stores fat and fights infection,”
he explained. “It is a great adaptation for a world in which
calories are scarce and infections abound.”
That explains why many people in the developing world, notably
Asia, “are not gaining weight all over, but rather gaining
it in the wrong place,” he writes.
Heber, who is the founding director of the UCLA Center for Human
Nutrition, himself resembles a sturdy “male apple,”
slightly bulging around the middle but otherwise lean and muscular.
At 57, he appears to be in remarkable health, the result of good
nutrition and half an hour of aerobics and weight training five
days weekly.
“The number-one problem in weight control is control of hunger,”
said Heber, who eats several small meals containing plenty of fruits
and vegetables daily.
But the key to controlling hunger is to drink soy-based shakes
between meals, Heber said, adding with a grin: “I’ve
worn out four blenders.”
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