Signs of Hidden Depression

Secret Signs of Hidden Depression 

Lots of people walk through life trying to hide their depression. Some people with hidden depression can conceal their depression like pros, masking their symptoms and putting on a “happy face” for most others.

People with concealed depression or hidden depression often don’t want to acknowledge the severity of their depressive feelings. They believe that if they just continue living their life, the depression will just go away on its own. In a few cases, this may work. But for most folks, it just drags out the feelings of sadness and loneliness.

Dealing with the black dog of depression through concealing one’s true feelings is the way many of us were brought up — we don’t talk about our feelings and we don’t burden others with our troubles. But if a friend or family member is going through something like this — trying to hide or mask their depression — these signs might help you discover what they’re trying to keep concealed.

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6 Secret Signs of Hidden Depression By John M. Grohol, Psy.D.
~ 3 min read
6 Secret Signs of Hidden Depression
Lots of people walk through life trying to hide their depression. Some people with hidden depression can conceal their depression like pros, masking their symptoms and putting on a “happy face” for most others.

People with concealed depression or hidden depression often don’t want to acknowledge the severity of their depressive feelings. They believe that if they just continue living their life, the depression will just go away on its own. In a few cases, this may work. But for most folks, it just drags out the feelings of sadness and loneliness.

Dealing with the black dog of depression through concealing one’s true feelings is the way many of us were brought up — we don’t talk about our feelings and we don’t burden others with our troubles. But if a friend or family member is going through something like this — trying to hide or mask their depression — these signs might help you discover what they’re trying to keep concealed.


6 Signs of Concealed Depression

1. They have unusual sleep, eating or drinking habits that differ from their normal ones.

When a person seems to have changed the way they sleep or eat in significant ways, that’s often a sign that something is wrong. Sleep is the foundation of both good health and mental health. When a person can’t sleep (or sleeps for far too long) every day, that may be a sign of hidden depression.

Others turn to food or alcohol to try and quash their feelings. Overeating can help someone who is depressed feel full, which in turn helps them feel less emotionally empty inside. Drinking may be used to help cover up the feelings of sadness and loneliness that often accompany depression. Sometimes a person will go in the other direction too — losing all interest in food or drinking, because they see no point in it, or it brings them no joy.

2. They wear a forced “happy face” and are always making excuses.

We’ve all seen someone who seems like they are trying to force happiness. It’s a mask we all wear from time to time. But in most cases, the mask wears thin the longer you spend time with the person who’s wearing it. That’s why lots of people with hidden depression try not to spend any more time with others than they absolutely have to. They seem to always have a quick and ready excuse for not being able to hang out, go to dinner, or see you.

It’s hard to see behind the mask of happiness that people with hidden depression wear. Sometimes you can catch a glimpse of it in a moment of honesty, or when there’s a conversation lull.

3. They may talk more philosophically than normal.

When you do finally catch up with a person with masked depression, you may find the conversation turning to philosophical topics they don’t normally talk much about. These might include the meaning of life, or what their life has amounted to so far. They may even open up enough to acknowledge occasional thoughts of wanting to hurt themselves or even thoughts of death. They may talk about finding happiness or a better path in the journey of life.

These kinds of topics may be a sign that a person is struggling internally with darker thoughts that they dare not share.

4. They may put out a cry for help, only to take it back.

People with hidden depression struggle fiercely with keeping it hidden. Sometimes, they give up the struggle to conceal their true feelings and so they tell someone about it. They may even take the first step and make an appointment with a doctor or therapist, and a handful will even will make it to the first session.

But then they wake up the next day and realize they’ve gone too far. Seeking out help for their depression would be admitting they truly are depressed. That is an acknowledgment that many people with concealed depression struggle with and cannot make. Nobody else is allowed to see their weakness.

5. They feel things more intensely than normal.

A person with masked depression often feels emotions more intensely than others. This might come across as someone who doesn’t normally cry while watching a TV show or movie suddenly breaks out in tears during a poignant scene. Or someone who doesn’t normally get angry about anything suddenly gets very mad at a driver who cut them off in traffic. Or someone who doesn’t usually express terms of endearment suddenly is telling you that they love you.

It’s like by keeping their depressive feelings all boxed up, other feelings leak out around the edges more easily.

6. They may look at things with a less optimistic point of view than usual.

Psychologists refer to this phenomenon as depressive realism, and there’s some research evidence to suggest that it’s true. When a person suffers from depression, they may actually have a more realistic picture of the world around them and their impact on it. People who aren’t depressed, on the other hand, tend to be more optimistic and have expectations that aren’t as grounded in their actual circumstances. Non-depressed people believed they performed better on laboratory tasks than they actually did, compared to people with depression (Moore & Fresco, 2012).

It’s sometimes harder to cover-up this depressive realism, because the difference in attitude may be very small and not come across as something “depressing.” Instead of saying, “I really think I’ll get that promotion this time!” after having been passed over it four previous times, they may say, “Well, I’m up for that promotion again, but I doubt I’ll get it.”

How a Simple Mind Trick Can Make You Stronger in Seconds

There are very few shortcuts in life that actually work.

If you want to get big and bulky, you need to eat big and lift heavy.
If you want to lose fat, you need to eat less and exercise more.

However, there are many small tricks that can make these larger goals easier to achieve. Every once in a while, researchers uncover a little nugget of information that makes dieting suck less or your training more effective.

This article will teach you a simple, easy, and research-backed mental trick that will make you stronger instantly. It can also improve your performance in other sports, or almost any task.

Most of the research we’re about to discuss comes from two reviews.1,2 If you want to dive further into the science on this topic, feel free to read both papers here and here (the first one is free). If you don’t feel like spending several hours reading through over 30 years of research, don’t worry. You’ll find more articles about this topic on Imprüvism soon.

What You Think About When You Exercise Matters
What do you think about when you lift?

Do you focus on your arms?
The bar?

The cute girl in the squat rack? (Or guy, I don’t judge).
Where you place your focus matters more than you think. It’s obvious that focusing on your workout is going to produce better results than thinking about a distressing email, your car payments, or the squat girl. However, you can do better.

The Crucial Difference Between an Internal and External Focus
Assuming you’re already focused on your workout, you can divide your focus into two categories: internal and external.

An internal focus of attention means you’re thinking about your body movements. Your legs when squatting, your arms when doing chin-ups, your chest when benching, etc.

An external focus means you’re focusing on something in your environment that’s relevant to your task. If you’re squatting, this would mean focusing on the bar or on pushing the bar towards the ceiling.

This is an incredibly subtle difference, but it can have a huge impact on your performance. In some cases, researchers will give one group instructions that only differ by one or two words.
In a study using a vertical jump test, here were the instructions:

Internal focus: “Focus on your fingers.”

External focus: “Focus on the rungs.”

The latter option is better. Research has consistently shown that an external focus improves motor learning, strength, coordination, and performance across a wide range of activities and ability levels.

We’ll cover this topic in obsessive, nerdy detail in later articles. For now, let’s take a look at how we can use this information to get some “stremph.”

There are three primary ways using an external focus helps you move more weight:

Increased maximal force production.
Improved neuromuscular efficiency.
Greater full body coordination.
Let’s look at each of these in turn. Then I’ll give you several examples of how you can use this information in the gym.

1. Increased Maximal Force Production
Put simply, people who can produce more force are stronger.

In many studies, subjects are asked to perform a strength test, like pushing against a bar. They almost always produce more force when using an external focus, like focusing on the bar rather than an internal focus on their hands, arms, or chest.

In fact, the group that’s told to focus on their body parts often does worse than the control group that’s not told to focus on anything, or is told neutral instructions like “move the weight.”

Studies have also found that using an external focus can improve:

Sprint speed.
Power output.
The length of time people can wall-sit.
Vertical jump height.
Standing jump distance.
Discuss throwing distance.
Rowing performance.
Kayaking performance.
Researchers think these results are largely due to greater motor unit recruitment, which increases force production. However, that’s not the only reason.

2. Improved Neuromuscular Efficiency
An external focus seems to improve your ability to recruit not only more muscle fibers, but to recruit muscle fibers at the right times and in the correct muscles.

For maximum strength production, you want your movements to be as efficient as possible. If you’re trying to squat twice your bodyweight, you want all of your energy directed at raising the barbell.

When people adopt an external focus, they often have lower muscle activity (measured by EMG) using the same weight.

An external focus can also help reduce co-contractions. When you make any movement, some muscles have to relax while others contract. If some muscles contract at the wrong times, you won’t be able to lift as much weight.

Focusing on your body movements increases co-contractions (bad).

Focusing externally decreases co-contractions (good).

3. Greater Full Body Coordination
To maximize your strength, you have to be able to coordinate multiple muscle groups throughout your body.

When people use an external focus while performing a vertical jump test, they are better able to coordinate their movements to produce maximal force. Their ankle, knee, and hip angles all adjust in harmony — just enough to optimize their movements and no more.

On the other hand, the group that used an internal focus changed their joint angles disproportionally — their movements got sloppy, and they didn’t jump as high.

The change in joint angles in the group that used an external focus was associated with their jump height, which suggests this was not a coincidence. The group that used an external focus also had less EMG activity in the stabilizer muscles, which again suggests their movements were more efficient.

Using an external focus seems to help you coordinate your entire body to optimize your strength.

This Trick Isn’t Perfect (But it Doesn’t Have to Be)
This trick will not add 100 pounds to your back squat in a single workout. Sorry.

While the strength improvements in these studies are generally significant, the absolute differences aren’t drastic.

The studies on this topic also have several key limitations, but overall, the evidence supports the idea that an external focus is going to improve your strength and power more than an internal focus.

The best part about this trick is that it’s free, easy, and immediate.

You have to think about something during your workouts, so using an external focus is worth a try. Here’s how.

How to Convert Your Internal Foci into External Foci
Here are a few examples of how you can change an internal focus to an external focus, based on different lifts:
Squat

Push your knees apart -> Push the floor apart.
Push with your feet -> Push your feet into the ground.
Push with your legs -> Push an imaginary line off of your thighs.
Extend your hips -> Push your hips toward the wall in front of you.
Stand tall -> Push the bar towards the ceiling (my personal favorite).
Deadlift
Pull your shoulders back -> Pull your shoulder blades towards the ceiling.
Push your knees apart -> Push the floor apart.
Bench Press
Push up with your arms -> Push the bar towards the ceiling
Chin-Ups/Pull-Ups
Pull your body up -> Pull your chin over the bar.
Pull with your arms -> Pull the bar towards the ground.
Contract your back muscles -> Pull your head into the ceiling.
Overhead Pres
Push up with your arms -> Push the bar towards the ceiling.
Move your head forward as you push the bar up -> Slam your head into the wall in front of you as it passes under the bar.
If you have a specific cue that you’d like converted into an external focus, leave a comment below and I’ll help.

Use This Simple Mind Hack to Get Stronger
If you want to be strong, you need to lift heavy. If you also want to get big, you need to eat a lot, too. Everything else is far less important.
However, using an external focus is a simple, effective, ridiculously easy way you may be able to add a few percentage points to your lifts. It will probably also improve your technique, which might reduce your risk of injuries as well as improve your strength.
Changing what you think about during your workouts doesn’t cost you anything, and it’s likely to help.
The next time you lift weights, use an external focus instead of an internal one.
Do you have a question about this trick? Leave it in the comments section below.

Ways to Get Slim

7 Simple Ways to Get Slim Naturally

Looking for ways to get slim naturally? If you want to lose weight, you don’t want to take diet pills or follow some ridiculous diet (cabbage, anyone?). What you need to learn is how people who are naturally slim get that way -- and stay that way.

If you find yourself trying to follow a complicated diet to lose weight or giving up the foods you love, you’re likely to give up and go back to your regular habits because they're easier.

The key to losing weight and keeping it off is to learn the little tricks that make losing weight easy.

Take a look at these seven simple ways to get slim naturally (say that 10 times fast!):

1. Eat five times a day, starting with breakfast.

Many people skip breakfast, thinking they're saving themselves some calories. This rarely works -- you end up overeating at other times of the day when you become too hungry.

Your body has gone without food for several hours while you were sleeping. It needs that energy to get started. By eating five small meals each day, starting with breakfast, you’ll stoke the fires of your metabolism, making it easier to lose weight.

And your body doesn't absorb all the nutrients when you eat one big meal a day.  Breaking up your calorie intake into several smaller, more frequent meals makes sense all around.

The National Weight Control Registry reports that 78% of their members who have lost weight --- and kept it off -- eat breakfast every day.

Break down your total daily calories into several meals and snacks with the FitWatch Calories Per Meal Calculator.

2. Drink more water.

Surprisingly, many people reach for food when their body is actually thirsty. Water also helps your body to flush out toxins and helps keep you hydrated -- which helps keep you energized. According to the Mayo Clinic, even being slightly dehydrated can make you tired.  When you're tired, you won't be as active.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 3.7 liters (15 cups) of water per day for men; 2.7 liters (11 cups) per day for women. This doesn't mean you should be drinking that much water.  You get water from the foods you eat (fruits, vegetables) and other liquids you drink (milk or juice, for example). About 19% of your water intake comes from foods you eat. Continue To Read 

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Depression

Dealing with Depression

Self-Help and Coping Tips to Overcome Depression

Depression drains your energy, hope, and drive, making it difficult to do what you need to feel better. But while overcoming depression isn’t quick or easy, it’s far from impossible. You can’t just will yourself to “snap out of it,” but you do have some control—even if your depression is severe and stubbornly persistent. The key is to start small and build from there. Feeling better takes time, but you can get there if you make positive choices for yourself each day.

The road to depression recovery

Recovering from depression requires action, but taking action when you’re depressed is hard. In fact, just thinking about the things you should do to feel better, like going for a walk or spending time with friends, can be exhausting.
It’s the Catch-22 of depression recovery: The things that help the most are the things that are the most difficult to do. There’s a difference, however, between something that's difficult and something that's impossible.

Start small and stay focused

The key to depression recovery is to start with a few small goals and slowly build from there. Draw upon whatever resources you have. You may not have much energy, but you probably have enough to take a short walk around the block or pick up the phone to call a loved one.
Take things one day at a time and reward yourself for each accomplishment. The steps may seem small, but they’ll quickly add up. And for all the energy you put into your depression recovery, you’ll get back much more in return.

Depression self-help tip 1: Cultivate supportive relationships

Getting the support you need plays a big role in lifting the fog of depression and keeping it away. On your own, it can be difficult to maintain perspective and sustain the effort required to beat depression, but the very nature of depression makes it difficult to reach out for help. While isolation and loneliness can trigger or worsen depression, maintaining emotionally close relationships can be instrumental in overcoming it.
The thought of reaching out to even close family members and friends can seem overwhelming. You may feel ashamed, too exhausted to talk, or guilty for neglecting the relationship. Remind yourself that this is the depression talking. Reaching out is not a sign of weakness and it won’t mean you’re a burden to others. Your loved ones care about you and want to help. And remember, it’s never too late to build new friendships and improve your support network.

• Turn to friends and family members who make you feel loved and cared for. Spend time talking and listening face-to-face with trusted people and share what you’re going through. The people you talk to don’t have to be able to fix you; they just need to be good listeners. Ask for the help and support you need. You may have retreated from your most treasured relationships, but emotional connection can get you through this tough time.
• Try to keep up with social activities even if you don’t feel like it. Often when you’re depressed, it feels more comfortable to retreat into your shell, but being around other people will make you feel less depressed.
• Join a support group for depression. Being with others dealing with depression can go a long way in reducing your sense of isolation. You can also encourage each other, give and receive advice on how to cope, and share your experiences.

10 tips for reaching out and building relationships

1. Talk to one person about your feelings
2. Help someone else by volunteering
3. Have lunch or coffee with a friend
4. Ask a loved one to check in with you regularly
5. Accompany someone to the movies, a concert, or a small get-together
6. Call or email an old friend
7. Go for a walk with a workout buddy
8. Schedule a weekly dinner date
9. Meet new people by taking a class or joining a club
10. Confide in a clergy member, teacher, or sports coach

Depression self-help tip 2: Get moving

When you’re depressed, just getting out of bed can seem like a daunting task, let alone exercising. But exercise is a powerful tool for dealing with depression. In fact, major studies show that regular exercise can be as effective as antidepressant medication at increasing energy levels and decreasing feelings of fatigue.
Evidence suggests that physical activity triggers new cell growth in the brain, increases mood-enhancing neurotransmitters and endorphins, reduces stress, and relieves muscle tension—all things that can have a positive effect on depression.
While the most benefits come from exercising 30 minutes or more per day, you can start small. Short, 10-minute bursts of activity can have a positive effect on your mood. You don’t need to train at the gym, sweat buckets, or run mile after mile, either. Even very small activities that get your arms and legs moving can add up over the course of a day. Try incorporating walking, running, swimming, dancing or another rhythmic exercise—that requires moving both your arms and legs—into your daily routine. The key is to pick an activity you enjoy, so you’re more likely to stick with it. Even very small activities can add up over the course of a day. Here are a few easy ways to get moving:

• Put on some music and dance around
• Take your dog for a walk
• Use the stairs rather than an elevator
• Park your car in the farthest spot in the lot
• Pair up with an exercise partner

Exercise as an antidepressant

The following exercise tips offer a powerful prescription for boosting mood:

• Exercise now… and again. A 10-minute walk can improve your mood for two hours. The key to sustaining mood benefits is to exercise regularly.
• Choose activities that are moderately intense. Aerobic exercise undoubtedly has mental health benefits, but you don't need to sweat strenuously to see results.
• Find exercises that are continuous and rhythmic (rather than intermittent).Walking, swimming, dancing, yoga, and cycling or stationery biking are good choices.
• Add a mind-body element. Activities such as yoga and tai chi rest your mind and increase your energy. You can also add a meditative element to walking or swimming by repeating a mantra (a word or phrase) as you move.
• Start slowly, and don't overdo it. More isn't better. Athletes who over train find their moods drop rather than lift.

Adapted from Johns Hopkins Health Alerts

Depression self-help tip 3: Challenge negative thinking

Depression puts a negative spin on everything, including the way you see yourself, the situations you encounter, and your expectations for the future.
But you can’t break out of this pessimistic mind frame by “just thinking positive.” Happy thoughts or wishful thinking won’t cut it. Rather, the trick is to replace negative thoughts with more balanced thoughts.

Ways to challenge negative thinking:

• Think outside yourself. Ask yourself if you’d say what you’re thinking about yourself to someone else. If not, stop being so hard on yourself. Think about less harsh statements that offer more realistic descriptions.
• Allow yourself to be less than perfect. Many depressed people are perfectionists, holding themselves to impossibly high standards and then beating themselves up when they fail to meet them. Battle this source of self-imposed stress by challenging your negative ways of thinking
• Socialize with positive people. Notice how people who always look on the bright side deal with challenges, even minor ones, like not being able to find a parking space. Then consider how you would react in the same situation. Even if you have to pretend, try to adopt their optimism and persistence in the face of difficulty.
• Keep a "negative thought log." Whenever you experience a negative thought, jot down the thought and what triggered it in a notebook. Review your log when you’re in a good mood. Consider if the negativity was truly warranted. Ask yourself if there’s another way to view the situation. For example, let’s say your boyfriend was short with you and you automatically assumed that the relationship was in trouble. It's possible, though, he’s just having a bad day.

Read More 

Weight-loss program

 Weight-loss program choices
Each year, millions of people enroll in weight-loss programs. These include well-known commercial programs such Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig (both of which have online versions) and organized self-help programs such as Overeaters Anonymous. Fewer people may be familiar with medically supervised programs, which include hospital-based programs or individual care from a physician. In addition, many free online diet and exercise programs are now available.

The commercial programs charge a fee for meetings. They offer advice on diet and exercise regimens as well as online tools for tracking your weight and food consumption. In some cases, they sell prepared foods and diet aids. The self-help programs tend to focus mainly on providing emotional support and encouragement in sticking with a weight-loss plan.
Clinical programs, which are provided through a doctor's office or hospital clinic, offer comprehensive diet, exercise, and behavior-modification programs, supplemented as needed with prescription treatments such as very low-calorie diets, weight-loss medications, and, increasingly, surgery.
None of the programs can guarantee that you will lose a particular amount of weight. With the exception of the clinical programs, these approaches are adjuncts to, not substitutes for, professional guidance for those who need it. Indeed, the self-help and commercial plans encourage participants to consult with health care professionals about weight-loss strategies. Following are descriptions of the different programs and what you can expect from them.

1. "What’s the best diet for losing weight?”
2. Any diet that you can stick with for a long time.
3. It should be as good for your overall health—your heart, bones, colon, and psyche—as it is for your waistline.
4. It should offer plenty of good-tasting and healthy choices, banish few foods, and not require an extensive and expensive list of groceries or supplements.

Commercial programs

Like self-help programs, the commercial programs hold regular meetings to provide encouragement and support. But a significant difference between the two types of programs is money. The commercial programs charge fees to participate in meetings and also sell diet plans, as well as prepared foods and diet aids to go along with those plans. Costs for these programs vary, depending on how long you commit to the program, whether you attend meetings in person or online, and whether you purchase the foods or diet aids. Check with the specific organization for more information.

Weight Watchers

The most popular of the commercial programs, Weight Watchers, has more than 25 million participants worldwide. As a member, you receive a daily allotment of points (based on your weight, age, gender, and other factors) to spend on food, along with point values for a wide range of foods.
In late 2010, Weight Watchers introduced PointsPlus, a revamped system that puts more emphasis on the nutritional value of each food to assign point values. On the old plan, a 100-calorie bag of cookies was two points, the same as a 100-calorie apple. Under the new plan, fruits and non-starchy vegetables are now zero points. And foods high in protein and fiber have lower point values than foods high in fat and refined carbohydrates. The idea is to encourage people to eat more healthful, nutrient-dense foods and fewer "empty" calories from treats.
There's no need to buy Weight Watchers–brand foods. The program also encourages members to get regular exercise. Two published trials showed that people who went to Weight Watchers meetings regularly lost about 5% of their weight over three to six months. Meetings are led by people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off through the Weight Watchers program.

Jenny Craig

The other leading commercial weight-loss program, Jenny Craig, has more than 725 centers around the world. To get started, you visit a local Jenny Craig center and have your weight analyzed by a staff member. These staff members are not dietitians or other health professionals, but they're trained in the Jenny Craig program, which, according to the company, was developed by dietitians. Based on your weight, the staff member recommends a dieting, exercise, and behavior-modification program to help you lose about 1 pound a week. In general, members are advised to eat three meals and three snacks each day, as well as to drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water each day and to increase their physical activity as much as they can. Jenny Craig also sells a wide array of packaged foods, diet aids, vitamin and mineral supplements, and even devices such as pedometers. Members have the option of preparing their own meals, but the prepared foods have been shown to help them stick with the diet.

Online options for dieters

In addition to the Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig online programs, there are numerous other Web-based diet and exercise programs, some of which are free. Similar programs are also available for use on a smartphone (see "Smartphone applications to spur weight loss"). Most offer tools that allow you to easily track your eating and exercise habits, count calories, and chart your weight loss. Some have programs specifically targeted to men or women, and many offer plans that follow specific types of diets, such as low-carb, Mediterranean, or vegetarian. Most also feature online chats or discussion groups, and some provide e-mail advice from experts, including psychologists and dietitians.

These are some of the better-known options:

• Calorie Counter (caloriecount.about.com)
• Calorie King (www.calorieking.com)
• eDiets (www.ediets.com)
• FitDay (www.fitday.com)
• NutriSystem (www.nutrisystem.com)
• SparkPeople (www.sparkpeople.com)
• WebMD (www.webmd.com/diet)

But how well do they work? A study published in Obesity involving more than 2,800 members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan revealed that people who followed a tailored expert system lost more weight than those assigned to an information-only plan. Both options were offered online only, but while the information-only group received just factual information about weight management and diet strategies, the tailored system focused on a healthy diet and provided tips targeted to the participant's particular issues. For example, those who believed overweight people lacked willpower were given messages attempting to change that perception, and those unable to exercise weren't given exercise advice.
According to a review of Web-based interventions for weight loss published in 2010 in Obesity Reviews, the frequency of a user's log-ins, self-monitoring occasions, chat room attendances, and bulletin board posts was correlated with losing weight or keeping it off in many studies. But there's a dearth of information on the long-term impact of Web-based interventions, the authors noted.
It's certainly worth checking out a few of the online programs. Even without proof of clear benefits from a specific one, the very act of paying more attention to your eating and exercise habits seems to help.

Smartphone applications to spur weight loss

Smartphones such as the iPhone, Android, Blackberry, and Palm WebOS can make it even easier to track your eating and exercise, thanks to an ever-growing number of applications (apps) designed for dieters that run on these multipurpose computers.
Food diaries and supportive communities are proven factors in successful weight control programs.Lose It! (for iPhone, free) offers both. You enter your height, weight, age, gender, and target weight, and the app calculates your daily caloric allotment. As you go through the day, you log in every morsel you put into your mouth and each minute of physical activity. The app draws from a very comprehensive database of foods and physical activities to keep a running tab of the calories you've consumed and expended and the number remaining in the day's allotment. It also computes your nutritional intake in terms of calories, carbs, protein, saturated and unsaturated fats, and sodium.
To stay on track, you can set up e-mail notes to yourself reminding you to fill out the log. You can also register on the Lose It! Web site to get support from a community of people who've had success in losing weight.
Calorie Counter by FatSecret (for iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, free) is similar but less intuitive to use and does less of the math for you.
iTreadmill (for iPhone, 99 cents), CardioTrainer (for Android, free), and Endomondo Sports Tracker (for Android and BlackBerry, free) use the phone's GPS to turn your phone into a pedometer and navigator.
Absolute Fitness (for most smartphones, $4.99) allows you to log and manage your food intake, exercise, and weight. It displays the nutritional composition of food and the calorie expenditures of different activities. You set your personal diet, exercise, and weight-loss goals, and the app tracks your progress.
Note: Many more smartphone apps are now available for the iPhone and Android platforms.

Self-help programs

These nonprofit programs have local chapters around the world. They make no promises that they will help you lose any weight. However, they aim to improve your odds of doing so by holding regular (usually weekly) meetings where members share success stories and frustrations and offer one another encouragement and personal tips. Meetings are run by volunteer group leaders. Each self-help program has a different focus.

Overeaters Anonymous

This is a 12-step program modeled after Alcoholics Anonymous for people who suffer from compulsive overeating. The main purpose of the meetings is to help people stop overeating by exploring their underlying emotional issues. Overeaters Anonymous has chapters around the world. It is free, although members are asked to contribute what they can. A special feature of the program is a buddy system in which you have another member to call if you feel the urge to overeat. Whether this approach is appropriate or effective for overeaters remains controversial.

Take Off Pounds Sensibly (TOPS)

This program takes a practical approach, giving members incentives to follow whatever diet plan has been recommended by their health care practitioners. One program that TOPS recommends is the "exchange" diet established by the American Dietetic Association and the American Diabetes Association, but TOPS asks members to check with their doctors first. Weekly private weigh-ins are followed by meetings, during which members discuss their successes and difficulties in reaching their weight-loss goals. Some chapters arrange for doctors, nutritionists, and other weight-loss experts to speak at meetings. TOPS holds retreats and rallies to give members extra incentives to stay with their weight-loss plans. It also features online support. Members receive a monthly magazine that contains low-calorie recipes as well as inspirational stories by members who have met their weight-loss goals.

Clinical programs

These programs are run by health care professionals, either in private practice or at hospital-based centers. Many of these programs are staffed by multidisciplinary teams that may include doctors, dietitians, exercise therapists, and psychologists or social workers, who provide a wide range of services, such as nutrition education, medical care, behavioral therapy, and guidance on exercise.
The mainstay of clinical programs used to be a very low-calorie diet of 800 or fewer calories a day, which is at least 400 calories per day less than conventional diets. Very low-calorie diets feature commercially prepared liquid formulas, such as Optifast, that replace all of the food in a patient's diet and induce a rapid loss of about 20% of his or her initial weight over 12 to 16 weeks, as much as 5 pounds a week. This type of diet is considered appropriate only for patients with a BMI greater than 30 who need to lose weight quickly for health reasons. Other clinical programs offered in the United States include Health Management Resources and Optifast.

As part of the program, people on very low-calorie diets should have regular medical checkups to identify any adverse health effects. Patients should also have counseling to help them adjust to the diet, as well as guidance on how to reintroduce regular food once the diet is over. Many programs also offer support groups to help people maintain their weight loss by adhering to a low-calorie diet and getting regular physical exercise. In the U.S., very low-calorie diet programs usually cost $1,000 to $2,000 for three months.

Today, however, clinical programs are inclined to recommend a more moderate low-calorie diet in conjunction with a program of exercise and behavior modification. For one thing, very low-calorie diets have been associated with complications in some people, including chemical abnormalities and irregular heartbeats. And in the long run, such diets are no more effective than conventional low-calorie diets in which people consume about 1,200 calories daily. For patients with obesity, and for those who are overweight but at high risk for obesity-related complications, clinical programs now often combine behavior-based treatment with weight-loss medications or surgery.