https://home.humanos.me/catalog/ideal-weight-program
Overview
Why do we overeat — even when we know it’s not in our long-term best interest?
Like virtually all questions in biology, this is largely explained by evolution. Animals, generally speaking, have evolved to conserve energy, because energy is needed to survive and reproduce. This is especially true in the unforgiving natural world. So, it totally makes sense that natural selection has favored genes that are linked to seeking out and consuming high-calorie fare. And humans, of course, are no exception to this.
But now, in the modern food environment, that tendency unfortunately has become a major liability, contributing to an epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes.
So, does that mean that we’re doomed?
No. Far from it.
Researcher Stephan Guyenet spent more than a decade investigating the neuroscience of eating and food reward. In studying how brain circuitry works to regulate energy intake, he has uncovered ways to manage our primal impulses in a world that constantly works against us.
This led to the publication of his acclaimed book, The Hungry Brain, as well as the development of the Ideal Weight Program. This is an innovative, evidence-based system for sustainable weight management, which teaches you the science of body weight regulation and eating behavior, and translates it into simple, practical strategies for lifelong weight management.
What sets the Ideal Weight Program apart from other diet plans is that it hones cutting-edge science to not just lose weight, but keep it off — and that’s really the part that eludes most of us. To that end, the program is organized into three tracks:
- The Simple Food Diet is the principal dietary approach of the Ideal Weight Program. Simple food is more or less what it sounds like — food that is prepared and consumed relatively close to its “natural” state, sending a signal to your brain that results in satiation while lowering energy density.
- The FLASH Diet is a more aggressive weight reduction plan. It is modeled after protein-sparing modified fast diets, which were developed by researchers in the 1970s and which remain the most effective fat loss plans ever studied.
- Finally, the Lean Maintenance Diet is specifically devised for sustaining a healthy weight once you’ve gotten there. This is arguably the most critical phase, as most people are able to lose fat temporarily, but struggle to keep it off long term.
The whole program is delivered in 11 mini-courses, each teaching a critical element to success in bite-sized chunks.
Along with the mini-courses, the program also includes How-to Guides for each of the three diets in the program, as well as a recipe pack for the Simple Food Diet.
A Pro membership at humanOS grants you access to the entire program, along with everything else on humanOS.
Weight Loss Coaching: One of the specialties of our coaching program is helping people with weight loss and weight maintenance. A coach can help to integrate all the wisdom contained in this program, but also craft a personalized program suited specifically to you and your life. If you want to get the absolute best results from this program, we highly recommend acquiring a coach to steer you in the right direction. Learn more about our coaching program here.
Remember, when you sign up for our coaching program, you get 12 months of humanOS Pro, including full access to the Ideal Weight Program, as a part of your coaching membership.
Intro to the Ideal Weight Program
IWP Course #: 1
Total Course Time: 12 min 50 secs
Total Course Time: 15 min 04 secs
Food Environment & Weight Control
Total Course Time: 20 min 23 secs
IWP Course #: 4
Total Course Time: 29 min 23 secs
Total Course Time: 26 min 01 secs
Total Course Time: 17 min 56 secs
Physical Activity & Weight Control
IWP Course #: 7
Total Course Time: 24 min 59 secs
Total Course Time: 19 min 22 secs
Total Course Time: 27 min 11 secs
IWP Course #: 10
Total Course Time: 20 min 45 secs
Other Components of the Program
- How-to Guide - Simple Food Diet
- How-to Guide - Lean Maintenance Diet
- How-to Guide - Flash Diet
- Recipe Pack - Simple Food Diet
- Personalized “Protein Units” calculation
Your Protein Units (also shown as grams per day) calculation can be found on your Dashboard's Weight Tile. If you don't see them please make sure you have at least two days of weight data entered.
More Resources for Our 3 Diets
Flash
- Meal Plans Week 1- 4
- Cheat Sheet
- Foods Prep Recs
Lean Maintainance
- Cheat Sheet
- Protein List
Simple Food
- Meal Plans Week 1-4
- Cheat Sheet
- Food Prep Recs
START HERE
This questionnaire is designed to capture your opportunities for improvement in six key domains that affect body weight: your food environment, appetite, food reward (food seductiveness), sleep, physical activity, and psychological stress. We developed it for people who are interested in losing fat or avoiding fat gain. Please answer the questions to the best of your ability. Results are free, and you will not have to provide your email address or sign up for anything to receive them.
Program Creators
Stephan Guyenet, PhD
My name is Stephan J. Guyenet, PhD, and I co-created the Ideal Weight Program with Dan Pardi, MS, PhD. I'm a researcher and writer who specializes in the neuroscience of eating behavior and obesity. I have a lifelong interest in health, nutrition, and fitness that has guided my career. My research has been cited more than1,700 times by my scientific peers and my general-audience book
The Hungry Brain has received an outstanding reception from researchers, doctors, and the general public. The Ideal Weight Program dovetails with the concepts in my book.
The Ideal Weight Program is an evidence-based system for sustainable weight management. This course-based program teaches you the science of body weight and eating behavior and translates it into simple, practical strategies for weight management. It offers three different diets based on your personal weight management goal - from rapid fat loss to healthy weight maintenance - along with recipes and meal plans to support it.
Dan Pardi, MS, PhD
I was an obese child and used to struggled with weight control. It made me keenly interested in this subject, so much so my PhD work studied the connection between sleep, cognition, and decision making, with eating behavior and weight control. Stephan and I met in 2011 at a scientific conference, and from that moment on, we regularly discussed the science of weight regulation and tactics for practical weight control.
For my own personal journey, I can truly say I no longer struggle with controlling my body fatness. Instead, I harness the factors determining fat regulation detailed in this program. We worked very hard on this program and we are proud to bring it to you here. We hope you too find success by implying these principles and developing helpful weight-control skills for life.