IT is always useful to catalogue in the most direct and simple form the concrete steps which should be taken in the treatment of any disorder. To combat obesity intelligently:
1. Place yourself under the care of a competent physician, and have him make a special diagnosis of your condition.
2. Agree with him upon the amount of weight you should lose, and the time schedule on which you are to lose it.
3. Purchase reliable scales and weigh yourself regularly once a week at the same hour on the same day. Do not weigh more than once a week.
4. Practice rigid food temperance and the greatest care in the selection of foods, as directed by your physician.
5. Drink a sufficient quantity. of water not less than four glasses or more than six per day.
6. Eat slowly, chewing thoroughly.
7. Take a reasonable amount of mild exercise, frequently repeated, over a long period of time.
8. Be patient. Do not expect all the loss of weight to come the first week, or the loss which you secure the first week to be repeated each week thereafter.
9. Never extend the period of reduction too long lest the results instead of being beneficial be-come positively harmful.
10. Once you have gained your objective, do not return to the old thoughtless diet which brought your obesity, but go on a carefully selected maintenance diet.
For detailed directions as to diet, see the pages which follow.