If 167 million men and women in the United States are trying a solution and it doesn't work, something is wrong with the so-called solution. Yet that is how many people are on a diet at any given moment in the United States, said Brenda Crawford-Clark, who has been working with people unhappy with their weight for more than 15 years.

"Instead of blaming ourselves when diets don't work, we have to stop and do a reality check," said Crawford-Clark, author of "Body Sense Balancing Your Weight and Emotions." (Beyond Words Publishing, 2001.)
"There is a multi-million dollar diet industry that stays in business by bombarding us with ads to convince us that the inability to keep off weight is our personal failure. There is something wrong with us, not the diet."

"Yet, their success is based on the fact that people will continue to use their products because they get a short-term payoff, then use them again when they don't work long term," said Crawford-Clark, a Tampa, Fl. therapist who formerly directed hospital and outpatient programs for eating disorders. "It's time we got mad instead of accepting those empty promises and begin to look deeper at the reasons diets don't work."

One of those reasons is each individual's body make-up, according to Crawford-Clark. The interactions of neurotransmitters, the body's internal message system, can make it much more difficult for one person to lose weight than another.

"If your body is depleted of the neurotransmitter serotonin, either because you are born that way or stress has zapped you to low levels, you may start reaching for food to try and increase serotonin temporarily. That's why looking at the source of the stress is crucial, whether it originated in your childhood or is the result of something more recent," she said. "Its also been shown that doing things that you enjoy, something as simple as playing cards with friends, can increase the serotonin and decrease your need to reach for food," she added.

"Losing weight and keeping it off is much more complex than people are taught to believe," said Crawford-Clark. "It is something that is very doable, but not by dieting."

In her book "Body Sense," Crawford-Clark provides a step-by-step approach to tackle underlying problems that she says keep people in a constant battle with the scales. She also has a website "WWW.ForgetAboutDiets.com" that will provide ongoing support.

"Many times people get stuck in a diet cycle because they don't realize how much their food use is driven by something other than physical hunger," she said. "Sometimes people's diets are sabotaged by events long ago, such as the loss of a marriage, career, health and even loss of your dreams," Crawford-Clark said. Other people continue to use food because they are suffering from the residue of trauma of all kinds, such as accidents, physical illness, or a history of physical or emotional abuse, she said. Other neglected losses that contribute to food use include infertility, miscarriage, childhood bullying, betrayal, loss of innocence, adoption, abandonment, lack of attention, having parents with emotional or addiction problems, perceiving yourself as an outcast and feeling different because of your weight, she added.

"Every day events can trigger the same intensity of emotions that you felt during a loss or traumatic event and drive you to reach for food as a way to get out of an overwhelming feeling," she said. "That's why so many people can lose weight on a diet, only to regain it back." She says those feelings that trigger eating include guilt, not feeling good enough, something's wrong with me, feeling alone, rejected, out of control, powerless, anger and deprived, which is a part of most diet cycles.

"You can throw away no-win diets when you learn how to get the past off your plate and begin to think differently about yourself," she said. "Learn how to set boundaries, express yourself assertively, disconnect from flooding feelings and stop sabotaging yourself with guilt if you want to maintain a healthy weight," Crawford-Clark added.