There is no industry where the quest for the “magic pill” is more exploited than weight loss. I often joke that one of these days I am going to market a pill with the following instructions: “Take one a day, work out, don’t eat so much, and you will lose weight.” However, weight control is nothing to joke about. The average American weight per capita has risen dramatically in the past few years, as have the health-related problems that go along with it. As many PTs turn their practices toward preventive medicine, many are offering weight-control programs.

Unfortunately, scientific thinking on diet goes around in circles. When I was young, a diet high in protein but low in carbohydrates was optimum. Then we were told that too much protein was damaging, and complex carbohydrates became the breakfast of champions. Dietary fat was the villain and, therefore, needed to be eliminated. After that, we heard that carbohydrates triggered an insulin release, which would take us up at least four pants sizes, but protein and fat were OK. So which theory is true? The answer is an evasive one—all of them and none of them. There is, however, one scientific principle that everyone seems to agree with: Burn more calories than you eat. One sure-fire weight-loss formula is activity.  In fact, I have a friend who recently lost about 10 pounds, and when I asked him how, he replied, “I bought a dog.” Walking the dog a half hour a night helped him drop weight. So if this is the one formula we are sure works, why don’t more people do it? The obvious answer is that exercise is work.

Rather than relying on diet gurus and input from the multi-billion-dollar supplement industry, I have a rather unscientific suggestion for PTs who want to offer a weight-loss program: Make it fun. In nature, everything always seeks the path of least resistance, including (perhaps especially) people. Yet the same people who avoid physical exercise and sit on the couch clicking the remote have no aversion to a night of salsa dancing or playing a game of weekend soccer. The reason is that they enjoy these pastimes. Martial arts schools offered aerobic kickboxing classes for years, and then suddenly Tae Bo became a rage. Billy Blanks made kickboxing fun.

Whether your plan includes aerobics or Pilates, Tai Chi or floor exercises, the less it seems like work and more like play, people will be more willing to participate. Try to develop a program that you enjoy doing yourself; ideally, something you look forward to doing. Think about incorporating music with a good motivational beat and a program that doesn’t leave the participant huffing and puffing in misery, but energized and ready to take on the day. “No pain, no gain” is a great saying for the bodybuilding extremist, but in the real world, it is something more like, “Less pain, less gain.”