In the quest for ‘sustainable’ weight loss, millions turn to trending diets, injections, or quick fixes promising a path to a slimmer figure. However, despite the popularity of fads and medications, many dieters end up right where they started, often gaining back lost weight. Dr Stephen Gullo, one of the nation’s leading authorities in the emerging field of behavioral nutrition, argues that these approaches don’t address the root cause. Weight is not the problem. It is the symptom of habits and foods that have repeatedly failed the individual. It is only by changing this path that one finds enduring success. In other words, Dr. Gullo, one of the pioneers of behavioral nutrition, believes sustainable weight loss isn’t just about a diet, for diets are just words on a page. Strategy is stronger than willpower.

The Nobel Prize Committee recognized a foundational truth of human behavior upon awarding the Nobel Prize to Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman for behavioral economics. A truth totally ignored in the field of weight control is that human decision-making, whether it be in economics or food choices, is guided by two systems. System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional. System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical. The diet model focuses on System 2 and fails to account for the powerful role of System 1—the fast, intuitive, and emotional. Often, eating is not about food or even hunger but mood, availability, or boredom. Dr. Gullo’s years of experience with many clients on the injections made him realize that mood and availability are more powerful than even GLP-1.

One of Dr. Gullo’s key insights is that weight is not the problem; it’s a symptom of the foods and habits that have failed individuals. “If you get the wrong treatment, you won’t get the right result, hence the dismal 90% failure rate of weight control therapy, despite what millions of dieters mistakenly thought. They have not failed. The diet model has failed them,” he asserts. So many who have failed are some of the most accomplished and focused members of society. They did not lack willpower. They lacked the strategies, and they were following the wrong road map to success, whereas their food history, embodied in what Dr. Gullo calls their unique eating print, is the GPS system to guide them on a new path to success.

Like those who are on the injections after having lost weight, dieters have asked, “What comes next, especially after making a mistake?” Unlike the diet field, Dr. Gullo has a profound understanding and appreciation for System 1 thinking. At the heart of this insight is recognizing that enduring success in weight control involves relearning. In any learning process, human beings will make errors. Once again, the diet field does not pay attention to this critical and foundational aspect of human behavior.

Dr. Gullo states, “The typical answer for dieters as to what comes next after the diet, particularly after they start making mistakes, has been guilt, self-loathing, and the expression ‘I blew it.’ The entire day goes downhill because of one mistake. If you want to have long-term success, you must remember that human behavior over the long term is not error-free.”

To address this issue, Dr. Gullo has developed the strategy of “boxing in” to correct one of the biggest impediments to success for dieters. He has observed that if dieters make a single error, the entire day from “slip to sleep” is ruined under the mantra, “I blew it.” It is critical to teach people that if there is a mistake or a planned indulgence, you can seal it off, “box it in,” and not allow it to become a pattern. This skill set for error correction is one of the most critical steps for long-term success.

The guiding mantra in the field of weight control has been “All foods in moderation.” However, Dr. Gullo posits that humans are not guided by moderation. Instead, they have an evolutionary drive for excess. This is as inherent as the instance that no highway planner would dare to put up a “Drive Moderately” sign, for there would be chaos on the road and many vehicular crashes. The saying “All foods in moderation” is simply an expression of wishful thinking. There is no scientific proof to support it. On the contrary, the lessons of human history and the research of noted professors at Yale and the work of Professor VanDellen at the University of Georgia have demonstrated that this advice may have led millions of people to failure.

It is not how many calories there are in a cookie or cashew but how many units of calories one historically eats. That is the true calories—food characteristics that constitute the true calories for the food for that individual. Dr. Gullo advises weight clients not to speak of just calories but also calorie units, like how many peanuts or cookies one typically eats when they start with this food. Indeed, the greatest lesson of his work is that most people in need of weight control are not “tasters” but are “finishers.” They finish whatever quantity is available in front of them, even when they are not hungry. They behave irrationally in a very predictable way.

Injections may aid weight loss, but they are a temporary fix—a sticking plaster—that fails to get to the root of the cause. “There’s no injection that will change the habits and thinking of a lifetime,” he says. Many clients, he notes, still give in to their trigger foods after they feel they’ve regained control, only to fall into familiar habits, such as eating an entire box of cookies when stressed or bored.

To change the thinking that generates these failed habits, Dr. Gullo has introduced his unique technique of cognitive switching. With this, Dr. Gullo helps reframe the thinking of those who depend on their “comfort food” as a coping mechanism, highlighting that the major cause of their discomfort might lie in the weight they acquired from it. Employing smart phone technology, Dr. Gullo records weekly messages, using the powerful strategies of the advertising world with repeated mantras such as “Do you like it enough to wear it? There are no good or bad foods; there are only good and bad histories with food. What was my history with this food when I started?”

Once a client of Dr. Gullo begins to think “historically, not just calorically” and learns from the classic Dorito commercial that says “We bet you can’t just have one,” they can avoid a problematic food. Dr. Gullo asks the following question: “Does it satisfy, or does it stimulate?”  By identifying these trigger foods, his clients can avoid unnecessary temptation, sidestepping the cycle of giving in and feeling defeated. Dr. Gullo teaches that the best way to succeed in avoiding temptations and setbacks is to anticipate and “mentally rehearse” one’s food choices in the week ahead.

This behavior nutritionist’s practice spans internationally with clients including high-profile figures from the Middle East, where diet culture has a unique influence. Saudi Arabia, for example, has one of the world’s largest number of weight problems, partly due to cultural dining habits. Meals are often served buffet-style for “communal dining,” consistently leading to overconsumption.

“Variety stimulates consumption, and availability stimulates craving,” Dr. Gullo states. Buffets are particularly challenging for dieters, as people naturally consume more when offered variety in unlimited amounts. Recognizing these cultural patterns allows Dr. Gullo to tailor strategies to clients from different regions, improving their likelihood of success.

With his unique strategies that bridge the worlds of psychology, nutrition, behavioral economics, and advertising, as well as building the only weight program in the world, Dr. Gullo has, in the words of one journalist, “revolutionized” the journey to enduring weight control.