By Peggy O'Farrell
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Are you a Mindless Muncher? Maybe you're an Emotional Stuffer, using food to numb feelings of anger, sadness or stress.

MASTER THE PLAN

Lauren Niemes, executive director of the Nutrition Center of Greater Cincinnati, offers these tips for evaluating a weight-loss plan: • Does the plan stress gradual - half a pound to a pound weekly - weight loss? More than that, and you're probably losing water and muscle, not fat. • Will the plan meet your nutritional needs? The plan should include a variety of foods. Avoid plans that eliminate food groups. • How many calories are recommended? If the plan calls for eating fewer than 800 calories a day, it can be dangerous. It's difficult to get all the nutrients you need for less than 1,200 calories, and a safe plan calls for 1,500 calories a day, plus physical activity. • Does the plan include foods you normally eat? Diets that are very restrictive encourage bingeing. • Can you follow the plan for the rest of your life? It should allow you to go to parties, restaurants and participate in everyday activities. • Does the plan encourage medical supervision? Talk to your doctor before beginning any weight-loss plan.

DIET 'PERSONALITY'

Recognize any of these characters from Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet (St. Martin's Press; $23.95)? At the buffet table: Unguided Grazer: Something at the buffet is healthy, but she doesn't have a clue what that might be, so she eats everything. Nighttime Nibbler: Like a vampire, he only feeds after dark. Convenient Consumer: Why should she cook when all those restaurants are nice enough to do it for her? Never mind the calories, sodium and fat. Fruitless Feaster: He really likes meat and potatoes, except for the potatoes part. Mindless Muncher: Never hungry, but always eating. Why? Because it's there. Hearty Portioner: You mean 3 pounds of cocktail wieners is a bad thing? Deprived Sneaker: She eats only salmon, soy and broccoli in public. In private, it's cheese curls and pork rinds. At the gym: Hate-to-Move Struggler: Exercise is work, and she has the day/week/decade off. Self-Conscious Hider: He'd go to a fitness club, but everyone there is so much more ... fit ... than him that he's too embarrassed. Inexperienced Novice: OK, she bought the $3,000 treadmill. Now what? All-or-Nothing Doer: If he can't run a marathon every time, he won't run - or walk or swim or cycle - at all. Set-Routine Repeater: Jazzercise worked for the first 10 years. Why change now? Aches-and-Pains Sufferer: Everything hurts, and now you want him to move it? No-Time-To-Exercise Protester: She's too busy driving the kids to soccer practice and play dates to get to the gym. Under pressure: Emotional Stuffer: The boss yelled at him, the car died and all his clothes are too tight, so he eats to feel better. Low-Self-Esteem Sufferer: She's not good enough or smart enough, and people don't like her, so she eats to feel better. Persistent Procrastinator: He's been carrying spare tire around long enough. Next month, he's starting a diet. Can't-Say-No Pleaser: Sure she'll chair the PTA rummage sale, the church bake sale and the soccer club barbecue. But she'll eat all the refreshments to help handle the pressure. Fast Pacer: OK, he has 25 minutes to drop the kids off at school, clear out his inbox and eat that seven-course meal. Start the clock! Pessimistic Thinker: Atkins didn't work. Grapefruit didn't work. Nothing worked, and she's so angry, she's going to eat herself into a coma. Unrealistic Achiever: If he doesn't make it to the gym five nights a week and lose 5 pounds a week, he's going to console himself with beer and chips. Lots of it.

Dr. Robert F. Kushner probes the deepest, darkest secrets of Deprived Sneakers, Convenient Consumers and Hate-To-Move Strugglers to determine why we eat too much and exercise too little in his new book, Dr. Kushner's Personality Type Diet (St. Martin's Press; $23.95).

Kushner, director of the Wellness Institute and weight loss and nutrition programs at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in suburban Chicago, shuns what he calls "silly food rules" that prohibit carbohydrates or require dieters to drink gallons of grapefruit juice.

Instead, he encourages dieters to look at how, when and why they eat, along with how much.

"Listening to patients and asking them what makes it hard to lose weight, it really comes down to their lifestyle and what I call personality patterns," Kushner says. "It starts with self-reflection on what are the patterns that I've gotten myself into that are so comfortable and so familiar and how do I change them?"

Health experts say obesity is an epidemic in America. Kushner blames the way we live for our growing girth, or what he calls the "scaling up syndrome."

"I think it's the societal changes that everyone's exposed to, where food is everywhere. You almost have to run away from food to avoid it. Physical activity has been engineered out of our lives to the point where you have to purchase it," he says. "I see our obesity as an unnatural consequence of our societal changes."

That doesn't - exactly - mean he's blaming Americans.

"I always tell people that it's not your fault that you're overweight, but it is your responsibility," Kushner says. "You have to be heads-up about what you're eating."

But too many of us have our heads down - probably in a carton of ice cream or a bag of chips.

The question is: Why?

The answers are numerous. Some of are stressed, sad, anxious or lonely, and it's easier to relate to a donut than another human. Some of us depend on restaurants and drive-throughs for our meals. Some of us can't distinguish between "satisfied" and "stuffed" at mealtime. And some of us are more adamant about avoiding fruits and veggies than the average 4-year-old.

The first trick, Kushner says, is to identify the patterns that drive how we eat, how we cope with stress and sadness and how we incorporate physical activity into our daily lives.

The second trick - and the hardest - is to change those patterns.

"The coping patterns are the hardest to change long-term," he says.

Not everyone overeats for emotional or psychological reasons, he adds. Some - the so-called "Hearty Portioners" - overeat because they don't recognize a healthy portion. The book includes a personality test to help readers identify their "type," along with tips to help each type cope with the weight-loss struggle. There's an opportunity for multiple diet and exercise personalities, Kushner says, so don't be concerned if the test makes you seem as if you have more than one. Most dieters do. Just concentrate on changing one set of behaviors at a time.

In addition, the book features recipes and meal suggestions, plus lists of low-fat, high-fiber foods that can be substituted for less healthy fare.

For "Pessimistic Thinkers," the key is changing "I can't" to "I can," he says.

"Nighttime Nibblers" need to eat more during the day so they're not diving into the fridge all night.

And "Set-Routine Repeaters" need to jazz up their exercise routines to continue their weight loss.

The book does not include lists of forbidden foods, magic formulas or food combinations guaranteed to burn off calories or require readers to buy special supplements.

He recommends what he calls the "80/20" rule: If your diet is balanced 80 percent of the time, you can eat higher-calorie foods 20 percent of the time.

Lauren Niemes, executive director of the Nutrition Council of Greater Cincinnati, reads a lot of diet books. She cautions consumers against plans that are too low in calories and too restrictive.

She does agree that some people's weight problems are related to their problems managing emotions.

"People often turn to food to help manage their emotions and feelings," she says.

Niemes recommends using a journal to keep track what you eat, when and how you feel while you're eating. Kushner's book includes sample journals to identify stressors that might lead to overeating.

Kushner encourages his readers to exercise, even if it's just walking to a co-worker's cubicle instead of e-mailing a message.

"One of the key strategies is to add (exercise) in naturally, and that is to relate to the dieter that all movements count," he says. "You don't have to go to the health club and put on a leotard and exercise for 30 minutes at a time. You can exercise doing things that you do everyday. If you just change your patterns, then you can get in more physical activity every single day."

Taking the stairs, walking around the mall before a shopping trip or walking the dog all count, Kushner says.

He's now conducting a study in the Chicago area to see how effective daily walks are for dogs and their owners.

"The dog's losing weight. The owner's losing weight. Everybody's happy," he says.

E-mail pofarrell@enquirer.com