Personal Weight Control: Quality Management at Home
Abstract
This article offers a process control procedure for managing our own body weight—in steady state; or in a stair step
fashion for losing weight; or, in certain cases, gaining weight. It will be shown that this proposition is eminently cogent
and worthy of attention. Early discussion focuses on a single, long-term case study, to be seen as fairly convincing in itself,
both for the simplicity of the method and for its effectiveness in achieving one’s weight-control goals. The main intent is
to raise awareness of healthcare professionals as to the merits of the method, such that they may recommend it to their
patients as a simple-to-use home health regimen, as suggested by a reputable healthcare publication.
As part of this research, I sought a few laypersons’ viewpoints as to the method’s applicability: a small-scale survey,
asking twelve miscellaneous parties (largely others living in the author’s large condo building) to examine a brief written
explanation of the method and asking for their opinions. It turns out that one of those twelve eagerly related her own,
very similar, many-year regimen for personal weight control.
The article is largely expository. Thus, the survey was aimed merely at soliciting off-the-cuff viewpoints—realism, as
it were—rather than any sort of proof. Included among the replies of those surveyed were a few references to the lack
of/need for motivation to pursue such a weight-control regimen. To help nullify that “excuse” (valid, to be sure),and
generate motivations for people to employ the weight-control method, is to raise awareness of the merits of the method
among the public—especially family members who have had minimal success in controlling their own weights—doing so
via healthcare professionals who themselves have become aware and of positive opinion as to its efficacy.
Earlier drafts of the paper included references and examples that relate to formal statistical process control (SPC)
methods of assessing conformance to plan. Such methodology was seen, however, as demeaning as to a central feature
of the method, that being its simplicity of application—a necessary ingredient given that its primary users would be lay
people—in their own homes—and not science-oriented professionals.
The paper begins with the person who served as the initial model for this research, then adds in the person who also
turned out to be a model of the methodology.
