Weight Loss and the Theory of Constraints

Global Courant

It has always fascinated me how business, finance and weight loss run parallel.

Take a personal bank account, for example. If you add more to it than you take out, your account will continue to grow.

The same goes for your body. If you put more in through food than you take out through activity, it will get bigger and bigger. That’s a simple truth, right?

What about a company? If an entrepreneur does not monitor his business on a daily basis and take action when necessary, his business will most likely go bankrupt.

The same goes for a weight loss program.

If it is not checked daily and action taken when necessary, it will fail. Most companies fail. So are most weight loss programs. That is also a simple truth.

I have been an industrial engineer all my life and years ago I read a book on manufacturing by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt, an Israeli physicist, titled “The Theory of Constraints”.

The core idea of ​​the Theory of Constraints is that any real system, such as a for-profit enterprise, must have at least one constraint.

If it were not true, the system would produce an infinite amount of whatever it strives for. In the case of a for-profit venture, it would be infinite profit.

Since a constraint is a factor that prevents the system from getting more of what it is aiming for, a business leader who wants more profit must control the constraint.

There really is no choice in this matter. Either you manage restrictions or they manage you. The constraints determine the output of the system whether they are recognized and managed or not.

There can be many constraints in a company, but I found during my engineering career that there is usually a primary constraint.

All limitations must be managed, but focusing most of the attention on the primary will improve everything that is strived for. Perfection is never achieved, but improvement can be achieved.

It’s a constant battle.

Does The Theory of Constraints Apply to Weight Loss? Absolute! If there were no restrictions on weight loss, none of us would be fat.

Dieters can achieve improvement by focusing on their primary limitation like the business manager, even though all limitations must be managed.

It’s a constant battle.

So what is the main weight loss limitation? I think it is universal for all dieters. The cartoon character Pogo, by Walt Kelly, put it best. “We have met the enemy and he is us.”

Yes. The main weight loss limitation is between our ears.

We prefer to sit on the couch and enjoy the pleasures of the moment instead of striving for what we would like to have in the future.

As far as weight loss goes, we might as well hunt unicorns or search for pots of gold at the end of rainbows. We are just as likely to find them as we are to lose weight.

Good information about losing weight is abundant, but to lose weight you have to get proactive. Knowledge is not enough. You need to work on that primary limitation. You need to get off that couch and DO SOMETHING.

Weight Loss and the Theory of Constraints

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