Ready, then set to lose weight

Weight loss requires an overhaul of diet, exercise, essentially your entire life. But putting off these changes is a national pastime. Eating right and exercising is better done next week because today -- just isn't the right time.

To lose weight, say experts in nutrition and weight loss, you have to be ready to make changes, even small ones. Nutrition researchers even came up with a Weight Loss Readiness Test, a questionnaire sometimes used by health professionals and individuals to determine levels of motivation and commitment and to examine connections with food and exercise.

But what does being ready mean, and how do you know when you're there? These specialists discuss that readiness factor.

* Martin Binks, director of behavioral health and research at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, N.C., and co-author of "The Duke Diet":

"I would rephrase that as, 'What would I be willing to change? Among all these things, where do I start?' The diet mentality is that you suddenly go from 100 to zero tomorrow -- the on/off mentality."

Identifying what people's barriers are to losing weight, he says, is key: "For one person it might be work commitments, for another, having emotional upheavals. But what could you start to change now?"

* Dr. Jorge Vazquez, director of medical nutrition at the Allegheny Center for Digestive Health in Pittsburgh:

"I'm a specialist, so when someone makes an appointment to see me, they're ready. But then I see other people who are told by their physician to see me. When I ask why they're here, they say, 'I don't know, my doctor sent me,' and I know they're not ready."

There should be deeper motivations than looking good for a reunion or a wedding, Vazquez says. "Better ones are that you want to feel better, be healthier, not take insulin anymore."

* Kathleen Zelman, Atlanta-based registered dietitian, director of nutrition for WebMD:

The precise moment of readiness is different for everyone.

"For people who have been successful at losing weight, something happens in their life that triggers an 'aha' moment. It could be having the doctor tell them that if they don't lose weight, they're going to die. I don't know if you say, 'I'm ready,' but you feel like you can't go on like this."