Dr Phil McGraw

When you get married, your loyalty, first and foremost, is to your spouse, and to the family that you create together.

I tell you, if you’re in the front row of the parade and you stop walking, pretty soon you’re back in the tuba section. And if you want to lead the parade you’ve got to keep moving.

When you have the right script for your life, you will always be the star of the show.

If you want more, you have to require more from yourself.

No dog ever peed on a moving car.

If emotional pain or problems have cropped up in your life, you must insist on getting closure. Closure means you don’t carry the problem or the pain. You address the issue, then you slam shut the book and put it away.

Get up each morning, look at yourself in the mirror, and see yourself not as someone who is overweight or out of shape, but as the someone you will become.

I don’t care how pumped up or psyched you are to start a new diet or a new program – that emotion will fade.

First, you’re going to have to stop using food for anything other than nutrition. You cannot continue to use food to celebrate, or as a companion, or for entertainment, or comfort. You cannot medicate yourself, your mood, or pain with food.

The time is coming when man will be able to determine the length of his lifespan by controlling his diet.

Experts indicate that you should aim for consistent weight loss of about one to two pounds per week, so you should remain realistic—you aren’t going to lose 40 pounds per week (no matter what any diet product claims).

Now ask yourself if you’re really going to spend the rest of your life on one of those ridiculous diets. The honest answer is, no, you won’t. So, that means you might lose weight while you’re on it, but you’ll probably gain it back when you’re off it because you haven’t made any real lifestyle changes.

Now, my body fat runs around 18 percent, which is normal and, you know, kind of in the middle of normal, actually.

Reality check: you can never, ever, use weight loss to solve problems that are not related to your weight. At your goal weight or not, you still have to live with yourself and deal with your problems. You will still have the same husband, the same job, the same kids, and the same life. Losing weight is not a cure for life.

I’ve talked to so many people, men and women alike, that get overweight and their self-esteem just goes in the tank. They think they’re judged. They think they’re unattractive.

Food is a coping mechanism; people are afraid of giving it up because then they’ll feel confused and lost.

You’re FAT – and don’t try to sugarcoat it, because you’ll just eat that, too.

What I want people to do is what’s healthy for them.

Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower.

Obesity has overtaken cancer as the No. 1 cause of avoidable, preventable death in American society. It’s an epidemic-level problem.