Dr Phil McGraw

I’ve learned a tremendous amount from Oprah.

Nothing’s funnier to me than laughing at myself.

I do not believe, even remotely, that you have to have a partner in your life in order to be whole, in order to be complete, in order to be fulfilled. You just don’t have to.

I love life, but not everything in it. I love people, but not all of them. I love myself, but not everything about me.

You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.

There are some sick people in this world.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Successful weight loss takes programming, not willpower.

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.

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.

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

A year from now, you’re gonna weigh more or less than what you do right now.

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

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

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