Most weight loss plans are defined completely by those who create them. These are closed read only plans in which universal strategies are selected by the creators and applied to all users. Only a limited number of strategies are provided, and users are discouraged from straying from the suggested advice. For the most part this has been effective in initial weight loss, as most plans are solidly based on proven methods to lose weight-after all the basics of weight loss are relatively simple. But when it comes to maintaining weight loss over the long term the effectiveness of these plans is pretty abysmal.

For most dieters there is a pattern that repeats itself over and over again. Initially weight comes off with relative ease. This period is followed more often than not by the dieter gaining all of the weight back. Why? The supposed road to success on these old plans leads right into a dead end. By imposing universal strategies any progress made is replaced by stagnation, and even those dieters that succeed (at least initially) find themselves stuck with a static plan, in a world that is constantly changing.

Our lives are very dynamic. Change occurs often. We change jobs, we change where we live, and we change who we hang out with, what we do and what we eat. Just think back five years and there is a very good chance all of these things have changed since that time. After a close examination of all existing weight loss and weight management programs the single most important factor often unaccounted for is change.

Unlike other plans we put our users in the driver seat. And we don't just give them a couple strategies and allow them to choose one, we give them lots of strategies, and we give them the ability to develop their own. We are a read/write program- if you really think about it, this is the only way to meet the specific needs of each user, and this is the only way to tackle the enormity of change occurring in their lives. This characteristic allows us to be more flexible than any other system.

If this sounds like a bit of a free for all, we'll admit that there is a little chaos involved, but we've set up a system so users can be assured that their approach will be safe, effective and sustainable. Users are asked to focus on three problems, nutrient adequacy, energy control and enjoyment. With the use of the food log to track their progress, the food group plan to monitor nutritional intake & servings and the strategies system users have an almost unlimited of ways to improve their lifestyle, to explore and exercise the possibilities.

In addition we give our users some direction: in our library we try to outline the major challenges in dieting and offer strategies to overcome them, and we provide tools to help them identify new challenges and keep track of their progress. It's a bit like drivers ed, we'll try to teach users the best and safest ways to drive. And long after we're gone they will continue to use some of the techniques we recommended, but they'll keep their eyes on the road and adjust according to their own preferences and the changing environment around them.


When users reach weight loss goals on static plans they have two choices, to continue following the narrowly defined strategies, or to give up and gain back the weight. In a flexible system strategies can be changed quickly and easily giving users a bridge to another set of strategies & a completely different diet, while maintaining an energy balance. This is especially easy with the thinjoy's food group plan which makes seeing a current diet and planning a new direction extremely easy. So no more periods of success followed by periods of weight gain--even drastic changes in a diet can occur without recidivism (gaining back the weight /weight yo-yoing).


With static plans users identify themselves by the diet they are undertaking. This causes the phenomena of "diet tribes". People on these diets cannot easily share strategies with one another as this will violate their ambitions of "sticking to the plan". So communication is usually limited to what diet they are trying and its general effectiveness. There is no sharing. On thinjoy, users with very different dieting strategies can easily share ideas and discuss what works and what does not. And this works not just with other thinjoy users, but with anyone inside or outside the community.

We all come across friends who have been wildly successful incorporating one strategy or another into their lifestyle and losing weight. The idea of a closed, static diet plan preventing a user from adopting a friend's successful strategy, at will, immediately or otherwise, is completely absurd. In an open flexible system like thinjoy, the emphasis is on effectiveness, not on differences. This characteristic encourages users to share information and allows them to enjoy the benefits.

Giving users the ability to share increases the growth rate of our strategies library and gives users more options to choose from. As users read and choose strategies, they also will create their own derivative strategies, reactionary strategies, or add new strategies catalyzed by ideas contained in the strategies of others. Users can easily send any strategy they come across to friends, and users can search the library and strategies to find ideas created by the entire thinjoy community. This in turn creates a wide variety of information, and an even wider breadth of choices and directions our user can choose in their diet and lifestyle.

The needs of a flexible system and a static plan are entirely different. In a flexible system access to a large diverse range of strategies and reference material is crucial. In a static one, information just gets in the way. A complete lack of good information robs people of the confidence to make decisions on their own. Inversely a variety of good information gives people the confidence to take better control of their food choices and the behavior that impacts them. A variety of ideas and reference materials give users a better chance of finding something that works and fits their unique lifestyle situation.

Variety is essential for the experimentation which can change today's challenges into tomorrow's successes. In existing weight loss plans there is no room for experimentation. We take the opposite approach and try to encourage it, because we think trial and error is an important method to better practices and a better understanding. Sometimes, trying something new will result in better nutrition, an easier lifestyle, or general enjoyment. Other times-well, experience is what you acquire when you don't get what you wanted. What's nice about having trial and error built right into the system is it redefines failure. It allows people to quit (quitting a strategy is much better than giving up on trying to lose weight), in fact it is mildly encouraged, if something doesn't feel right it might make sense to scrap it and try something else, worst case scenario you can come back to it later.

The goal of constant improvement is different from the goal of being good. In old systems users with the strongest will power would always meet their goals. But as their environment, their friends or their preferences change, the static plan that they learn to master quickly loses its appeal, it becomes an obstruction to happiness. The same person on thinjoy would find themselves in a very different situation. Strategies that lost their appeal or utility could be easily shed and users could begin the search for the next best thing, transition would be smooth with no risk of regaining the weight they had lost on those strategies. The users would be engaged, for there is a pleasure in improving your abilities not just in reaching a goal, but in the process of finding optimality. And more than any other weight loss system the path you choose is your own; your own food group plan, your own strategies, and your own successes. So if you are ready to get to going, to lose some weight, sign up and get started!

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