JWH Author's Voice: Interview with Matsuriko Natsume

Matsuriko Natsume is a leading advocate of 'anti-dieting' to lose weight. She was once obsessed with losing weight to look beautiful, trying all sorts of the fad diets for 18 years, but in vain. What she learned from those experiences was that none of them really works! Her two books "The Best Diet is No Diet" and "I Lost Weight After I Stopped Dieting," in which she shows clearly why none of the dieting methods works, drew a tremendous amount of attention from readers. She was recently interviewed by Fitness Japan (www.fitnessjp.com/),providing information on health and fitness in English on the web site.

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1) In your opinion and experience, what is the correct way to diet, and what are the most popular mistakes people make?

The right way to diet is to acknowledge your appetite.
If you satisfy your own desire in a correct way, your metabolism will work actively, and then your body proportions will gradually change.
The common mistakes are to believe that weight gain is caused by eating and to regard your appetite as the enemy.
But your appetite is an excellent indicator that informs you what and how much nutrition your body needs.
After I stopped following all those stressful diet methods and started eating what my body needs, I succeeded in losing weight!

2) There are many diet fads and products introduced on TV in Japan. Why do you think they are so popular and how can they help or hurt healthy dieting?

It must be a result of the media's manipulation.
They project so many images of skinny women, which make us believe "I have to be slender to be worthwhile," and they just cannot be bothered to publicize that our body has a natural function to become slender. Then we are made to believe that we ought to depend on diet products or other slimming solutions.

3) There seems to be more pressure for women to lose weight or stay thin. Why is that so, and is that pressure increasing or decreasing?

I can think of two reasons.
One is the gender issue.
Women play a role of being watched in our society, and they also have a tendency to underestimate themselves.
The other reason is that the metabolism differs between men and women.
Because the female body has the function of menstruation and pregnancy, it is not easy to lose weight by reducing her diet.
For Japanese women, pressure to lose weight seems to have been increasing since about 1980.

4) Do you know the popular book: "Don't Think You Are Obese Forever" by Toshio Okada? It says the best way for men to lose weight is to record what they eat to become more aware. What do you think of this idea?

It is true that men, who do not have the fuctions of menstruation and pregnancy, can easily lose weight by reducing their diet compared to women.
So, especially for obese men who became fat by extreme overeating, like Mr. Okada, eating less may be effective.
But he could also have faced rebound weight gain, because he repressed his appetite after a few phases of his weight loss.
Why did he not experience it, do you think?
In fact, Mr. Okada read my book "I Lost Weight After I Stopped Dieting."
He commented in his blog: "I read this book. It works fine. I think many people can lose weight by this method."
After he reached a normal weight, he follwed my method, and he was able to successfully prevent rebound weight gain.
This is written in Chapters 7 and 8 of "Don't Think You Are Obese Forever."

5) What are two or three most important things people should consider to have a healthy approach to dieting?

In the U.S.A., are there more slender people than before as a result of following weight-loss methods?
The answer is No! In fact, as a result, there is more obesity and there are more eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia.
Excessive diet restriction disables your metabolism so it can't work normally. If it does not function properly, your body will get fat more easily.
On the contrary, recognizing your appetite and satisfying it by eating what your body claims to need, your body will feel satisfied. Then your physical mechanism will work well and naturally cut excessive fat and energy.

My book "I Lost Weight After I Stopped Dieting" is one of the best methods to use for those who depend on weight-loss methods or who suffer from an eating disorder.
Many people have successfully changed their way of thinking about food and their body. Mr. Okada is a good example.


Interview: Oscar Johnson,
December 2007