Weight Loss Success Using Six Sigma [Paperback]

Sterling Thompson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 6, 2006

Lose weight and keep it off. This book uses my weight loss experience based on the Six Sigma philosophy to allow anyone to greatly improve the effectiveness of their own weight loss plan.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sterling Thompson is a Six Sigma Black Belt employed by a major international company. He has successfully completed the company's Six Sigma Black Belt training program. Using this training, he successfully lead multiple Six Sigma project teams that have improved a business process in the company.

Thompson earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering degree from Purdue University. He also earned a Master of Science in Management degree, which is a MBA equivalent, from Purdue University. Thompson is a licensed Professional Engineer.

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My Reason for Writing this Book

In the fall of 2001, I was given a great opportunity by my employer to be trained in the Six Sigma business improvement program. Six Sigma was designed for businesses to improve their effectiveness. While I was sitting in training, I was thinking about what is one of the most difficult things to do. Since they fed us extremely well at training and I felt my clothes getting tighter, I thought of personal weight loss. An entire industry is dedicated to weight loss. It is not only difficult to lose weight, but it is even more difficult to keep the weight off once a person loses it.

Six Sigma is designed not only to help a person make improvements but also to sustain what one has done. Six Sigma programs call it "Sustain the Gain." It is probably more appropriate to call it "Sustain the Loss" for this book's purpose.

Six Sigma training is done in four weeks where a person trains for one week a month for four months. My training was in September, October, November, and December.

My significant weight gain was the result of the fantastic meals during training. The first week alone I gained 5 pounds. Knowing this, I cut back on desserts and snacks the next 3 weeks of training, and I only added an additional 5 pounds. So training increased not only my knowledge but also my waistline by 10 pounds.

I had another thing going against me; the last week of training was between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This time of the year is always a good time to add even more weight.

On January 2, the reality of my extra weight became obvious. I put on my clothes for work. I was wearing a thick flannel shirt. The shirt was no problem getting on, but I barely got my pants zipped. That was the time I decided that I must do something about my weight. I'm too cheap to buy bigger sized clothes, so the weight had to go.

I needed a tangible reward for my effort besides looking and feeling better in my clothes, however. Then I remembered that I had received a $100 in Christmas money that I had not yet spent, and I knew the coming summer, my family was going to a place where a round of golf is $100. Therefore, I made a deal with myself. If I lose 20 pounds by the beginning of June, I would play a round of golf using that $100. If I did not lose it, I would not get to play golf.

With thoughts of summer, I had my goal. I just needed a way to reach this goal. This was the time where I thought back to my experiences while training on Six Sigma. This program would be perfect to use to reach my goal. I would use the Six Sigma philosophy to lose weight and keep it off.

Although the original intent of Six Sigma is not a diet plan, it is a method to help with whatever diet plan one is following. It can also help sustain the accomplishment of the weight already lost. By sustaining the weight loss, the cycle of losing weight will not have to be endured again.

I am writing this book to share my experience so that others may be able to use my experience to help reach their weight loss goals. If Six Sigma is utilized in one's personal life, he/she can say, "I not only know about Six Sigma, but I am also living it."

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing (July 6, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1553954378
• ISBN-13: 978-1553954378
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.7 x 0.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,384,607 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor book, February 12, 2007

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Arturo (Fresno, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Weight Loss Success Using Six Sigma (Paperback)

Do not buy this book. It is a waste of money because it did not go deep into the weight loss and did not use the six sigma tools such as a fishbone diagram, pareto analysis and PFMEA. This book did not open my eyes to applying six sigma to weight loss. The only tool the Author used was a Control Chart.