"These people, whom I refer to as chronic dieters, see themselves as failures," said Judith Beck, clinical associate professor of psychology in psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research in Bala Cynwyd, Pa. "But the truth is it isn't their fault. They just didn't know how to diet."

In her first book, "The Beck Diet Solution: Train Your Brain to Think Like a Thin Person" (Oxmoor House, 2007), Beck applied the principles of cognitive therapy, a form of psychotherapy developed by her father, Aaron Beck, to create a six-week program that offers yo-yo dieters the tools to stay motivated and lose weight, no matter what diet they decide to pursue.

In December she released "The Complete Beck Diet for Life: The Five-Stage Program for Permanent Weight Loss" (Oxmoor House, 2008), focusing on think-thin formulas and comprehensive food lists. She came to the Bay Area last month and sat down to share some of her research.

Q: Can you briefly explain cognitive therapy?

A: Cognitive therapy, which is sometimes called cognitive behavior therapy, is a short-term talk therapy that has been demonstrated in hundreds of research trials to be effective for a whole range of psychiatric disorders - depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The idea behind it is that the way we perceive situations influences the way we think, feel and behave.

Q: What compelled you to apply cognitive therapy to dieting and weight loss?

A: When I started doing therapy, I discovered that many of the techniques I was using to help patients with their other problems also helped them lose weight. One very important factor is that dieting can be very hard unless you learn the skills. You wouldn't expect to sit down for the first time in front of a piano and be able to play a beautiful piece of music. You have to have lessons and you have to practice. All chronic dieters hear from the media or read in other diet books is that dieting is easy, that diets can be mastered quickly. These people always have an explanation or a reason for why they haven't been able to lose weight, and it is always internal to them. "I failed," they say. "I was weak." But the real reason is they haven't built up the skills.

Q: What are some of the biggest differences between how thin people and chronic dieters think about food and eating?

A: Chronic dieters think hunger is bad, that it is not natural, that they should try to avoid it and that if they start to get hungry, the hunger will get worse and worse until they can't tolerate it. They load up at meals, carry food with them and plot the nearest fast-food chains that they can make a quick run to. People who have never struggled with dieting and are a reasonable weight know that hunger is normal. They know that hunger comes and goes and that, at worst, it is mildly uncomfortable. Most chronic dieters are not aware that they are afraid of hunger until they do the experiment, which is to go for several hours without eating. They are usually amazed to discover that hunger actually passes. It is incredibly freeing for them once they realize that they will never have to fear being hungry again.

Q: How does one begin to recognize the difference between pesky cravings and genuine hunger?

A: Chronic dieters call any desire to eat hunger. Anytime they want to eat, they label that as "I am hungry." But lots of times what they are calling hunger is really thirst, tiredness, distress, cravings or anxiety.

Q: You write that people who struggle with their weight tend to think that thin people can eat whatever they like whenever they please.

A: The truth is that most people over the age of 30 who are thin do watch what they eat. The problem with chronic dieters is they have this profound sense of unfairness. They'll say, "Why should I have to limit my eating if nobody else is?" I talk about the fact that many people do limit their eating, even if you don't know it.

Q: You describe several dieting skills. What are they?

A: The first step is to write down every reason you can think of why you would like to lose weight and read it every morning and every time cravings start to kick in. Every single time you stick to your plan, you need to reward yourself. You have to build up your sense of self-efficacy. A big factor in going off your diet is the sabotaging thought, "I am upset, therefore I deserve to eat." Or "There is no other way I can calm down unless I eat."

I have an exercise called "the no-choice technique," where I ask, "Do you stop at red lights?" And the dieter will answer, "Yes." Then I ask, "Do you always feel like stopping at red lights?" They'll say, "Yes, of course." I then ask, "Do you struggle with yourself? Do you say, 'Well, I really want to go through the red light, it's not fair that I can't go though the red light?' " They answer, "No, I just don't go through." Well, that's because you've put stopping at red lights in your "no-choice category." You may feel like not stopping, but that's not relevant. The painful part about dieting is struggling over it, wrestling with painful desires. I take the struggle out of dieting by helping you retrain your brain.

Q: While most diets ask people to refrain from weighing themselves too often, you require your dieters to weigh themselves every day. Why?

A: It's very important for you to prove to yourself over and over again that the scale does not come down every day even if you have been perfect on your diet. It's biologically impossible to lose weight every day. The only way that you're going to see that is by graphing your weight. It's not enough to be told about it or read about it. Then, for the rest of your life, you can get on the scale and not panic.

Q: Restaurants, parties and holidays can discourage and disrupt dieters. What are some ways to deal with these situations?

A: You need a plan. What I propose is a "challenging situations plan." Oftentimes, it is quite reasonable to have a guideline for yourself that once or twice a week you are going to eat 300 calories more than you normally do. It is unreasonable to expect yourself to eat the same number of calories every day for the rest of your life. It's so much better to eat 300 calories once or twice a week because you are at a party than to limit yourself very strictly but then be very tempted to eat more and possibly abandon your diet altogether. We're really just trying to do the art of the possible.

Chris Cadelago is a freelance writer. E-mail him at datebook@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page E - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle