I wrote a bit about NYT restaurant critic Frank Bruni’s struggle with overweight and bulimia a few weeks ago.  The Times just posted a Q & A with him that’s also worth a read.

Here’s a couple of points I thought were especially relevant:

Before becoming the restaurant critic, you had already lost a significant amount of weight. How did you do it?

A. I stopped turning to fad diets. I stopped trying to yoke myself to such extreme calorie deprivation regimens that it was bound to fail. Instead I just tried to cut my intake significantly but not in an untenable way, while way way upping the exercise. It was serious sustained exercised married with an absence of binges. It wasn’t 1,200 calories a day. That had always failed me. It wasn’t even 1,500 a day. It was probably like 2,400 a day but with very serious exercise every day.

How did moving to a country known for its great food help you stay slim?

A. Right before I moved to Italy I had lost anywhere from 50 to 70 pounds. One of the great bits of fortune I had was to move to Italy right after I lost the weight and right as I was confronting the question and challenge of could I keep it off. One of the things I saw around Italy was an affirmation of everything I was told about portion control. We think of Italy and France as food paradises that must be dangerous to the overeater. But quality is emphasized so much more than quantity. I never saw all-you-can-eat buffet signs, value meals, the economy pack, the big gulp. That peculiarly American notion that to have a great meal you have to have an enormous meal — that doesn’t exist in a lot of Western Europe.
Yup.  NOT starvation.  No fad diets… exercise and portion control.
His pics tell the story.  Check out the whole thing.
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