As I teach Six Sigma in my classes, I try to create projects for myself, and often it’s the same project over and over. This time, my project was to use Six Sigma to reduce my extra weight.
In 1986 one of my clients distributed a “heart for life” goodie bag on Christmas. In the bag was a measuring tape to measure one’s waist, and that evening I measured mine. Guess what I found? My waist was four inches larger than the size of the pants I was wearing. Prior to that evening, I could feel I had gained weight, but somehow I was able to stuff my tummy into my pants.
While browsing the Internet one night some months ago, I came across the Mayo Clinic’s Web site, which has a body mass calculator and some guidelines about reducing weight. According to the Mayo site, “Body mass index (BMI) is a formula that uses your weight and height to estimate your body fat and health risks. If your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, you’re considered in a healthy weight range for your height. If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9, you’re considered overweight. And if your BMI is 30 or higher, you’re considered obese.”
My BMI was on the borderline of overweight and obesity. My friends never saw me as obese, but I had been experiencing the adverse effects of being overweight—needing longer belts, difficulty climbing stairs, cracking knees, and hypertension.
Most of us know how to lose weight. We go on special diets, do extreme workouts, spend time in saunas, hire a personal trainer, or starve at home. Still, the weight always comes back and often even more than before. One of my friends told me that we tend to gain a pound or two every year. If he was right, by the age of 80 I would be truly obese and have a hard time walking. I might not even survive that long. That’s why I thought of creating a Six Sigma project to resolve my weight problem for good.
With Six Sigma, we have to create and sustain the solution to a problem. Remembering Steven Covey’s dictum, “Begin with the end in mind,” I envisioned the control phase—sustaining a healthy weight—before I defined the project.
Planning the control phase first
If we are really serious about improvement, be it process or self, we must perpetuate the change. I noticed that my friends who have gone through cardiac bypass surgery now look different, feel different, and live very differently, especially when it comes to eating. I decided to take a proactive approach, and I made the decision to live like a cardiac bypass patient without surgery. This decision changed my habits of frequently dining out and uncontrolled eating late at night, as well as my consumption of Indian pickles, fried food, and alcohol. The reason for this decision was the clear understanding of the Six Sigma principle Y = f(x), i.e.,
Weight gain = Calories added (i.e., Calories in – Calories burned)
With better understanding of the control phase, I was ready to take a look at the define phase. I had successfully reduced my weight many times, and could not sustain it for even a short time. I had to change my project definition and my approach. The first change in the definition phase became clear using my 4-P model to sustain excellence. I had to set a clear target to achieve results.
I went back to the Mayo Clinics’ Web site to find my target weight—what I weighed 25 years ago. That number seemed impossible to achieve. When I shared it with my family and friends, they said, “Your customers may not like a skinny consultant. You would not even look like a professional.” I wasn’t worrying about what I looked like. Instead, I was concerned about how I would live. I remembered the precontrol method to adjust the process half-way between the extremes, so I decided first to achieve my normal weight instead of my ideal weight. That would put me right into the normal BMI range, though still far from my ideal weight. After establishing a clear and aggressive target, I was ready for the project.
The recommended guidelines for weight and calories are moving averages. As the national average moves higher, the recommended guidelines moved higher. So, it was critical to identify the ideal BMI first, and then make a conscious decision to establish an aggressive target that would enable me to maintain a healthy weight regardless of normal daily variations. To remind me of my commitment, I made my cell phone display the message “Eat less and well” every time I looked at the phone.
Then it was time to balance the calories in and out. The objective wasn’t to starve myself of anything, but to reduce portion sizes and overall caloric intake, and to burn the fat at the same time. I walked a lot, up to 15 miles a day, did cardio exercises at the gym, or played with kids—anybody’s kids—whenever I got a chance. I burned as many as 1,200 calories in a workout and reduced my caloric intake. Within five months, I had achieved a 50-percent reduction in my excess weight. This routine has now lasted for about six months.
The benefits of this weight loss have been tremendous. Before undertaking this project, I always went up stairs gasping, couldn’t walk the stairs at airports, was always looking for something to eat, and had all kinds of pains—in my chest, joints, and stomach. Now I can run the airport stairs, never gasp going upstairs anymore, have no pain, my joints are as good as ever. Aging continues, but at its normal, rather than an accelerated pace. The beautiful thing is that sustaining my healthier weight isn’t painful at all.
I’m eating everything I want, just a little less of it. I had read somewhere that we must eat one-third of our stomach space, drink fluids for another third, and leave the third for air to mix the two. Now I never fill my stomach with food. When I eat I’m thoughtful.
As for the other phases of DMAIC in this weight-loss project, the MAI phases were implemented concurrently or intertwined. The measuring phase assessed weight daily, the analyzing phase is continuous, and the improvement phase is the regimen of eating less and exercising frequently. Anyone trying to apply Six Sigma in a personal way like this must know one’s own environment, constraints, and pain points to maximize improvement.
To summarize, when applying Six Sigma to weight loss and health improvement, follow these steps:
Author’s note: This article is solely about sharing my experience of applying Six Sigma thinking to a personal situation. Take all necessary precautions when applying Six Sigma using aggressive goal setting for self-improvement.
Praveen Gupta is the founding president of Accelper Consulting (www.accelper.com), has worked at Motorola and AT&T Bell Laboratories, and consulted with nearly 100 small- to large-size companies including CNA, Abbott Labs, Superior Essex, Dentsply, Hexel, Experian, Sloan Valves, Weber Markings, Wayne State (Ford), and Telular. Gupta taught Operations Management at DePaul University, and Business Innovation at Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. He has conducted seminars worldwide for over 20 years.
He is the author of several books including Business Innovation in the 21st Century, Stat Free Six Sigma, Six Sigma Performance Handbook, and Service Scorecard.
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