Narrator: To lose weight, treat the whole person. This is Science Today. Nutritionist Laurel Mellin of the University of California, San Francisco runs a weight-loss program called the Solution that, unlike most programs, apparently keeps working long after it's over. Mellin says her program teaches behaviors that, ideally, are learned in childhood -- nurturing and setting limits.

Mellin: If you don't know how to nurture yourself, of course you'll go for the third candy bar. If you don't know how to set limits and follow through effectively, why on earth would you be able to set an exercise goal, for example, and actually follow through with it?

Narrator: Mellin says that once those basic attitudes are changed, weight loss follows -- because now there's an internal motivation to lose weight and keep it off.

Mellin: What comes from that is once we know how to nurture ourselves, we begin to have more body pride. So there's the motivation to get up off the couch and push back from the table. It's almost natural to follow through with a reasonable way of eating and a healthful way of exercising in our lives.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Steve Tokar.