Women Look to New CD for Weight-Loss Inspiration

Feb. 21, 2008— -- "Skinny jeans, skinny jeans, you're still hanging 'round

In the back of my closet and that's bringin' me down

this morning, I woke up, and made me a vow

skinny jeans, gonna get back, into you somehow."

It's a song that may never top the pop charts. And you probably won't find it at your local karaoke bar, either.

But some women say the track — just one of 10 offerings on a new CD titled "Skinny Songs" — has helped them stay on track to achieve their weight-loss goals.

Diet experts remain split on whether the songs would actually be helpful to women who hope to lose weight. And Heidi Roizen, the innovator of "Skinny Songs," says that the CD is non-scientific and is not based on any diet or psychological research that can attest to its efficacy.

But Roizen says she believes the concept will resonate among the millions of women who wish that they were perhaps just a few pounds lighter — or hope to one day squeeze back into their skinny jeans.

"What I was trying to do was sell the idea I had for music that was as good as what is on the radio but with the messages I needed," she says.

Roizen says the lyrics — which run the gamut from saying no to pie to indulging in a post-weight-loss shopping spree at Saks — are designed to help motivate women as they adopt healthier eating and exercise patterns. The project was completed in six months, and the CD has been available since December from online retailers such as Amazon.com and iTunes.

Roizen penned the lyrics herself. But to produce the songs, she sought the help of industry veterans including David Malloy, a songwriter who has produced albums for Reba McEntyre and other artists.

"When we started the project and we talked about what kind of genres we'd be interested in, they said, 'Tell us what kind of music you listen to,'" Roizen says.

The result was a compilation of music from various genres, modeled after the style of such artists as Carrie Underwood, Pink and Rascal Flatts. Tune out the lyrics, and the songs sound surprisingly similar to what you might hear on a typical radio station.

The songs have even begun to garner radio play; Roizen says three stations so far have started playing some of the more popular tracks from the CD.

Does It Work?

But do the songs help keep women on track to achieve their weight-loss goals?

Stephanie Ericson believes they do. The 51-year-old sales executive from Mill Valley, Calif., says she received the CD as a gift and has been listening to it daily for about a month and a half. And she says she believes the songs have already helped motivate her to lose a few pounds.

"My stomach is looking less 'poochy,'" she says. Ericson adds that she believes the songs are "like you're programming your brain" in their encouragement of healthy behaviors.

"It just reminded me of my skinny jeans in the closet that I want to get into, and that I'm the boss of what I eat," she says. "This is me being good to myself."

Madelyn Fernstrom, founder and director of the Weight Management Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says she believes the songs send a positive message to women.

"This is such a good idea," she says. "It's a good message — it lightens up the whole field … I'd say it's worth a try."

Dr. George Blackburn, associate director of the Division of Nutrition at Harvard Medical School, says the lyrics of the music fall short of the persuasive messages seen in neurolinguistic programming tapes or other behavior-modification tools. Still, he notes, the CD may be helpful to some.

"Music certainly plays a role in setting the tone for how you feel and learn," he says. "These songs, with their upbeat, positive tone, may serve as a beneficial tool to help lift the spirit during the often difficult road of weight loss and maintenance. The songs carry common themes that most women looking to lose weight would easily relate to and connect with."

But not all diet experts agree that the CD would be a particularly effective weight-loss tool.

"[The songs] are kind of fun. They might help, and it couldn't hurt," says nutritionist Keith Ayoob, associate professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. "But I have reservations. The motivation seems slanted towards the cosmetics of weight reduction more than the health aspects."

That's a common criticism, Roizen says. But she stands by the approach, adding that a trimmer figure is the main motivation of most women who look to adopt healthier eating and exercise habits.

"Who's going to listen to music with lyrics like, 'Wouldn't it be great if my cholesterol was lower'?" she says. "I had to think about what was personally motivating to me."

Dietitian Joanne Ikeda, nutritionist emeritus at the University of California's Nutritional Sciences Department in Berkeley, is far more critical of the concept.

"I don't think a music CD is going to make any impact whatsoever on a woman's success or failure to lose weight," she says. "However, I think it is going to be one more thing that supports women's lifelong body dissatisfaction and struggle to achieve a more perfect body.

"Do women in this country need one more voice telling us that we should be unhappy with our bodies and do whatever we can to make them thinner? No, we don't."

The Band Plays On

Other criticisms of the approach center around the novelty of the songs. Ayoob says that he is concerned that listeners could grow tired of the tracks and eventually need to look somewhere else for motivation.

"The focus is on being skinny," he says. "That's putting a huge burden on these songs, so I'd advise the listener to keep it in perspective."

But Roizen says the positive feedback she has received from the CD far outweigh the more negative reviews. She says that so far she has received accolades from a gastric bypass support group, as well as her local chapter of the American Heart Association.

"We're not trying to get people to be skinny or reach any particular weight," Roizen says. "The message is that if you are unhappy with how you are, you can take charge of your life and reach the goal where you want to be."