Dr. Phil's 'Weight Solution'

(CBS)  The second season of television's "Dr. Phil" show is under way, and Dr. Phil McGraw is hitting the ground running.

With his new book, "The Ultimate Weight Solution: The 7 Keys to Weight Loss Freedom," he tackles the battle of the bulge.

McGraw explains his strategy for a healthier life to co-anchor Rene Syler on his Wednesday visit to The Early Show.

He says, "The truth is, if you're going to get weight off and keep it off, you have to change your lifestyle. You have to change the way you think, the way you feel, the way you interact with food. You've got to change your behaviors. You've got to change so many things, including your social system, your environment, all of these things have to be changed or it just simply doesn't work. I know that's not what people want to hear."

The psychologist calls his new book a wake-up call for the diet industry. McGraw suggested an action-oriented plan that gives readers the keys to take control of their weight and achieve immediate results that will last a lifetime.

He says, "We all know what foods to eat pretty much. How many times have we seen all of these different approaches? High protein, low carb, no sugar, lots of fat - all of these different designs. But you need balance. And I deal with what I call, Low Response Cost Foods: those are things you gulp and gain. A bean and sour cream burrito - eat it down without chewing or swallowing and you get so many calories and so many bad nutrients. High Response Cost Foods are those you have to work to prepare and you have to work to eat. Raw broccoli is a good example. That's a pretty coarse food. You have to expend some energy to eat that."

His nutrition plan emphasizes foods with high nutritional yields for few calories. It also has food suggestions that cannot be eaten quickly (generally because they're high in fiber). So, McGraw explains, people are less likely to overeat.

He notes, "When I sat down to write this book, you have a decision to make. You know that what everybody wants is a quick fix diet. They say give me the new diet, the flavor of the month. And this is I'm going to eat this and it will fix my problems. But the truth is that 95 percent of the people that lose weight on that kind of a program gain it back, plus some, within a very short period of time."

For his show, he picked people who have been battling weight problems for many years. McGraw explains, "We took the hardest people we could find. I said I wanted to provide a leadership role here and I've got a great platform from which to do it. So my plan was: Let's get a group of people that are just like everybody else out there. They've tried everything. They've been on every program, every diet. We got people that ranged from a little bit overweight - 20, 30 pounds - to 200 to 300 pounds overweight."

The program follows them all season long in what McGraw calls The Ultimate Weight Loss Challenge. He says, "This is a time that we're going to put them in front of the people and let America watch what they do and how they do it."

Accountability is a very important part of the process, McGraw says, along with setting realistic goals.

He notes some women, for example, would like to weigh the same as they did when they were in high school. But he notes, "You've had three children since then and post menopausal, you are never going to weigh 102 again, I promise you. So let's pick something that's right for your age, your metabolism, something you can be comfortable with physically and psychologically. Let's let that be what we're after and then set up your world accountability-wise where you can't just blow this off. It's not easy, but it's doable."

Read an excerpt from Chapter One. Click here.

The doctor is also a New York Times best-selling author. His "Doing What Works, Doing What Matters," was his first book to be ranked No.1 on the bestseller list. It was followed by another No. 1 New York Times bestseller, "Relationship Rescue: A Seven-Step Strategy for Reconnecting with Your Partner." His third book, "Self Matters: Creating Your Life from the Inside-Out," also a No. 1 New York Times bestseller, challenges readers to find their "authentic selves."

His books have been published in 27 languages with over 5 million copies in print.