Anytime you read any newspaper column, you receive the writer's opinion. Though this column focuses on health and fitness rather than worldwide news, national politics, or hot-button topics like global warming, abortion, or the death penalty, it really is no different.

I will, however, sometimes withhold a controversial opinion until at least one published study corroborates it. If I don't wait, then I will clearly state that I'm self-taught, not in any way a member of the medical community, and stress that my opinion is just that - one person's opinion.And that I could very well be wrong.That's why I read "The Weight Loss Trap" by Alexandra Sifferlin in the June 5, 2017 issue of Time with such satisfaction. The article strongly supports something I first said more than 30 years ago, something that I've since refined and written about in countless columns.For dieting to be successful, it needs to be an individualized endeavor.Way back when, I called my belief the Snowflake Theory of Dieting. The idea came to me when I was questioned in a Masters Equivalency class I was teaching as to why a specific diet worked for the questioner's friend but not for the questioner.Maybe because I had been taught in elementary school that, like fingerprints, the patterns of no two snowflakes were exactly alike, I referenced that to make my point. Didn't it stand to reason I argued, that if no two snowflakes are the same, the same would be true for human digestive systems?I asked the class to look around the room at all the different body shapes in a gathering of about two dozen adults. Then I gambled, asked the class to focus on two females who shared remarkably similar and attractive body shapes, and questioned them about their eating habits.The first claimed that from the time she was a little girl she could eat whatever and not gain weight. The second said looking the way she did now only occurred if she restricted her diet and worked out religiously.Then I told the class to consider that muscle biopsies show dramatic differences in the percentage of fast-twitch, slow-twitch, and hybrid-type muscle fibers in people with different body types. And also to recognize that the secretion of hormones that affect the expenditure of energy and the storage of fat varies to some degree from person to person.Because of all this, I offered, it would be foolish to feel that a single diet would best serve all people - which is, in essence, the conclusion of the Time magazine article.For instance, Sifferlin asserts that "the overly simplistic arithmetic of calories in vs. calories out has given way to the more nuanced understanding that it's the composition of a person's diet -- rather than how much of it they can burn off working out -- that sustains weight loss." She then quotes Frank Sacks, a leading weight-loss researcher and professor of cardiovascular disease prevention at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who explains, "Some people on a diet program lose 60 pounds and keep it off for two years, and other people follow the same program religiously, and they gain five pounds. If we can figure out why, the potential to help people will be huge."While I don't doubt Sacks' words, I take exception to his use of "we." In this context, "we" implies researchers in the medical community.While I want them to keep experimenting and gathering information, what "will be huge" for you is if you do, too.It's you, the individual seeking a way to control your body weight in order to assure health and fitness, who must experiment and experiment and experiment to learn what diets will or won't work for you.But you can be directed and greatly benefit by what's already been established.That's probably why Sifferlin cites the National Weight Control Registry in her article. The NWCR contains information on more than 10,000 people who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year.While there are some commonalities - 98 percent of the registrants say they modified their diet in some way; 94 percent increased their physical activity, most often by walking; just about all eat breakfast, weigh themselves with some regularity, and don't watch much television (less than 10 hours a week) - a structured weight-loss program was used just slightly more than half the time.Nearly half of a group who have lost an average of 66 pounds and kept it off more than five years have done what I urge you to do: experiment to create a diet of your own. It truly is the best way to reach and maintain a healthy body weight.It's also a rather good way to approach other health and fitness problems. Read next week's column for a story or two about doing so.