Weight management applies to almost everyone, whether you’re trying to lose weight or maintain current weight. No matter your age, gender, lifestyle or fitness level, nutritional diet and active lifestyle are essential to weight management. By providing you with resources and the most up-to-date health news, we can be your personal fitness coach, diet consultant and medical expert, guiding you on your journey to improved health.
Benefits of Weight Loss
The benefits of weight loss are profound. Losing weight can improve your health. Just losing 10% of your current weight can make a difference in the way you feel every day. Here are some other ways losing weight can benefit your health:
• Increased energy level
• Reduce your blood pressure
• Improved mobility
• Prevention of Type 2 diabetes
Quick Tips #9: Tiny Tips that Make a Big Difference!
Our "Quick Tips" series brings you quick and easy changes that you can starting using today to manage your weight.
1. Don't Stop Now
Met your goal weight? Congratulations. Now, don't stop moving! Exercising will not only help you maintain your new weight, it will also help you stay healthy; regular physical activity can significantly reduce your risk of developing serious health issues such as diabetes and heart problems.
2. Step Away from the TV
Think TV-time doesn't affect your waistline? One recent study showed for every hour of television you view, you will walk almost 150 fewer steps a day than someone who isn't glued to the tube. Aim for taking 10,000 steps each day -- once you've logged them, take a deserved TV time-out.
3. A Fruit and Fiber Fix
Research has shown that individuals who eat more fiber naturally have less body fat. Mixing fruit into your morning cereal, eating it for dessert, and as an afternoon snack can go a long way in improving your fiber intake.
4. Decrease Your Chances
Being overweight greatly increases your risk of developing diabetes. A study published in a 2006 issue of the journal Diabetes Care showed that lifestyle change is the most important factor in reducing diabetes risk: Participants' risk dropped significantly for every 2.2 pounds of weight lost.
5. Move Your Scale
If your scale is sitting on carpet, move it -- it may significantly misread your weight. Depending on the sensitivity of the scale and the carpet's fiber and depth, your weight may be over-reported by up to 10 percent!
6. Perk Up at Work
Got the afternoon office slump? Stay away from the vending machine! Getting as few as five minutes of exercise (a walk around the parking lot or a trek up the staircase) can provide a mood and energy boost without the crash you would get later if you opted for a candy bar.
7. Drink Up, Slim Down
Did you know that dehydration may actually slow down your metabolism? That means drinking a few more glasses of water each day could lead to more calories burned without any additional effort! (Beware of soda; even diet varieties actually contribute to dehydration.)
8. Quell that Craving
Next time you've got an unbearable craving for something sweet, try eating something not-so-sweet and high-flavor, such as a pickle or slices of green pepper. Some believe these foods can "re-set" your craving for sweets.
9. Fight Hunger with Fat Eating good fat throughout the day can help keep your appetite in check. Try nuts, seeds, and olives as snacks to help you feel fuller than processed carbohydrates would.
10. Beef Up Your Diet! Tired of chicken? A healthful eating plan can include beef. Just pay attention to the cuts and portion sizes.
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Exercise and Weight Management
Regular exercise is an important part of effective weight loss and weight management. Exercise burns excess calories that otherwise would be stored as fat. The key to successful weight loss and improved health is making physical activity a part of your daily routine. Research shows that regular exercise, combined with healthy eating, is the most efficient, healthful way to control weight. That’s because you balance the number of calories consumed eating with the number of calories expended through exercise.
Exercise = Weight Loss, Except When It Doesn’t
People who exercise regularly give many reasons for why they do what they do regardless of life’s demands. They say exercise can improve their health, mood, strength and stamina.
But for many, whether they say so or not, a desire to lose or control weight is a major motivation. Deciding if exercise is an effective method, though, can be a challenge.
On one hand, you may have heard that exercise is not very useful for knocking off extra pounds, though it helps to maintain weight. Or you may have heard that only weight-bearing exercise — like jogging or brisk walking — can help you lose those unwanted pounds, while activities like swimming and cycling are not helpful as far as weight goes.
At other times you may have wondered why, after you took up activities that were supposed to burn 500 calories a day, you failed to lose that pound a week.
What is the truth about exercise and weight, and how can you accurately calculate the caloric value of various activities?
In the August/September issue of ACE Certified News (published by the American Council on Exercise), Ralph La Forge, managing director of the Duke Lipid and Disease Management Preceptorship Program at Duke University Medical Center, compiled a detailed analysis of the various factors that influence the effect of exercise on weight loss.
Mr. La Forge started by refuting the prevailing belief that since a pound of fat (when burned) gives off 3,500 calories and since running or walking a mile burns 100 calories, a person should lose a pound for every 35 miles. In other words, if a previously inactive person starts running or walking five miles a day, that person should lose a pound a week, all other things being equal.
Some Calories Have to Be Subtracted
Not so, says Mr. La Forge, because this estimate fails to subtract the number of calories that person’s body would have used had it just sat still for those hours. Rather, for a 154-pound person, the net caloric cost would be 54 calories per mile when walking up to 3.5 miles per hour, 97 calories speed-walking at 3.5 to 5 m.p.h., and 107 calories jogging or running.
In other words, running uses nearly twice the calories used when walking at a moderate pace over the same distance. Your starting weight is also a factor: if you weigh less than 154 pounds, the caloric burn is proportionately less; if you weigh more than 154, it is higher.
Furthermore, if you walk or run on a treadmill, the aid of the machine diminishes the number of calories your body uses by about 10 to 15 percent of what the machine says you are burning. But, Mr. La Forge noted, there is a positive side: “The mechanical advantage of some machines enhances exercise comfort and reduces impact and musculoskeletal stress.”
In addition, if the weather is bad and you are unable or reluctant to work out outdoors, being able to exercise indoors may mean that you use more calories a week than you would otherwise.
Duration and intensity of physical activity are important factors in how much fat the body burns for energy, which, after all, is what you want to lose. The harder and longer you work out, the more fat you will shed.
When you diet without exercising, you lose both muscle and fat, which is counterproductive because muscle loss significantly lowers your basic metabolic rate, the number of calories your body uses at rest.
Type of Activity Matters
Weight-bearing activities that work against gravity — aerobic activities like walking, running, cross-country skiing, dancing, skating and stair-climbing — use proportionately more calories at a given level of effort than swimming, cycling or water aerobics.
The more muscle groups involved in your activities, the more calories you are likely to burn. That is why working out against gravity uses more calories than non-weight-bearing activities. On the other hand, because activities like swimming put less stress on weight-bearing joints, many people can do them for longer periods, making up for the lower caloric burn.
If your workout includes hills (real ones or on exercise equipment), you will use more calories per minute than doing the same activity on level ground. But if you engage in resistance exercises — working out with weights or on machines that strengthen various muscle groups — you may gain several pounds of muscle that partly offset the loss of body fat.
In other words, you may lose fewer pounds than if you expended the same number of calories on an aerobic activity like brisk walking or swimming, but you will be stronger and better toned. With greater muscle mass, your basic metabolic rate will rise and you will burn more calories all day and night. And since muscle holds less water and takes up less room than the equivalent weight of fat, by shedding fat and gaining muscle you can lose inches and sizes without losing actual pounds on the scale.
Keep in mind, though, that the time spent doing resistance exercise burns fewer calories than if the same time were spent on aerobic activities.
Mr. La Forge pointed out that how skilled you are at your chosen activity also influences the calories burned. Those less skilled make unnecessary movements or have to work harder at the activity, using more calories an hour than those who perform it efficiently. That may sound like it is an advantage to be unskilled, but there is a significant downside: Those with less skill tend to tire faster and thus spend less time at the activity. They are also more prone to overuse injuries.
Another factor in caloric burn is the increased number of calories the body uses after a workout. Both aerobic and resistance exercises raise energy expenditure over the next 12 to 24 hours, but the range is great — from 10 to 150 calories, depending on the type of activity and how long and vigorously it was done. Though it does not sound like much, it can add up over the long run.
Your Body Counts, Too
People who are overweight or obese burn more calories proportionately doing the same activity, for the same duration and at the same intensity, than those of normal weight.
But some people compensate for the calories burned by eating more or doing less. If you exhaust yourself by overexercising, you may do less routine activity for the rest of the day, reducing the caloric benefit of your workout.
Or if you know you expended 300 extra calories in your morning workout, you may — consciously or otherwise — make up for them by eating more that day. On the other hand, many people find that a vigorous workout before lunch or dinner diminishes their appetite and reduces their overall caloric intake, adding to the weight loss resulting from the exercise itself.
Some factors are out of your control. People are born with metabolic differences. Some have a higher resting metabolic rate or produce more fat-burning enzymes than others. People with a low percentage of slow-twitch muscle fibers seem less able to burn fat in skeletal muscles and thus may have a harder time losing weight through exercise, Mr. La Forge wrote.
Finally, gender counts. Women tend to burn more fat under the skin but have a harder time getting rid of abdominal fat than men do.
Weight Loss Basics
When it comes to weight loss basics, it's calories that count. Weight loss comes down to burning more calories than you take in. You can do that by reducing extra calories from food and beverages and/or increasing calories burned through physical activity. Fad diets may promise you that counting carbs or eating a mountain of grapefruits will make the pounds drop off. But haven’t you been down that road before? Get back to weight loss basics. Your weight is a balancing act, and calories control the balance.
Counting calories: Get back to weight-loss basics
Your weight is a balancing act, and calories play a big role. Find out how calories determine your weight and ways you can best cut calories from your diet.
Despite all the diet strategies out there, weight management still comes down to the calories you take in versus those you burn off. Fad diets may promise you that avoiding carbs or eating a mountain of grapefruit is the secret to weight loss, but it's really all about calories.
Calories: Fuel for your body
Calories are the energy in food. Your body has a constant demand for energy and uses the calories from food to keep functioning. Energy from calories fuels your every action, from fidgeting to marathon running.
Carbohydrates, fats and proteins are the types of nutrients that contain calories and are the main energy sources for your body. The amount of energy in each varies. Proteins and carbohydrates have about 4 calories a gram, and fats have about 9 calories a gram. Alcohol also is a source of calories, providing about 7 calories a gram.
Regardless of where they come from, the calories you eat are either converted to physical energy or stored within your body as fat. These stored calories will remain in your body as fat unless you use them up, either by reducing calorie intake so that your body must draw on reserves for energy, or by increasing physical activity so that you burn more calories.
Tipping the scale: Cutting calories
Your weight is a balancing act, but the equation is simple: If you eat more calories than you burn, you gain weight.
Because 3,500 calories equals about 1 pound (0.45 kilogram) of fat, you need to burn 3,500 calories more than you take in to lose 1 pound. So if you cut 500 calories from your typical diet each day, you'd lose about 1 pound a week (500 calories x 7 days = 3,500 calories).
Cutting calories doesn't have to be difficult. In fact, it can be as simple as: • Skipping one extra high-calorie indulgence a day
• Swapping high-calorie foods for lower calorie options
• Reducing portion sizes
Here's a closer look :
Saving calories by cutting a high-calorie item
Skipping one or two high-calorie items is a good place to start when cutting calories. For example, you could skip your morning latte or that bowl of ice cream you always have after dinner. Think about what you eat and drink each day and identify items you could cut out. If you think that skipping your indulgence will leave you with a craving, try a low-calorie substitution.
Choosing lower calorie foods
Beyond your indulgences, you can also replace common foods that are high in calories with ones that are lower in calories. You may not realize how much you can cut with some simple substitutions. For example, drink fat-free milk instead of whole milk and sparkling water or diet soda instead of blended coffee drinks. Have an extra serving of vegetables at dinner instead of an extra serving of meat. Or snack on sliced fresh fruit instead of chips.
Reducing your portion sizes
The sizes of your portions affect how many calories you're getting. Twice the amount of food means twice the number of calories. It's common to underestimate how much you're eating, especially if you're dining out. Controlling your portions is a good way to control calories.
Try these tips to control portion sizes and cut calories:
• Serve smaller portions. At the beginning of a meal, take slightly less than what you think you'll eat. You can have seconds later if you're truly still hungry.
• See what you eat. Eating directly from a container gives you no sense of how much you're eating. Seeing food on a plate or in a bowl keeps you aware of how much you're eating. Consider measuring your food with a measuring cup or scale to see how much you are actually eating.
• Check food labels. Be sure to check the Nutrition Facts panel and other nutrient information for the serving size and number of calories a serving. You may find that the small bag of chips you eat with lunch every day, for example, is two servings not one, which means you're eating double the calories listed on the label.
• Don't feel obligated to clean your plate. Stop eating as soon as you feel full. Those extra bites of food that you're trying not to waste add unneeded calories.
• Use a calorie counter. Check out reputable resources that offer tools to count calories, such as Web sites or smart phone applications.
Putting it all together
Eliminating high-calorie foods, choosing lower calorie alternatives and cutting your portion sizes can help you reduce calories and improve weight control. For a successful — and sustainable — weight management plan, you also need to increase your physical activity. It's this combination of regular activity and healthy eating that will help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight.
Weight Loss Maintenance
There is a general perception that almost no one succeeds in long-term weight loss maintenance. However, research has shown that 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss when defined as losing at least 10% of initial body weight and maintaining the loss for at least one year. To maintain weight loss maintenance, individuals report engaging in high levels of physical activity, at least one hour per day, following a low-calorie, low-fat diet, eating breakfast regularly, self-monitoring weight, and maintaining a consistent eating pattern across weekdays and weekends. Once an ideal weight is achieved, it is just as important not to allow it to go down as it is to prevent it from going up.
Weight Loss Maintenance: People Who Have Lost 30 Pounds or More Share Their Secrets
How would you like to lose 72.6 pounds and keep it off for at least five years? Do you think it’s impossible without diet shakes, fads, pills, or starvation? Well then, let me introduce you to over 4,000 people who have lost this much weight on average, kept it off, and done so without any expensive plans or gimmicks. Who are they? They are participants in a program called “The National Weight Control Registry”.
Lose weight and keep it off
The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) was founded in 1994 by two university scientists who wanted to learn a lot more about how to lose weight and keep it off successfully. Anyone who is over 18, has lost at least 30 pounds, and has maintained this loss for more than one year is eligible to enroll. Thus far, the NWCR has enrolled more than 4,000 people who willingly share their personal keys to weight loss success. With fad diet after fad diet on bestseller lists (and still millions of Americans obese), NWCR has made an attempt to figure out what real “losers” do to attain successful long term weight loss.
Keys to successful weight maintenance
With data collected for over 11 years, here’s what we’ve learned about how these people have effectively lost weight and kept it off:
1. Learn about “you” daily to keep the weight off
Most participants in the NWCR continuously monitor their eating habits. Many keep a daily food record to hold themselves accountable to their goals. They continuously learn about how to manage their own individual “high risk” situations such as eating when stressed or “cleaning the plate” out of habit rather than hunger.
2. Exercise is still required in the maintenance stage of weight loss
We all know exercise is important for weight loss and health, but NWCR participants have taken exercise to new heights! On average, NWCR enrollees incorporate 60-90 minutes of moderate to high intensity exercise daily! The most popular exercise among NWCR participants is walking—on average 5-6 miles daily. These participants have demonstrated that you simply can’t eliminate exercise from a successful weight loss program.
3. Stay away from fad diets to avoid regaining your weight
While many NWCR enrollees tried fad diets in the past, the majority say that a low fat, high carbohydrate, moderate protein diet is what got them where they are today. Now they focus more on choosing foods that are nutrient dense and healthy.
4. Get an attitude adjustment to dieting and weight loss
Most NWCR participants had to change their thinking about dieting and weight loss. Some felt weight loss was impossible because “it’s in their genes” to be fat. Others had nearly given up because they had “failed” so many diets in the past. The key difference is that these same people finally gave up the “doom and gloom” attitude and faced this concept head on: A healthy lifestyle is a lifelong commitment and must be taken slowly, day by day.
5. Keeping the weight off: adopt and stick to your routine
It takes a long time to develop healthy habits, but once those habits are developed, stick to them! Over half of NWCR participants stick to their diet, lifestyle and exercise routine daily - even on holidays and in restaurants. In addition, most participants frequent restaurants no more than two or three times per week because of the difficulty of sticking to their lifestyle routine while dining out.
6. Hold yourself accountable to ensure you stick with the new routine
Many participants report that weighing yourself regularly, having commitments to others to exercise, or being accountable to a group is important. These extra “monitoring devices” help them to correct undesirable practices before they get too out of hand.
The lessons passed on by the participants in the NWCR are really nothing new. However, they provide valuable reinforcement nonetheless. Hard work, persistence, dedication, patience, and a daily commitment to health – not thinness – provide the keys to lasting weight loss and fitness. Start practicing some of their tips today and maybe one day you can be a NWCR participant yourself!
• Weight Management Programs
Weight management programs are designed to help individuals lose weight, keep it off and improve their health. Any program you decide to do should be based on a balanced diet (e.g. a nutrient intake sufficient to prevent deficiencies of vitamins and minerals), and include a safe and pleasant program of physical activity.
http://www.weight-loss-institute.com/weight_loss_programs.htm
• Weight Mgmt tools and resources
Do you have what you need to track your progress? Using weight loss tools and calculators are an important part of building and maintaining a weight loss program. Weight loss tools, such as the weight loss calculators, can help you determine some baseline health values, such as your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR), or your daily recommended calorie intake. Other weight loss tools, such as the free diet plans and diet tips can provide you with the information and diet planning you need to succeed at your own weight loss program.
Reasons to Ditch the Scale -
Is the scale helping or hurting?
How much do you weigh? While that’s not a question most polite people ask, I’ll bet most of you know the answer. Whether you weighed yourself this morning, yesterday or last week, chances are, stepping on a scale is something you do on a regular basis.
My next question is this: What do you think about when you step on a scale? Some common thoughts:
• "That can’t be right."
• "I knew I shouldn't have had that extra breath mint yesterday."
• "Did I really gain 5 lbs since yesterday?"
• "I haven’t lost a single pound. What’s wrong with me?"
Whatever you think about when you weigh yourself, one question you may not consider is this: Is weighing yourself helping you lose weight or standing in the way of success?
To Weigh or Not to Weigh?
For some of you, the idea of not knowing your weight on a regular basis may seem as foreign as not knowing you hate lima beans. This is true despite the fact that a scale, unlike lima beans, has all kinds of emotions, thoughts and beliefs attached to it. The moment you step on it, you decide things about yourself: Whether you’re fat or thin, whether you’ve succeeded or failed, perhaps even how you feel about yourself as a person.
For some people, the scale is an important and useful tool for maintaining weight loss but, for others, it can stand in the way of success. Which group do you fall into? If you’re not sure, learn more about the reasons you might want to ditch the scale.
Just Getting Started? You May Want to Ditch the Scale
The scale is a great tool for people who are maintaining weight loss. Seeing their weight each day is one way to make sure they're staying on track with their diet and exercise program. However, if you’re just starting a weight loss program, the number on the scale can be deceptive, making you feel that you’re not making progress even when you are.
Unfortunately, the hard work of diet and exercise isn’t always reflected on the scale for new exercisers, especially during the first few weeks. A few things that may happen when you start a weight loss program:
• Delayed results - Most of us need several weeks of diet and exercise before seeing significant changes on the scale.
• Unrealistic expectations – When you work hard at your workouts and diet, you may expect more than your body can deliver, which leads to disappointment.
• Tunnel vision – We get so focused on the scale that it blocks out other things we’re getting out of our workouts. The long-term rewards of exercise aren’t always obvious when you’re a beginner and you forget there are other reasons to exercise and eat healthfully.
Keep it or Ditch it?
Are you discouraged by what you’re seeing on the scale? If so, consider weighing yourself once a month rather than daily or weekly to give your body time to adapt to what you’re doing.
Another option is to shift your focus from the minutiae of weight loss and concentrate on what you actually need to do get there, such as:
• Showing up for your workouts - Set goals based on how many workouts you’ll do each week rather than how much weight you’ll lose.
• Getting to know your body - You can’t lose weight until you exercise consistently and you can’t do that until you build endurance and strength. Take the first few weeks to experiment, condition your body and figure out what you’re capable of.
• Learning how to exercise - If you’re a beginner, there’s a learning curve that may take you awhile to overcome. Give yourself space to learn good form, solid technique and effective methods of training before you put too much pressure on yourself to lose weight.
Discouraged? You May Want to Ditch the Scale
A friend of mine treats her scale the same way one might treat a poisonous snake. She hides it in her closet and lurches away whenever she accidentally catches sight of it. Many of us have the same visceral response to any scale – a shiver when we pass by the scale at the gym or instant dry mouth when instructed to stand on the scale at the doctor’s office.
Changing your lifestyle and habits is difficult enough without adding the pressure of losing a certain number of pounds each week. Your body won't always cooperate and you'll rarely get everything perfect from day to day. Starting off on the right foot means having:
• A supportive environment of family and friends who encourage you to reach your goals
• Realistic goals that motivate you day after day
• A balanced exercise plan that fits your schedule and what you enjoy doing
• A way to handle obstacles to exercise before they happen.
If the scale doesn't fit into that encouraging environment, it may be time for a change.
Keep it or Ditch it?
Do you dread getting on the scale every morning? If the answer is yes, consider:
• Setting aside weight loss goals - Focusing on being healthy, fit and active can take the pressure off, allowing you to enjoy your active lifestyle. The 30-Day Fitness Challenge is a great place to start.
• Find meaningful goals – Meaningful goals are the ones we stick with when times get tough. Consider joining a charity run or working out with a friend who needs support. You’ll remember the deeper reasons that exercise is an important part of your life.
• Talk to friends or family members who exercise and ask them how they manage it. You may be inspired to learn how real people fit exercise into their lives.
• Instead of watching the scale, focus on creating a healthy lifestyle. Living well almost always leads to weight loss.
Is the Scale Lying to You?
While the scale can tell you how much you weigh, there's something more important you need to know: Your body composition. While many of us focus on how many pounds we're losing, what's more important is how much fat we're losing, something the scale can't discern. Losing weight may make you happy but, what if you found out you were losing muscle, not fat? Losing muscle lowers metabolism and, eventually, contributes to a loss of mobility and power.
This is one instance where the scale can lie, especially for new exercisers beginning a strength training program. It's possible to lose inches without losing weight, which means you're getting results even if they aren't showing up the way you're used to seeing them.
I often hear this question from readers who mention losing inches while the scale doesn't move. They wonder, "Why haven't I seen any results?" If you're experiencing this, one question to ask yourself is: Why do you believe the scale over your own experience? If you’re buying smaller clothes, you’re losing fat no matter what the scale says.
Too often, we believe what the scale is telling us rather than what’s in front of our own eyes, leaving us discouraged and frustrated rather than celebrating success.
Keep it or Ditch it?
Are you losing inches, fitting into smaller sizes and slimming down? If the answer is yes, that’s a good sign that you’re gaining muscle and losing fat, which is exactly what you want.
Instead of the scale, try other ways to track your progress:
• Get your body fat tested
• Take your measurements at different areas of the body to see where you're slimming down
• Go by how your clothes fit
• Keep a fitness journal to keep track of your weights, exercises and strength gains
