healthy weight loss
8 February 2010Sources: weight lose
Long term success with a weight program sometimes follows a bumpy, uneven path. Many obstacles can keep you from achieving a more healthy weight.
Learning to identify potential roadblocks and confront personal temptations is an important part of being successful in losing weight. To make it past the rough spots, it's important to have strategies ready to guide your response as problems arise.
This easy-to-use action guide identifies common weight-loss barriers and practical strategies for overcoming them. If you find a strategy that helps you, include it with your weight-loss program.
The barriers are grouped into three categories: nutrition, physical activity and behaviors. To lose weight — and to maintain that weight loss — it's important that you address all of these components.
Behaviors obstacle
I've tried to lose weight before, but it didn't work. Now, I don't have confidence that it'll work this time.
For many people, losing weight will be one of life's most difficult challenges. Don't be discouraged if you've tried losing weight in the past and you weren't able to — or you lost weight but gained it all back. Many people experiment with several different weight-loss plans before they find an approach that works.
Strategies
Following these tips may help you succeed this time around:
- Think of losing weight as a positive experience, not a negative one. Approaching weight loss with a positive attitude will help you succeed.
- Set realistic expectations for yourself. Focus on behavioral changes and don't focus too much on weight changes.
- Use problem-solving techniques. Write down the obstacles that you experienced in previous attempts to lose weight, and come up with strategies for dealing with those obstacles.
- Make small, not drastic, changes to your lifestyle. Adjustments that are too intense or vigorous can make you uncomfortable and cause you to give up.
Accept the fact that you'll have setbacks. Believe in yourself. Instead of giving up entirely, simply start fresh the next day.
Behaviors obstacle
I eat when I'm stressed, depressed or bored.
Sometimes your most intense longings for food happen right when you're at your weakest emotional points. Many people turn to food for comfort — be it consciously or unconsciously — when they're dealing with difficult problems or looking for something to distract their minds.
Strategies
To help keep food out of your mood, try these suggestions:
- Try to distract yourself from eating by calling a friend, running an errand or going for a walk. When you can focus your mind on something else, the food cravings quickly go away.
- Don't keep comfort foods in the house. If you turn to high-fat, high-calorie foods whenever you're upset or depressed, make an effort to get rid of them.
- Identify your mood. Often the urge to eat can be attributed to a specific mood and not to physical hunger.
When you feel down, make an attempt to replace negative thoughts with positive ones. For example, write down all of the positive qualities about yourself and what you plan to achieve by losing weight.
Behaviors obstacle
I have a hard time not eating when I'm watching television, a movie or a live sporting event.
There's nothing inherently wrong with eating while watching a show, film or live event, but when you're distracted, you tend to eat mindlessly — which typically translates into eating more than you intended to eat. If you're unable to break this habit, at least make sure you're munching on something low in calories.
Strategies
Here are suggestions you might consider:
- If you're at a theater or stadium, order a small bag of popcorn with no butter and work on it slowly.
- Eat something healthy before you leave home so that you're not extremely hungry when you arrive.
- Drink water or a calorie-free beverage instead of having a snack.
- Try to reduce the amount of time that you spend watching television each day. Studies show that TV watching contributes to increased weight.
Behavior obstacle
When I go to parties, I can't resist all of the snacks and hors d'oeuvres.
In most social situations where food is involved, the key is to treat yourself to a few of your favorite hors d'oeuvres, in moderation. If you try to resist the food, your craving will only get stronger and harder to control. By following a few simple strategies, you can enjoy yourself without overeating.
Strategies
Next time you step up to the hors d'oeuvre table, try these strategies:
- Make only one trip and be selective. Decide ahead of time how much you'll eat and choose foods you really want.
- Treat yourself to one or two samples of high-calorie or fatty foods. Fill up on vegetables and fruits, if you can.
- Take only small portions. A taste may be all that you need to satisfy your craving.
- Nibble. If you eat slowly, you'll likely eat less — but don't nibble all night long.
- Don't stand next to or sit near the hors d'oeuvre table. As the old saying goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”
Eat something healthy before you arrive. If you arrive hungry, you'll be more inclined to overeat.
Behavior obstacle
I'm a late-night snacker.
Avoid eating late at night because loading up on calories right before bed only intensifies the challenge of not overeating. There's less chance for you to be active and burn off those calories until next morning. It's better to eat during the day so that your body has plenty of time to digest the food before you go to bed.
Strategies
Here are suggestions if you often find yourself battling the late-night munchies.
Make sure you eat three good meals during the day, including a good breakfast. This will help reduce the urge to snack late at night, simply because you won't be so hungry.
Don't keep snack foods around the house that may tempt you. If you get late-night munchies, eat fruits, vegetables or other healthy snacks.
Find something else to keep you busy in the hours before bedtime, such as listening to music or exercising. Your snacking may be more of a mindless habit than actual hunger.
Behavior obstacle
When I lapse from my eating plan, it's hard for me to get back on track.
Lapses happen. Many times a minor slip — a busy day when you couldn't find the time to eat right or get exercise — leads to more slips. That doesn't mean, though, that you've failed and all is lost. Instead of beating yourself up over a lapse, accept that you're going to experience bumps along the way and put the incident behind you. Everyone has lapses. Think back to the initial steps you took when you first began your weight program and put them to use again to help you get back on track.
Strategies
Here are suggestions to prevent a lapse from turning into a full-blown collapse:
- Convince yourself that lapses happen and that every day is a fresh opportunity to start over again.
- Guilt from the initial lapse often leads to more lapses. Being prepared for them and having a plan to deal with them is important to your success.
- Keep your response simple. Focus on the things that you know you can do and stick with them. Gradually add more healthy changes until you're back on track.
- Open up an old food record and follow it. Use those meals like a menu to help get you back to a healthy eating routine.
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About Donald Hensrud, M.D.
Donald Hensrud, M.D., M.P.H., is chair of the Division of Preventive, Occupational, and Aerospace Medicine and a consultant in the Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Nutrition at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. He is also an associate professor of preventive medicine and nutrition at the College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic. A specialist in nutrition and weight management, Dr. Hensrud advises individuals on how to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. He conducts research in weight management, and he writes and lectures widely on nutrition-related topics. He helped publish two award-winning Mayo Clinic cookbooks.
About Mayo Clinic
Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy that the needs of the patient come first. Over 3,600 physicians and scientists and 50,000 allied staff work at Mayo, which has sites in Rochester, Minn.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, Mayo Clinic treats more than 500,000 patients a year.
For more information, please check out Mayo Clinic Diet
Losing weight and getting fit preoccupied Americans in 2009:
- Nearly one out of two American women, including high school girls, were on a diet.
- Over 40 billion was spent on branded diet plans.
- Children as young as 9 to 11 years old were sometimes or very often dieting.
Yet an epidemic of obesity continues to affect more people than ever before:
- Less than a third of adults enjoyed normal weight.
- Children were two to three times more likely to be overweight today than they were 30 years ago.
Can we begin to reverse these worrisome trends in 2010?
We can if we update our old views with new ways to look at fitness in the coming year.
Old View: It's hopeless! Efforts to lose weight are inevitably doomed to fail. Even if a person manages to lose weight, he or she will eventually regain the weight and add back even more.
New View: You can do it! Strategies for making healthier choices involving diet, physical conditioning and improved self-care are available to you and can be learned. Championing this view is Kelly Brownell, Ph. D., who heads the LEARN Program for Weight Management at Yale University. And thanks to widespread access to the Internet, peer counseling in online communities is expanding. Internet support may include food and exercise diaries, weekly counseling, online weight-loss lessons and motivational phone calls.
Old View: Thin is in! Most individuals, especially women, seek to lose weight because they have internalized the media's ultrathin ideal.
New View: Healthy is in! Health is replacing vanity as the primary reason for pursuing fitness and weight loss. In 2009, researchers reported that four healthy habits could reduce or eliminate 80 percent of major medical problems: eating a healthy diet, not smoking, exercising regularly and maintaining a normal body weight. This insight, combined with rising medical costs, is triggering a focus on fitness.
Old View: If you are fat, you are a bad person. Obesity is a personal problem caused by a lack of willpower.
New View: Obesity is a disease that is treatable. The cost of providing medical care per person has skyrocketed from $356 in 1970 to $8,160 in 2009. Moreover, in 2009, the cost of treating obesity-related medical problems reached $147 billion. Given these costs, obesity has become a public health concern requiring a multifaceted community-based approach. In response, community leaders in Albert Lea, Minnesota, implemented a comprehensive lifestyle program to improve the health and longevity of the city's residents. To increase employee productivity and reduce health insurance costs and absenteeism, corporate wellness programs are proliferating.
Old View: Low-fat diets are required to lose weight. Eating fat makes a person fat. To lose weight, a dieter needs to stick with low- or no-fat foods.
New View: Total calories actually determine weight. The total calories consumed by a person, whether from carbs, fats or proteins, determines weight. Since the goal is a balanced diet, the Mediterranean diet, which includes healthy fats, is recommended by the Mayo Clinic and the American Heart Association as a nutritionally sound and healthy eating plan. Nuts, which until recently were on dieters' “do not eat” lists, are making a comeback because of their health benefits, especially almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans and macadamia nuts. Momentum is growing for mandating information on the caloric content of fast foods and food products.
Photo courtesy of everystockphoto.com
Old View: Medical intervention is needed. Weight-loss drugs or bariatric surgery can solve the problem of surplus pounds for many people, and advances in medicine can address obesity-related problems such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke and cancer.
New View: A healthy lifestyle is the best way. Prevention, rather than treatment of obesity-related medical problems, will move to the forefront because of the rising cost of medical insurance and healthcare. While the number of bariatric surgeries will continue to skyrocket, family physicians will increasingly write exercise prescriptions in lieu of drug prescriptions.
Old View: Ignore overweight children. Children who are overweight will outgrow their chubbiness, so kids' surplus pounds can be ignored.
New View: Help overweight children now! Dr. Robert Murray, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on School Health, is alarmed that nearly half of kids and teens are overweight or obese and, as a consequence, children's life expectancies are lower than their parents'. Treating childhood obesity is a serious medical problem that if ignored will place the child at risk for heart disease, diabetes and other serious medical conditions.
Old View: Don't ask, don't tell. Asking employees to modify their unhealthful behavior is an invasion of privacy and violates employees' right to choose their own lifestyle.
New View: Offer help, incentives and access to experts. In 2008, medical insurance premiums reached a record $15,609 for a family of four. Employers are proactively seeking to reduce costs (medical insurance, workers' compensation claims and absenteeism) by restructuring benefit programs. In increasing numbers, employees are being offered incentives to quit smoking or lose weight. They face penalties if they refuse to change habits that drive up the cost of healthcare.
Old View: Hard-core exercise one hour daily. Going to a gym daily for a 60-minute workout on a treadmill and resistance equipment is the best way to exercise.
New View: Diversity, fun and enjoyment. Thanks to popular television programs, dancing for fitness is back, particularly Zumba, a one-hour workout that fuses Latin rhythms with calorie-burning dance movements. Exergaming, such as Wii and Dance Dance Revolution, continues to grow in popularity with young and old alike. Michelle Obama has made the Hula-Hoop popular once again. The use of technologically sophisticated feedback gadgets, from pedometers to heart monitors, will expand. To attract members to the gym during tough economic times, more fitness centers will offer cardio cinema so members can watch a movie while exercising.
Will we continue to get fatter until 2018 when, according to research by Kenneth Thorpe, PhD, of Emory University, 40 percent of us will be obese (and another 33 percent overweight)?
If we are to succeed in reversing the obesity trends and mounting medical care costs, we'll have to find new approaches. And the more readily we learn from the past and update our understanding of the complex nature and causes of obesity, the more quickly we can successfully move into a healthy future.
Here are some tips for starting a healthy diet plan to lose weight. If you are looking for healthy weight loss diet tips then read on further – the below tips should really help you.
Tip#1:
First of all, drink lot of water while dieting. This is because in many crash diets, you will lose a lot of water instead of fat. Now this is not the ideal weight loss solution. You should lose body fat and not water. So drinking lots of water during the day would help you find out whether what you are losing is water weight or fat.
There are other benefits of drinking water. Water is said to help increase one's metabolism. Metabolism is the rate at which the body burns calories. So if you drink water it can help your metabolism rate which can thus help in weight reduction.
Moreover drinking water can also help with digestion and breaking the food down. If digestion is proper, then there are less chances of you getting fat.
Some obese people might actually have more water retention. Drinking lot of water will actually make your body store less water. If you do not drink enough water your body may panic and start storing water as it fears will not have enough supply of water in future. So drinking more quantity will prevent it from storing water.
Tip#2:
Another good diet secret is to combine moderate levels of exercise with your diet plan. See, it is very difficult to lose weight with just diets alone. You also need to ensure that you have sufficient physical activity throughout the day so that you can remain fit and lean in the long term.
Walking, gardening, jogging, swimming etc. are some of the pleasurable exercises which are not very exhausting and can provide you with the required amount of physical activity.
Do these or any other physical activity in moderate amounts and not too much, specially at the start. Later if you feel like it and cope with it, you can increase it further to your liking. Being physically active and exercising is also good for your memory, self-esteem and also helps you in dealing with stress.
Tip#3:
The third good diet tip I would like to give you is to eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables. They are very good for your health and they are not fattening. When you are dieting, it is very likely that you might be depriving your body of essential nutrients. By eating fruits and vegetables you can overcome this problem to a certain extent.
Having a serving of fresh fruits and vegetables just before every meal can fill your stomach quickly so that you eat less. The fiber content in fruits and vegetables is good for digestion. So munch on them and keep them handy at all times. For example you can have some carrots or apple etc. in your fridge and whenever you feel like having a snack, you can munch on these instead of eating fatty foods or snacks.
Conclusion:
In addition to the above good diet tips, also keep in mind that you should avoid diet pills or embarking on difficult diet programs which force you to starve yourself. They can be very bad for health and the weight loss will only be temporary in most cases. So stick to the above mentioned weight loss advice.
The above 3 easy diet tips seem to be very simple but they are very very important if you want to lose weight in a healthy manner and on a long term basis. These tips can prevent you from nutrition deficiency and also prevent unreasonable amount of water loss while dieting. They can also help in making your weight loss permanent and not just temporary. So all the best!
For more such healthy, safe weight loss tips you can read – Healthy Weight Loss
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