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JoyfullyFit.com >> Weight Loss >> Weight Loss Tips
Exercise Regularly
Eat Low Fat Dairy
Eat Some Protein at Every Meal
Eat Lots of Fruits and Veggies
Keep a Food Diary
Have Set Eating Times and DON'T Miss Breakfast
Analyze Your Eating
Adopt a Lifestyle
Join a Support Group
Like a Good Scout, BE PREPARED
I can help you achieve your ideal weight through a program of healthy eating and moderate physical activity. It will be tailored to your unique needs and preferences.
For more information, call Verna at 352-514-1305
Exercise has been called the single most important predictorfor who will succeed at keeping weight off. Aquatic Exercise Association Manual pg 245, 250.There is a large national registry of people who have lost more than 30 pounds
and kept it off for more than a year. Nine out of ten say they exercise for about an hour a day. Accumulating greater than or equal to 200 minutes of aerobic activity in the course of a week is recommended. Aquatic Exercise Association Manual pg 245, 250
How Hard Does It Have To Be?
Exercise intensity of greater than 60% maximum oxygen consumption (in other words, hard enough to make you sweat) helps to preserve muscle tissue and promote fat loss. Aquatic Exercise Association Manual pg 249
This is equivalent to more than 75% maximum heart rate. The formula for calculating your age-predicted maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age. Exercising at 75 to 85% maximum heart rate is a safe range for most healthy individuals. De-conditioned persons should start lower (40 to 60%) and work up gradually while athletes can go up to 95%.
The Importance of Resistance Exercise
Many people who want to lose weight only do aerobic exercise in their effort to burn additional calories. Weight training is equally important as building muscle increases your metabolic rate so you burn more calories all day long. Through hard training the average person can gain five pounds of muscle in 10 to 20 weeks. This is advantageous since each pound of muscle burns 35 to 50 calories per day. Fat does not burn calories.
In a study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Danish scientists found that calcium from milk and low-fat yogurt can lower the level of fat in your blood after eating by almost 20 percent. Calcium appears to decrease the intestinal absorption of fat as well as it's addition to existing adipose tissue.
In case you're considering taking a calcium supplement with each meal, these have not been shown to have the same effect. You need the real dairy.
Protein has somewhat more satiety value (it
fills you up more and for longer) than carbohydrates and a gram of protein contains less than half the calories of a gram of fat. It provides a lot of nutrition on relatively few calories.
Also, the body temperature climbs a little higher after a high protein meal than it does after a high-carb one and that means more calories burned. Just be sure to choose low fat protein as you don't want to consume all the saturated fat in hamburger and marbled meats, high fat dairy, and processed meats.
Taking in approximately half your daily calories as protein can help prevent the loss of muscle mass which typically accompanies dieting in adults over thirty. This reduction of muscle tissue slows metabolism and is responsible for the plateau many hit three quarters of the way to their weight loss goal.
Nationwide surveys conducted in 2002 by the U.S.
Department of Agriculture revealed that adults who
consumed diets highest in carbohydrates were slimmer
than those who ate the least carbs. This is because high carbohydrate diets tend to be lower in calories.
In addition, a study recently published (2006) in The Journal
of The American Dietetic Association confirmed that normal-weight adults consume about a third to 40 percent more fruits and vegetables than those who are overweight. They also
consume substantially less fat and cholesterol.
We’re Talking Good Carbs – Fruits, Veggies, and Whole Grains, not White Trash
Complex carbohydrates-vegetables, whole grains, and fruits take time to digest, prolonging satiety. When people add more fiber to their diet, they tend to eat less. Brown rice fills you up faster than fluffy white bread.
The Fat Trap
The average American consumes nearly 40% of daily calories from fat. The U.S. Dietary Guidelines recommend 20 to 30%. It is easier to gain weight on a higher fat diet than a low fat diet of the same calorie level. This is because the body uses 25 to 30% more calories in converting protein or carbohydrate to adipose tissue (fat) than dietary fat which can go much more directly into storage.
Since fat contributes over twice the amount of calories per gram as protein and carbohydrates, it makes good sense to limit its consumption. People who have lost a significant amount of weight and kept it off eat only about 24% of their calories from fat, 10% less than the national average.
Carbs Win in More Ways than One
Excess dietary fat is stored more efficiently as body fat compared to
excess dietary carbohydrates. A surplus
of 100 carbohydrate calories requires
23 or those calories to convert the food
into body fat, while a surplus of 100 fat calories require only three of those calories to store it as body fat. Aquatic Exercise Association Manual pg 244-245
Popeye’s Healthy Girlfriend
Olive oil is protective against heart disease and cancer and is a much better choice than all the other fats available. It is high is a type of antioxidant called polyphenols which decrease the risk of developing degenerative disease.
We Need Some Fat
A little fat slows gastric emptying so you don't get hungry again as quickly as after a no-fat meal. Also, studies reveal that extremely low-fat diets are not as health-protective as diets that include a modest amount of healthy fats. Americans have gotten heavier since the advent of the low-fat craze. Why? It seems to be a license to consume with abandon and people end up taking in even more calories than before.
How to Do the Math
The American Heart Association recommends that 30% or less of total calories come from fat. To calculate recommended fat grams, multiply the calories times 30%, and then divide by nine. (One gram of fat equals nine calories). For example, for a 2000-calories recommended intake, 67 grams of fat per day would be recommended. The equation looks like this:
(2000cals x .30)/9 cals per gram= 67 grams of fat/day.
Aquatic Exercise Association Manual pg 248-49
It can be enlightening to calculate the amount of fat you’re taking in daily and make adjustments if appropriate. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends no more than 10% of dietary fat be saturated.
This has been shown to be one of the most effective ways of controlling consumption. It's sort of a self-accountability strategy and it helps one stay on track. It's especially helpful if you have someone to show your diary to every week. Those chocolate chip cookies are less tempting when you know Susie is going to see how many you ate.
People who eat erratically consume more calories and burn them more slowly than those who have standard meal and snack times. Also, people who don't eat breakfast on the average weigh more than those who do and it is largely because of irregular dietary habits and poor choices.
A Common Syndrome and One to Avoid
Skipping breakfast is well-known to be associated with weight gain.
The way it works is something like this: long-before lunch, high-calorie goodies entice and seduce. This sets you up for failure all day long as one compromise leads to another.
The Danishes at the office are irresistible since you had nothing before you left home. You might as well have the high-calorie Eggplant Parmesan for lunch since you’re already off on the wrong foot. You need a Snickers bar and a cappuccino in the afternoon to get through the stress. And then watching TV in the evening is much more enjoyable with chips and we deserve a little pleasure after working all day.
A Good Start Leads to Success
Eating a sensible, well balanced breakfast can set a tone of self-controlled responsibility to your day from the start. You won't be starved before lunch, making excuses for poor choices, and then just indulging with abandon because you already feel so defeated.
Keep Your Body Revved
Another reason to eat a morning meal is the fact that going without food for extended periods significantly lowers your basal metabolism. To get your body in the fat-burning mode, eat a balanced breakfast with some protein. Eating an egg in the morning is correlated with longer satiety and overall lower caloric consumption.
People with weight issues often have a tendency to rapidly woof down large amounts of food. If you take the time to slowly chew and savor each bite you can be more sensitive to when you no longer need to be putting food in your mouth. Overeating is reduced and enjoyment is increased. People that eat slowly tend to consume less.
So many people go around chronically sleep deprived
which renders them physically, emotionally and mentally challenged the next day. They don't feel like exercising for sure and avoiding periodic boosts of caffeine, sugar, and salty snacks is nigh impossible for workday survival.
Sleep Hormone Suppresses Hunger
In addition, new research suggests that a good night’s sleep boosts levels of lepin, a hormone that suppresses hunger. Blood tests revealed that the group who were missing one or two hours of sleep had 80% less lepin than those who got a full nights rest. Prevention Magazine, March 2006
A study done at the University of Chicago in 2004 revealed that at the same time lepin levels are reduced, ghrelin, a hormone that triggers hunger, is increased. In addition, chronic sleep deprivation can cause insulin resistance which is a pre-diabetic state that facilitates weight gain, promotes high blood pressure, and increases the risk of coronary artery disease.
Studies show that watching TV while eating encourages mindless over consumption. In a new survey, 64% of successful dieters said they watch fewer than 10 hours of television a week. Americans average 28 hours a week in front of the tube. Prevention Magazine, March 2006 Add all the time that’s spent in front of the computer screen and there’s no time left for any physical activity.
A lot of people abandon their exercise and healthy eating habits every weekend. Those
who are successful at controlling their weight maintain consistent and responsible self-care all week long.
Think about what you eat, when, and why. Figure out the times and things that cause you to be vulnerable to unwise eating. Work on changing those factors or habits so you can avoid excess.
Be Ruthless
Put all the foods that cause you more trouble than they are worth in an "Off Limits" category. This would include high-calorie, low-nutritive value fast foods, snacks, and sweets. Once you relegate them as non-options, their attraction has diminishing power over you. As long as you allow yourself to continue to nibble dangerously, control will regularly be lost, weight management will elude you, and self esteem will suffer.
 Instead of following the failure-prone
path of the majority who lose weight on radical diets only to gain it all back when they return to their old eating habits, permanently change the way you eat and live so that you can gradually lose excess weight and keep it off. In adults, weight loss maintenance without regular exercise is virtually impossible because of the loss of lean body mass (muscle) and resultant slowing of metabolism that accompanies aging.
Perseverance Pays
You may be so used to consuming mostly high-calorie processed foods that the idea of cooking and eating a lot of natural, unrefined foods like brown rice and veggies feels insufferable. You just want to say, "I can't, no way, forget it." The truth is, if you make the effort to cook and eat healthier and persevere, over time it will become easy and you will acquire a taste for more wholesome food.
Away From Home
When you're away from home and hungry, there's no need to give into the temptation of fast food eateries or gas station snack foods. Grocery stores have loads of healthy options that don't require any cooking.
Going to an extra little bit of trouble to take good care of yourself is worthwhile and you will be happy that you made good choices. Possibilities include: subs without mayo, processed meats and cheese; sushi, fruit, low fat cottage cheese, yogurt, rice cakes, salad bar, hummus, canned fish, mozzarella and Swiss cheese, Wasa whole grain crackers, and almonds (not fried).
The one I recommend most highly is Solution training. This is a method developed by the University of California in San Francisco which involves acquiring the skills to nurture and set limits for you. This brings freedom from having to use external solutions like overeating, smoking, drinking, etc. to soothe and comfort.
You can learn more about it by going to www.thepathway.org, the official site of The Institute for Health Solutions. To view an article defining The Solution which describes how this type of training differs from other therapeutic modalities please click on Introduction to Developmental Skills Training.
Weight-watchers is another widely used and effective method and there are many more types of groups which people have found very helpful.
 Don't be caught hungry with no tasty, nutritious options readily available in your kitchen! Keep your culinary automat well-stocked at all times so you don't succumb to those fat-filled pizzas for which we get so many alluring coupons as well as all the other "quick and deadly" fixes. (See the Recipes page for some
good ideas and easy, delicious dishes.)
Expect to fight a daily battle. Soldiers who overcome their enemies are alert, careful, and have plenty of ammunition.
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