Chose to lose weight to a level that doesn't compromise your health nor quality of life.
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I have found to lose weight I need to focus on what I am eating. Exercise has not been that helpful in directly losing weight. For unfit people my suggestion is you can improve your overall health by losing weight through managing what you eat.
While low glycemic diets are generally only recommended for people with diabetes I believe they provide excellent eating principles for all of us.
However you should not avoid exercise for ever. Consider slowly increasing your activity levels. You do want to exercise regularly as long term health is dependent on being moderately fit. Putting my money where my mouth is you will note from my other blogs I keep myself fit through regular and varied exercise.
The importance of exercise has been reinforced by a study that compared dieting with dieting and exercise. While the weight loss was similar across both groups the group that exercised improved their blood pressure, cholesterol and insulin sensitivity more than the group that did not.
Reference: Enette Larson-Meyer, Ph.D., R.D., assistant professor, family and consumer science, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo.; Walt Thompson, Ph.D., professor, kinesiology, Georgia State University, Atlanta; January 2010, Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise
Eat well and consider what exercise you would enjoy doing and how you can motivate yourself to undertake this exercise regularly.
Follow my guidance in Enjoy Losing Weight if you are over-weight.
Regards, Keith
Christmas is the time of year when its hardest to lose weight. However there are a number of strategies you can use to maintain weight loss.
Plan for the majority of food eaten over Christmas to be both tasty and healthy. Restrict food high in fat and sugar to a limited number of big favourites.
Chose a way of cooking meat that results in lower fat on your plate. Select deserts that include and are garnished with fruit rather than cream.
Plan Christmas day so you eat the main meal and then do something that doesn’t involve continuing to eat - avoid eating on and on. And a little bit of exercise never hurt anybody!
The Christmas period can easily end in a session of overeating from Christmas through to New Year so be selective in when you are going to have ’special’ meals and stick to normal, tasty meals at other times to lose weight.
In other words, keep making food a focus of Christmas but in such a way you continue to lose weight.
Enjoy losing weight over Christmas
Keith
Exercise makes you hungry – not a new concept to most people I would have thought. However if you are seeking to lose weight or maintain a healthy weight you don’t want extra eating overwhelming the benefits of exercise in assisting to lose weight.
A small study of 58 overweight and obese adults found some lost weight through increased exercise while others appeared to have their exercise efforts counteracted by increased eating. For those who managed to lose weight exercise may have improved their body’s ability to signal when they were full. The researchers found these subjects were hungrier before breakfast but were not hungrier during the rest of the day.
The learning from those that didn’t lose weight is a general warning to all of who are managing our weight. We need to be aware of any tendancy to over eat after exercise and address this if it occurs.
It also reinforces the need to control our eating habits as the main contributor to losing weight.
To read the abstract go to American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Neil A King, Phillipa P Caudwell, Mark Hopkins, James R Stubbs, Erik Naslund, and John E Blundell
Dual-process action of exercise on appetite control: increase in orexigenic drive but improvement in meal-induced satiety
Am. J. Clinical Nutrition, Oct 2009; 90: 921 – 927.
regards, Keith
We are bringing up a generation that will need to lose weight.
As parents we are concerned about road safety and stranger danger. However we seem to be less vigilant about a widespread danger to our kids. We appear to be compromising their health at an increasingly younger age. While historically many adults have drifted into obesity in middle age we are raising a generation that will enter adulthood obese. Not the proudest of legacies!
An investigation of children’s meals at fast food outlets found only 3% met the standards set by the National School Lunch Program. The average energy density of the meals that failed the standards was 2.3 calories per gram compared with 1.5 in the standards. Of the meals that failed 65% had too much fat while the levels of a number of key nutrients were inadequate.
reference: J.M. Mendoza, “Kids, Fast Food, & Obesity: Menu Reviews From a Houston Pediatrician” Agricultural Research, October 2009
To read the article click on: article
Lets make sure our kids eat well and enter adulthood healthy. It will then be up to them to determine their future health and hopefully they will follow the guidance provided to them in their formative years.
regards, Keith
While you may have a natural tendancy to put on fat easily you can lose weight and control weight loss whatever genes you have.
A review of an article in the November 2009 issue of the Journal of Nutrition reported on research regarding a possible link between genes and the propensity to develop belly fat. It was found the presence of various genetic factors increased the ease at which individuals put on body fat. It was noted some participants were consuming excessive saturated fat.
While there were genetic links to obesity there was not a link between genetic traits and the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. (See blog on metabolic syndrome)
Probably the most interesting comment from the study is – “while we may have a genetic disposition to obesity we are largely in control of our weight.”
According to Health Day the orginal source can be found in Journal of Nutrition, November 2009.
To source the article click on: Health Day review of article
regards, Keith
A recent study found Latino adolescents who increased their fiber intake reduced the amount of fat around their waists.
reference: J.N. Davis et al, American Journal of Nutrition, November, 2009
While the authors were cautious about generalising from these results its worth considering how they might apply to the rest of us. How much fiber are you currently consuming? It is likely many people could improve their overall diet by increasing their fiber levels. One of the possible benefits might be a reduction in belt size!
For fiber look to fruit and veges as the best sources. If you eat an orange rather than have an orange drink you get the fiber as well as the vitamin C!
And, if you’re really interested in reducing your belt size consider getting my book Enjoy Losing Weight. I reduced my waist measurement by many inches (and enjoyed doing it). Whats more my waist has remained the same size since.
regards, Keith
We’re told to lose weight to stay trim and to keep active. However, will this really lead to better health, particularly as we age?
A study looked at the relation between body mass index, exercise, overall health, and physical functioning in people in their fifties. Results indicate maintaining ideal body weight is important in preventing decline in overall health and physical functioning. However, regular exercise can reduce the risk of health decline even among individuals who cannot achieve ideal weight.
The findings reinforce the importance of eating well to maintain weight and losing weight if need be. I recall another study finding over 30% of middle aged people are overweight. This would indicate many of us are at risk of poor health and would benefit from losing weight. The value of exercise is also reinforced and indicates the importance of maintaining activity whatever our age.
So eat well and keep moving, Keith
reference: Xiaoxing Z. He, MD, MPH and David W. Baker, September 2004, Vol 94, No. 9, American Journal of Public Health
The benefits of exercise in assisting to lose weight are disputed. While public information programs promote exercise in contributing to weight loss others claim the assistance is less than what is claimed. If you are very overweight and unfit you wont be able to undertake much exercise to burn calories.
My own view is that there are seperate benefits from losing weight and exercising even if exercise does not contribute greatly to weight loss in a direct way.
Once you have managed to lose weight how do you keep to your goal weight?
According to research findings published by the American Physiological Society exercise may contribute to maintaining your goal weight by reducing appetite, preventing fat cells from accumulating and prompting the body to burn calories from fat before burning calories from carbohydrates.
One benefical effect of exercise may be the change in the bodies ‘defended weight’ – the weight the body seeks to maintain. Apparently this makes the lower weight easier to maintain.
The study challenges the belief that the number of fat cells can not be altered by diet or lifestyle.
However the importance of eating well remains if you need to lose weight and stay at this lower weight.
So, exercise (and eat well) to maintain weight loss. Regards, Keith
Watching what you are eating to lose weight? Eating a diet high in fruit and vegetables to lose weight safely may also protect you from getting depression.
A Mediterranean type diet has been found to reduce the risk of depression by 30%. Fruits, vegetables and olive oil were associated with even lower levels of risk. This was attributed to their effect on nerve cell growth and functioning and the availability and effectiveness of seratonin.
Source: M.A. Martinez-Gonzalez & D. Mischoulon, Archives of General Psychiatry, October, 2009
By selecting fruit and vegetables with a low glycemic index you can combine the benefits of a Mediterranean type diet and a low glycemic diet to lose weight effectively and permanently, and obtain other health benefits at the same time.
regards, Keith
A central cause of the current epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes relates directly to our eating habits. We eat too much of the wrong food. End of story. We then need to lose weight to restore our health.
A study of type 2 diabetics who were overweight/obese found 93 percent got too many calories from fat, 85 percent ate too much saturated fat and 92 percent ate too much salt. Fewer than half ate enough fruit, vegetables, diary and grains.
Reference: M.Z. Vitolins et al, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, August, 2009.
The challenge is to replace the high fat food we enjoy with other healthier food we enjoy as much or more. This will require effort to start with but over a short time you can train yourself onto tasty food that will support your weight loss efforts.
What is clear is that merely being aware you are overweight or finding out you have diabetes is often not enough to trigger a change in eating habits. I suspect this is because an attractive path to better health is not presented in a format that is compelling. The book Enjoy Losing Weight could be renamed Enjoy Eating Great Food That Will Help You To Lose Weight. Don’t see the need to lose weight condeming you to eating boring food. Improve your enjoyment of food and lose weight at the same time.
Happy and healthy eating, Keith
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Now is the BEST time to start losing weight!
Get the book, enjoy losing the weight
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