Many want to sell you a cool gimmick or quick fix in order to lose weight, and thousands of people try fad diets and fail. But for weight to be lost and to stay gone, gradual, doable lifestyle changes need to be made. Create habits that you like and you can live with.
Don’t feel bad if it takes TIME for you to change your habits, in fact it is essential to THINK about it for a good while before you start a program. You do it in your mind first, then the rest will follow.
Seven Steps
The following steps are taken from the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), a database that tracks people who have lost at least 30 lbs and have kept it off for at least one year. These are statistics and reveal what works. People who did these things and had these attitudes, lost weight and kept it off. Keep in mind that if you are considerably overweight, even a 5% reduction will greatly improve your health status.
FIRST: Follow any guidelines you have been given by a physician or registered dietitian. AND: If you do ANY of these listed items, it will head you towards your weight loss goals. The more you do, the greater your success will be.
- Be optimistic. Believe you are empowered to change.
- Keep a food log and learn to read labels, and be aware of how many servings are in a package. Write down what you eat.
- Eat breakfast. It can be a small amount and it will still increase your metabolism early in the day. It guards against overeating later in the day.
- Measure yourself: either weigh yourself 1 x a week or take measurements of your: waist, hips, thighs and arms, once a week. This is your reality check to see what works and what doesn’t.
- Don’t deny yourself, instead control your portions. Using a smaller plate can help. Don’t go back for seconds. Just know when you go out for coffee with someone and you get a mocha frappuccino that is 380 calories, rather than a regular coffee with milk and sugar for 45 calories. We live in a supersized world. Rebel against it.
- Be mindful when you eat. No zoning out in front of the TV while you finish the whole bag of chips. Give thanks and bless your food. Think about how it is going to make you strong and healthy.
- My favorite: EXERCISE. Building muscle will change your metabolism and you will burn more calories. Aerobic and anaerobic exercise will increase your overall calorie burn, help your mood, increase circulation throughout your body so that it can replenish and heal itself. Don’t think because you are a little sick you should sit around. Get up and move! After surgery in the hospital one of the first things they try to do is have you move!
Counting Calories
This is an excellent opportunity if you are serious about reducing your weight. Count how many calories you eat in a day. You can find your resting metabolic rate or RMR, and then reduce the caloric intake by 200-500 per day. Part of this reduction can be exercising more – so on the days you workout (3x a week at least) you will not have to count 300-400 of your calories. A person that sticks to this regimen can expect to loose 1-2 lbs a week. Men will likely loose more than women at first. This is the way to slowly lose the weight. This is the kind of weight that will stay off. You are not on a diet, you are just changing some habits.
How to Find Your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR)
- Enter your height, weight and age into an online RMR calculator like this one:
http://www.fitnessfrog.com/calculators/rmr-calculator.html - Take the calculated amount and multiply it as follows. If you are
- Sedentary: RMR x 1.2
- Lightly active (some sports 1-3 x a week): RMR x 1.375
- Very active: 6-7 days a week hard exercise: RMR x 1.725
- Extremely active: 6-7 days a week hard exercise plus a physical job: RMR x 1.9
This calculation gives you the amount of calories it will take you to stay the same weight you are.
Calorie Counting Example:
A 145 pound female, 5’5” and 50 years old calculates out to: 1333 calories. She is sedentary, so multiplying 1330 x 1.2 = 1600. Reducing the caloric intake by 200-500 a day; she should try to eat between 1400 and 1100 calories a day depending on how much exercise is done per week
Counting Carbohydrates
Instead of counting calories you can count carbohydrates. You can switch your body into ketosis–fat burning mode. What is nice about training your body to use fat for fuel is you won’t get hungry all the time as most of us do, living in the yoyo of having energy from glucose (sugar) and then crashing.
You should count NET carbs not total carbs. Net carbs equal the total carbohydrate minus dietary fiber. For example if the total carbohydrates are 13g and the dietary fiber is 2g, your net carbs would be 11g.
Ketosis can be triggered by lowering your carbohydrate intake below 50 grams a day.You are likely to lose weight if you eat between 50 and 100 carbs per day. If you eat between 100-150 carbs per day you will likely maintain your weight.
Warning: Eating below 50 grams of carbs a day to promote ketosis should not be done without FIRST checking with your physician/nutritionist.