Weight loss is a simple mathematical equation and should be easy.
But it's not. Even though the theory is basic, calories in versus
calories out, it requires you to change your lifestyle and create new
habits. It is a mental battle, not just a physical one. Often people set
themselves up for failure before they even begin to try to lose weight
by setting extreme goals and expecting to never fall off the wagon. If
weight loss was easy, more than 60 percent of the nation would not be
obese. To change your mindset to lose weight, start with small goals and
create new, lasting habits.
Items you will need
Scale
Notebook or journal
Pen or pencil
1. Weigh yourself and record your weight
and what size you wear currently in a journal or notebook. Also write
down what you were wearing, time of day and the day of the week so you
can weigh yourself under the same circumstances whenever possible.
2.Set realistic weight-loss goals.
Write down the total number of pounds you want to lose, or what size you
would like to wear. Then set small weekly weight-loss goals of 1 to 2
pounds each week to slowly get you to your ideal weight.
3. Monitor your food intake daily. Write
down everything you eat and drink, including the amounts. This will
hold you accountable to what you are eating and help you look at times
you may overeat. You can also write down how you were feeling at the
time.
4. Plan your meals the day before, or
plan a week at a time. You can do this even if you have a family if you
are the one who plans the meals. If you don't, sit down with the member
of the family who does the meal planning so you can be involved.
5.Make small, healthy changes to your
diet. For example, if you don't eat breakfast, start your day with a
healthy meal that includes fat, protein and carbs, such as yogurt and
fruit or a whole-grain cereal with milk. Make a healthy breakfast a
habit and then change another meal.
6. Talk to your physician about your
weight-loss goals. Listen to his recommendations and what your weight
says about your health. Write down health goals as well as weight-loss
goals to improve quality of life.
7. Add exercise to your week. Make it an
appointment and don't break it. Start with as little as 10 to 15
minutes of walking three times per week and slowly increase your
activity. Try new things or classes to make exercise fun and so it
becomes a habit.
8.Join a weight-loss group, or team up
with a friend or family member to lose weight. Lean on each other and
talk about your struggles with weight loss. If necessary, consider
seeing a therapist who specializes in eating disorders.
Tips
Take one day at a time to reach long-term goals.
Read through your goals daily to remind you of why you are trying to lose weight.
See your physician regularly to monitor changes in your health, not just your weight.
Forgive yourself if you don't meet every small weight-loss goal.
If you believe you can't lose weight, you're probably right. Diets don't
work for you, and although you know you should eat healthy, you find
yourself in a cycle where eating gives you comfort and that's the one
true thing in your life. The truth is, you can lose weight, and live a
life of passion and freedom. First you must gain clarity about what's
driving your thoughts, beliefs, emotions and ultimately, your day-to-day
behavior.
If you've been working out and eating fewer calories but your extra
pounds won't budge, you may be wondering why that seemingly simple
strategy isn't working.
The truth is you may need a reality check about what to expect from exercise.
1. Exercise is only part of the weight loss story.
There's no getting around your tab of calories in and calories out. The
obese patients Robert Kushner, MD, clinical director of the
Northwestern Comprehensive Center on Obesity, treats often tell him
they're not seeing the results they want from exercise. "They will
say, 'I have been working out three days a week for 30 minutes for the
past three months, and I have lost 2 pounds. There's something wrong
with my metabolism,'" he says. Kushner tells patients that
exercise is very good for them, but for weight loss, he emphasizes
starting with a healthy diet. "First, we've got to get a handle on your
diet," Kushner says. "As you're losing weight and feel better and get
lighter on your feet, we shift more and more toward being more
physically active. Then living a physically active lifestyle for the
rest of your life is going to be important for keeping your weight off." Other experts have had success including physical activity early on. But they stress that the amount of exercise is key.
James
O. Hill, PhD, director of the Center for Human Nutrition at the
University of Colorado at Denver, says it's easier to cut 1,000 calories
from a bloated diet than to burn off 1,000 calories through exercise.
"But there are many, many studies that show that exercise is associated
with weight loss when done in enough volume and consistently," he says.
"It depends how much you do." For Pamela Peeke, spokeswoman for
the American College of Sports Medicine's "Exercise is Medicine"
campaign, fitness is a crucial part of a weight loss program, but it's
for reasons that go beyond calorie burning. She praises its mind-body
benefits, which will help with motivation over the long haul. Peeke
asks her patients to start walking as a way to "celebrate" their bodies
with activity. "For years, they've blown off their body," Peeke says.
"By them actually using their bodies, they can begin to integrate them
back into their lives and not use them as a source of torture or
torment or shame."
2. Exercise is a must for weight maintenance.
"I
come back to this over and over and over," Hill says. "You can't find
very many people maintaining a healthy weight who aren't regular
exercisers. What we find is that people who focus on diet aren't very
successful in the long run without also focusing on physical activity."
Hill
warns that people can be "wildly successful temporarily" at losing
weight through diet alone. But there's plenty of data that show that
those people regain the weight if they aren't physically active. Timothy
Church, MD, director of preventive medicine research at the Pennington
Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. says, "When it comes to
weight, you can't talk about diet alone, and you can't talk about
exercise alone. You absolutely have to address both issues at the same
time."
3. Food splurges may undo your efforts.
Exercise may not buy you as much calorie wiggle room as you think. "The
average person overestimates the amount of activity they're doing by
about 30% and underestimates their food intake by about 30%," says
Kathianne Sellers Williams, a registered dietitian and personal trainer. "When'
I'm looking at people's food and activity logs, sometimes things just
don't add up," she says. "People think, 'Oh, I just did 60 minutes at
the gym' or 'I just did 30 minutes at the gym' and think that
counteracts a lot of what they're eating. But the reality is our food
portions are huge."
Plus, Peeke says, you have to look at all the
other calories you ate or drank that day and how sedentary you were
apart from your workout. "The rest of the day, you're sitting down
and you're also eating other things," Peeke says. "How are you going to
burn that stuff, let alone this extra little treat that you just
thought you wanted?" It's hard to accurately estimate how many
calories you burn working out, Church says. "If it is a hard workout,"
he says, "you kind of intuitively think, 'Wow! That's cool! I just put
enough in the bank for two days!' and you really haven't."
4. Exercise machines may not tell the whole calorie story.
Treadmills and other exercise gear often have monitors that estimate how many calories you're burning. Kong
Chen, director of the metabolic research core at the National
Institutes of Health, says those displays are "close, but for each
individual they can vary quite a bit." Chen suggests using calorie displays on exercise equipment for motivation but not as a guideline to how much you can eat.
"It
doesn't matter if the display says 300 or 400 calories. If you do that
every day or increase from that level, then you've achieved your
purpose. But I wouldn’t recommend feeding yourself against that," Chen
says. Those machines don't account for the calories you would have burned anyway without exercising. "It
isn't 220 calories for those 40 minutes of exercise versus zero,"
Kushner says. "If you were sitting at work or playing with your kids,
you’re probably burning 70 calories during that period of time. You have
to subtract what you would burn if you didn't exercise. So the overall
calorie burn becomes much less."
5. One daily workout may not be enough.
Your
best bet for your weight -- and for your overall health -- is to lead a
physically active lifestyle that goes above and beyond a brief bout of
exercise. "It's not just about 30 minutes of exercise," Chen says. "It's about fighting the sedentary environment." "The
message isn't that the 30 minutes on the treadmill isn't good," Hill
says. "It's that the 30 minutes on the treadmill isn't going to make up
for 23-and-a-half sedentary hours." Hill encourages people to weave
activity throughout their day. "Do something to move and make it fun,"
he says. Chen also recommends setting realistic expectations and taking "small steps all the time" toward your weight goal.
As
much as calories-in vs calories-out matters, don't forget about stress,
sleep, and other factors that can affect your weight, Williams says.
"We need to look at someone's total lifestyle, not just whether someone
hits the gym," she says. "Weight and obesity are really multifactorial,
and it really simplifies it just to break it down to nutrition and
exercise. Those are really big pieces but definitely not the only
pieces."
His dramatic weight loss, where his waistline shrank from 60 to 36 inches, has stunned the same youngsters who used to mock him.
2010: At 25st 11lbs (363lbs or 165kgs)
A teacher shed almost half of his 25st 11lb body weight after cheeky pupils called him tubby.
James Bentley, 25, ditched junk food and took up cycling to drop to a much trimmer 14st 8lb in just two years.
And
his dramatic weight loss, where his waistline shrank from 60 to 36
inches, has stunned the same youngsters who used to mock him in IT
classes.
He said: “I got some comments from pupils – the word ‘tubby’ was used a few times.
“I
took it in good humour because I have a good relationship with the
students but things came to a head when I had my picture taken on sports
day.
"My body virtually filled the entire picture, which was embarrassing and I knew I had to do something to change my appearance.
“I looked in the mirror and thought, ‘who is that person?’”
Now: 14st 8lbs (204 lbs or 93kgs)
James, who teaches at Oldbury Academy, West Midlands, said
his weight ballooned as he lived on fizzy drinks at school and gorged on
takeaways later while marking homework.
But he rejected a gastric band in favour of exercise and a healthy diet and has reaped the benefits.
He added: “The weight has managed to keep coming off and now I feel much better.
"When you are used to seeing yourself every day you don’t notice the change.
“But I do think it’s ridiculous when I look at photos from a few years ago and get my big trousers out.”
