Watch Your Numbers...

Today's tip is a very short one: eat less, exercise more.

 

Why do I say that? In a study done by the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, researchers from Tufts University found that fast food and restaurant food actually averages 18% more calories than stated on the nutrition information guides. This is not a deception, per se: the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows up to 20% excess calories in food. If your fast food meal is listed at 500 calories, for example, it is probably 600 calories. A hundred calories here and there may not seem like much, but for someone trying to watch their weight, it can add up to a ten-pound weight gain in a single year.

 

Conversely, when exercising, we seldom actually burn off the amount of calories that we think we are burning off. Even if we go by calorie-burn charts, there's no accounting for rest periods, changes in speed and intensity, and other factors that can affect the way we burn calories.

 

So just remember: if the package says you ate 500 calories, and the exercise table says you burned off 500 calories, the truth may be that you have eaten 600 calories and only burned off 350. Two weeks of that will add a pound and a half to your weight without you even realizing it!

 

Hence, eat less; exercise more.

When The Diet Quits Working...

Frequently, people trying to lose weight will discover that the things they did the first few weeks to lose weight suddenly don't work anymore. It's not that the diet doesn't work; usually the issue is that your body has gotten used to what you are doing, and has adjusted itself in self-preservation. Whatever diet plan you are following, have another one ready as a back-up. If you are on a low-carb, high protein diet, try going to an exchange-type diet, continuing to keep an eye on carbohydrates, fats, and sodium. There are a hundred different diets out there - some heavy in fruits, some heavy in protein, some heavy in grains. Stay away from the ones that don't make any sense to you or that seem too daunting, but look for something you can do differently.

 

Supplement the change in diet with a corresponding change in activity. If your activity has consisted mainly of walking or light weights, find another form of exercise that you can do. And don't be afraid to sweat or feel muscle soreness! Some of you older folks may be somewhat limited in what kinds of activities you can do, but be creative (and careful!).

Be SMART with your goals...

Today's thoughts are not original with me, but they are worth sharing. What are you trying to accomplish with your weight loss strategy? If I were to ask you to write down your goals, what would you write? "To lose weight"? "To be healthier"?

 

Those are good things, but those are not really good goals. It's like going on a trip and saying, "I'm going east." When you set out on a journey, you are specific about where you are going, how you are going to get there, and how long it will take. When setting your weight loss goals, use the acronym SMART to decide what you are going to shoot for:

 

S - Specific. Be specific about your goals. "I want to lose 50 pounds." "I want to get my blood pressure down to normal." "I want to fit back into my size 8 jeans."

 

M - Measureable. Make sure your goals are measureable, so that you can gauge your progress. This usually involves setting goals that involve numbers, whether they be pounds, inches, or other units of measure.

 

A - Action-related. This involves setting goals for which you have the knowledge, ability, and tools to achieve. They have to be set according to what YOU are capable of achieving.

 

R - Realistic. If you set your goal at losing 10 pounds a week, you are going to give up, because by week 4, you're going to be about 30 pounds behind. Do not watch The Biggest Loser and think you are going to pull those kinds of numbers. They have a whole team of trainers, nutritionists, doctors, and other support people who guide them through carefully planned menus and insane workout schedules.

 

T - Time-related. Put a time component into your plans, with a starting date and a goal completion date.

 

Keep your goals specific, measureable, action-related, realistic, and time-related, and you will realize them sooner than you think!

A few tips...

Sorry there haven't been any new updates for a few days... things have been a little crazy for me. Readers of my regular blog and my facebook status updates know that I am struggling with some back/leg/hip issues right now - hard to focus on anything while suffering from severe sciatic nerve issues. Workouts are hard; sitting is hard; walking is hard; sleeping is even hard right now.

 

Just a few tips to pass along that anyone can do to help improve their weight loss:

 

1) Breathe. Breathing sounds so elementary, but most of us breathe shallowly, filling only the top portion of our lungs. But the real exchange of gases happens at the bottom of the lungs. When you have the opportunity, focus on taking deep breaths; breathe deeply by pushing your diaphragm in and out, not by raising and lowering your shoulders. Your diaphragm is the band of muscle directly beneath your ribcage and above your belly, and its purpose is to expand the thoracic cavity to allow air to fill the lungs. More air means more oxygen; more oxygen means more fat-burning.

 

2) Drink. Several times I have discussed the importance of getting enough water. Your water intake needs to be half your weight in ounces, so if you weigh 200 pounds, you need 100 ounces of water daily. But there are other drinks that will help you with your weight loss. Don't go crazy with coffee or diet drinks, but caffeine has been shown to help with weight reduction. If you get your caffeine through coffee, watch the cream and sugar. Use fat-free, sugar free alternatives to flavor your coffee. Green tea can also help burn calories, but again, not with sugar.

 

3) Move. After a satisfying meal, most of us move to the couch and vegetate for a while. Resist the urge, and go for a walk instead. Getting some exercise immediately after a meal (within 5 to 15 minutes) will help convert the food you just ate into fuel for muscles instead of stored fat. If you live a sedentary lifestyle, this is even more important.

 

4) Weigh. For those of you in our Healthy Again in 2010 group at Lumpkin Road Baptist, some of you have missed an appointment or two with the scale... don't do that! It's kind of like not checking your bank account regularly - when you finally do take a look, it's never as good as you think it should be. If you are trying to lose weight, I recommend weighing every day on your own, and definitely don't miss the weekly weigh-in. Weighing daily gives you the opportunity to make corrections in your diet immediately, instead of on a week-to-week basis.

 

5) Forget. Mess up this week? Move on, and don't look back. Figure out what caused you to get sidetracked, find a way to avoid it next time, and get on with business.

 

6) Commit. Your level of commitment will directly coincide with your level of success. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: little changes bring little results; temporary changes bring temporary results. If you want radical results, you HAVE to make radical changes.

 

Next time I will write about why most people fall off the wagon within the first 6 weeks of their diet.

 

Email: healthyagain@lumpkinroad.com

Blog: http://healthyagain2010.blogspot.com

 

 

"Why Can't I Just Work It Off?"

"I'm going to the gym every day, but I'm not losing weight - what am I doing wrong?" I'm starting to hear this from a lot of different people, both inside and outside our weight loss group at church. The plain truth is, working out every day is not going to make you lose weight if there is no change in your dietary habits.

 

Here's an example: you're in a hurry, and for lunch you run by McDonald's and grab a large number one meal (you order a large to get the large drink). This Big Mac Extra Value meal is 1350 calories. In order to offset that calorie intake (forget about the 1410 milligrams of sodium for a minute), you would have to do this much of the following exercises:

 

    * You could do 3 hours of non-stop high-impact aerobics

 

    * You could play full-court basketball for 2 hours

 

    * You could go mountain biking for 2.5 hours

 

    * You could play full-contact football for 2 hours

 

    * You could jog for 3 hours

 

    * You could walk at a moderate pace for 7 hours

 

You get the idea. The average overweight person cannot physically do enough exercise in one day to offset the effects of a high-calorie diet. The average American eats around 4,000 calories per day. In order to lose one pound per week without changing your eating habits, you would have to burn off 4500 calories per day. That translates to 10 hours of aerobics, 6 hours of basketball, 7.5 hours of mountain biking, 6 hours of full-contact football, 9 hours of jogging, or 21 hours of walking.

 

Let me know how that walking thing works out for ya!

A FREE Online Resource...

I can't take any credit at all for the information I'm about to give you, because a friend of mine alerted me to this site.

 

When we began Augusta's Biggest Loser, we were asking about the body bugg that they use on the TV show "The Biggest Loser". Turns out the body buggs are quite expensive, and you have to pay a subscription fee to upload your data to their website. My friend Eric alerted me to a site that he has been using in his weight loss journey, and it has a lot of great features. The site is www.fitday.com, and with nothing more than signing up, you get the ability to do the following:

 

* Track your food intake each day, broken down by calories, fat, carbohydrates, and protein

 

* Track your daily nutrients according to percentage of recommended daily allowance

 

* Track your progress through a journal, weight chart, and other means

 

* Add custom foods to the database simply by typing in the nutrition panel contents

 

* Input your exercise and see roughly how many calories you are burning each day

 

* Record your measurements (waist, arms, etc.) and track your inches lost

 

Basically, it's a poor man's "body bugg". The online version is completely free (although missing a few advanced reports that are only available in the paid version); for $20, you can download the software to your computer instead of using it online. All you have to do is create a username, a password, and give them an e-mail address. I have begun using it myself, and I absolutely love it. Eric asked me to take a look at what he had done, and I was able to immediately identify a couple of potential problem areas for him.

 

**Congratulations to the Lumpkin Road Baptist Healthy Again in 2010 participants - over the past two weeks, you all have lost a combined 125 lbs!!**

 

Email: healthyagain@lumpkinroad.com
Blog: http://healthyagain2010.blogspot.com

Do Weight-Loss Aids Really Work?

One of the things I have discovered by being at the gym at 5:30 every morning is that there are an awful lot of weight-loss and body-toning aids that are being hawked on television these days. From battery-powered belts that supposedly give you a six-pack, to devices that will tie you up in knots, it seems like there is a market for anything that will be a shortcut to diet and exercise. Our desire to be fit can be so overwhelming that we through common sense out the window, ignore all the "results not typical" small print warnings, and plunk down our hard-earned cash for a chance at the body/physique they show on television. Americans spend over $40 billion dollars a year on weight-loss aids.

 

Weight loss is no more complicated than this: removing factors like water retention, you have to create a 3,500 calorie deficit in your intake/output to lose one pound. This is most easily and safely done by a combination of eating less and exercising more. Even the commercials for exercise-centered video games for the Wii say in the fine print at the bottom of the screen that weight loss occurs when you create a 3,500 calorie deficit in your diet through proper nutrition and exercise.

 

There are some legitimate products out there that can help with weight loss - but consult with your doctor or your local professional weight-loss clinic before taking them. Some are legit, some are questionable, and some are downright dishonest and deceptive (like the colon cleansing products that claim you have 7 to 25 pounds of "gook" lining your intestines that needs to be cleaned out).

 

The plain ol' time-tested, boring path of diet and exercise is the best, and only real, way to make a permanent change in your life.