It’s almost Christmas!!! Hope you and yours have a merry one, and also managed to avoid starting the New Year with an extra ten pounds to lose added to your resolutions. Weight loss and weight maintenance can at times seem very daunting because there is a plethora of information out there on the topic. Between fad diets, weight loss success stories, and the wide range of experts claiming to have solutions weight loss can start to seem overwhelming or confusing. In my clinical practice I see clients daily struggling with weight loss and maintenance, and these are some simple tips that can help you stay on track.
- Eat Breakfast Daily. A common mistake many people make when they are trying to lose weight is to skip meals. Although it seems logical that if you eat way less or next to nothing at all you will lose weight, that is not the case. When you are undernourished is your body thinks you are starving and conserves fat. By starting the day off with a balanced breakfast (which can be light) we give our body essential nutrients it needs and help to prevent overeating later in the day.
- Weigh yourself at least once a week. Don’t go overboard with this, but monitoring your weight at least once weekly can help you stay on track and make sure you are not unconsciously gaining weight after all of those holiday parties! When weighing yourself try to do it first thing in the morning before meals and at the same consistent time. If you weigh yourself more than once a day you may notice that in the evening or after meals you weigh more which is natural. It’s ideal to only weight yourself once and not get too caught up in the natural daily fluctuations that happen with additional water and food.
- Watch less than 10 hours of TV per week. Reducing the amount of sedentary in your day overall can go a long way to improving weight maintenance and helping with weight loss. Long hours of TV watching is not helpful for many reasons. In addition to the fact that it is a sedentary activity, you may find that while you are watching you also eat. When we eat in front of the television, we tend to overeat ad be less conscious of the portions of food we are consuming. During TV programs there are also multiple advertisements for fast food which can lead us to crave less than healthy foods. If you are going to watch TV for long periods, try exercising while you watch so that you are moving towards your weight loss goals and burning calories.
- Exercise every day, or at minimum two to three times per week. Wellness guru Jack Lalanne once said “Exercise is King. Nutrition is Queen. Put them together and you have a kingdom.” Regular exercise is essential for weight loss, maintaining healthy weight, and remaining youthful. Research has shown that those who exercise regularly are sometimes 10-20 years younger than their non-exercising counterparts.
- Use a food activity / diary or log. Tracking your food and activity keeps you accountable for your health goals. Sometimes we can over or under exaggerate our health habits, but when it is clearly written down we are faced with the truth of our habits and can more easily make adjustments to help us reach our goals. The great news is there are many apps that can assist with tracking including Lose It! And My Fitness Pal. If you are not an app person, you want to use good old fashioned pen and paper to log your meals and that works too!
- Choose a low calorie eating plan. If you are trying to lose weight you may have heard that calories matter. Although the quality of the food you consume can also help encourage weight loss, it is important to be aware of quantity. But where do you start? A simple way to find out what calorie level to work for you is to calculate your basal metabolic rate. There are many basal metabolic weight calculators online and all you need to input is your age and height. You’ll want your calories to remain somewhere between 500-1000 above your BMR depending on your activity level. The best way to receive professional guidance on this is to see a nutritionist or dietician who can create a plan for you.
- Limit fast and processed foods. Consumption of processed food derails your progress and speeds weight gain. When we eat whole nutrient dense foods we avoid refined sugar, refined flours, and excess sodium which increases inflammation and lead to weight gain over time. It’s been proven that the less you eat out the less likely you are to gain weight and you can eat larger quantities at home and lose weight than you can at fast food or restaurants. When we eat fast food the other issue is that our body does not actually receive the nutrients it needs to function optimally, so we don’t get the internal cues to stop eating. On top of that, most processed foods are scientifically designed to make us crave more of them! The added sugars and salt become addictive, but the food does not satisfy our daily nutritional requirements.