Legitimate Information on Losing Weight

The information is obtained from Annual Editions, Nutrition 03/04, Editor D. Klimis-Zacas, Univ. of Maine-Orono. See also evaluation of a variety of diet plans.

Excess weight and lack of fitness account for more than 300,000 premature deaths per year in the US. Obesity is second only to smoking in 2002. Half or Americans are overweight. They spend $50 billion in 2000 on weight loss. Obesity is considered a disease, involving social, behavioral, cultural, physiological, and genetic factors. But the key answer is EAT LESS AND MOVE MORE.

Here are the FOUR KEY BEHAVIORS of successful weight losers:

1. Eat a low-fat, high carbohydrate diet. [Note that dogma on this has changed, partly because of Atkins popularity. Low-fat, low-carbohydrate is now in vogue. Though too much protein is also harmful for kidneys. However, "more protein led to more pounds shed" pg. 101]

2. Weigh yourself often. Daily measurement helps focus your attention on the effort you are making. [NIH recommends 1 to 2 pounds per week by decreasing intake and increasing exercise by 500-1,000 calories per day. So "crash diets" where you lose 10 pounds in a week are likely to fail - strive for long term results, not short term gratification.]

3. Be very physically active. [Succeeders get an hour or more a day, equivalent to walking 4 miles a day. This takes a lot of time - but much less time than dying does.]

4. Eat breakfast! Your body recognizes 100% of the calories consumed for breakfast, so you are less hungry at lunch and dinner. Calories at lunch and dinner are much less effective at controlling your appetite.

"Remember: Losing weight is easy - maintaining it is much harder" - Croft, pg 95

Additional Ideas

1. If you cannot resist carbohydrates, go for healthy carbohydrates like whole-wheat food, not sweets and refined pasta.

2. Get more healthy protein - seafood and poultry, not beef and cheese.

3. Low HDL indicates you need more exercise and good unsaturated fats found in olive and canola oil, nuts, and avocados.

GOOD LUCK! START TODAY!!

There are many pages related to this essay, and I encourage you to view all of them.

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