resolutions and such

As a rule I'm not the sort of person who makes New Year's resolutions, but last year was an exception.  For a variety of reasons I decided to lose some weight and, mirabile dictu, found success.   Now I find myself making another resolution - namely to stay within a "good enough" weight range and to eat a healthier diet while doing so.  A recent post mentioned the weight loss and several people got in touch asking for tips.  Oddly enough my family physician also asked for tips. While I'm not an expert by any means, but here are some comments.

 

I kept track of everything I ate as well as how much I exercised and compared this to a baseline to make sure I was six to eight hundred Calories below my normal daily requirement.  The idea was to lose about five pounds a month - a slow and steady rate that hopefully would be maintainable.  Some estimates were required (restaurant food) and I found the need to weigh what I ate when possible.  Staying motivated was a big issue for me and access to an exercise coach was central to my success.  The basic technique with product recommendations is here.

 

The type of food and even the timing of meals and food types became important.  I found it necessary to track fat, saturated fat (for safety), protein and carbohydrates.  In general I became very hungry by dinner if I didn't have at least 15% of my breakfast and lunch Calories from protein.  As a lacto-vegetarian I need to carefully monitor protein anyway so at least I was paying attention.¹  Very low fat meals caused a similar problem.  What seemed to work best was aiming for about 20% of my Calories from protein and 20% from fat (as little saturated fat as possible).   Much of the fat came from tree nuts like cashews, pecans, walnuts and pistachios. I tried to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains as they are generally agreed to be important parts of a healthy diet.  

 

I found allowing for some treats was very important.  For me this usually means a bit of chocolate.  I was able to only have four days this past year when I was over target and only two of those were feasts.  Quality food was important.  I found preparing most of my meals myself allowed me to track what was in them and gave me more satisfying meals.  I recommend anything by Mark Bittman as a a starting point for recipes.  He is committed to a quality diet and most of his dishes are very easy to make and delicious. He has about ten books in print, but since I'm a vegetarian I relied on his How to Cook Everything Vegetarian.²   

 

As I progressed I was able to hone in on my daily energy requirement before exercise.  It was a bit different from the published values, but was stable and gave me a baseline for planning.  Of course as I lost weight it changed as did the exercise numbers.   While a lot of people have success by just eating less, I found journaling to be very important.  If you use this approach, do yourself a favor and use software.

 

Here is the result for the year - January 2 through today.

 

Now my goal is to stay between the 155 and 165 pounds, which is medically my healthy weight range as I'm 6'1.  It turns out if you have been heavy the body will modify metabolism, hormone signals and even muscle type and percentage. The net effect is roughly a ten percent decrease in requirements.  If a person at, say 160 pounds, requires 2,000 Calories a day to maintain weight, a similar person who had been significantly heavier but is now 160 only needs about 1,800 Calories.   The hunger signals remain at, or even above, the 2,000 Calorie a day level - it becomes easy to overeat.   This is probably the reason why people gain weight after a diet, so the challenge is to eat less, eat better and add exercise.  It appears this is not a short term change - that it may take a decade or more for the body to move back to their earlier normal level.³  We are very well evolved to store energy for lean times.

 

At the suggestion of my doctor I tried to avoid sustained monthly weight drops that exceed three percent.  There is evidence that drops in excess of five percent are dangerous and damage hormone signaling to the point where long term stability at a healthy weight is nearly impossible.

 

A few months ago I began to approach my target range and, hoping for a smooth transition,  I adjusted the slope of the curve to decrease my monthly loss.  I'm where I should be now, but left to myself I would eat enough to gain weight.  It is clear I need long term monitoring.  So I find myself on the eve of another resolution - namely to stay within a weight range.  Some long term studies suggest I may need to do this for a decade.  Keeping it off will be a big challenge.  Sorting out a healthier diet is also important.  

 

So if you are planning a weight loss resolution my suggestions are:

 

° Go slowly!  Plan on losses under three percent of your body weight per month.

 

° Find a safe and balanced diet. Talk to your doctor and ignore pulp magazines andTV infomercials with their quick and easy fixes.  Fad diets are generally bad news. Also remember that if you have problems taking off weight, it is going to be even harder keeping it off, so find something that can work for you as well as a long-term transition diet.

 

° Monitor and journal everything you eat. 

 

° Use a good food scale that reads accurate to the nearest gram.

 

° If you don't cook for yourself, learn.  Hire a personal chef for a few lessons or go to an adult education course.  A culinary student or off-duty chef will sometimes provide a few hours of hands-on training for a very low price.

 

° Find a way to have some treats every now and then and allow for a few days when you eat by the old rules (Thanksgiving for example). 

 

° Find an exercise coach as well as exercises you like - or at least don't actively dislike.

 

° Plan a long term (years) maintenance strategy.

 

° If you have your own tips, post them in the comments section

 

A downside to all of this is that none of my clothing fits anymore.  I can get away with the tshirts, but jeans and slacks are a different matter.   I'm slowly buying new togs, but currently a belt is certainly a safety requirement as I've gone from a 36 to 38 inch waist to 31 to 32 inches.

 

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¹ Anyone with a non-standard diet - vegetarians and vegans for example - should consult with a physician before taking on a challenge like this.

² The $4.99 iPhone version is particularly useful when you are in a store in need of inspiration.  I recommend his blog for his views about food and society.  I'm in general agreement - certainly more than I am with Michael Pollan.

³ Quite a bit of research has been done on metabolic shifts and a bit is mentioned in this recent NY Times Magazine article.  It is clear that keeping weight off is an enormous challenge - greater than taking it off - so the diet industry may be the perfect business with lots of repeat customers.  There has also been interesting work that indicates liposuction may be counterproductive - that the weight comes back and, no matter where it was initially removed, it tends to concentrate in the abdomen - medically the most dangerous location.

 

Comments

[steve]

If you are looking for exercise kit, now is not the time to shop. Wait until the Spring when people start cleaning out their basements and garages and decide to get rid of that stepping machine or spinning bike that has been sitting unused for years. I've seen basically unuxed expensive machines being offered for little or nothing out of guilt. The NYTs posted a piece on the great business in resolutions: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/business/new-years-resolutions-recycled-are-a-boon-for-business.html

[Niki Fallen]

Have you ever read anything by Dr. Joel Fuhrman? He does a lot of work in Nutrition.