Category: Food and Diet

How to Escape the Calorie Counting Drudgery

Ever been a food calorie counter? Frustrating, isn’t it, recording all of those eaten calories?

For years we were taught that a calorie was a calorie—that they were all the same. So if a relatively active, 30-year old, woman needed to eat 1,800 calories a day to sustain herself, then it didn’t matter what food source they came from.

And then 40 years ago, when preventing heart disease launched into full tilt, we were taught that we needed to avoid fat because fat was the culprit causing heart disease and making our middles balloon.

So what’s the story now?

 

Calorie counting and recent research—

Through research, scientists are starting to figure out that all calories are not alike, and that some fats are good for you and your heart. And it may not be the number of calories eaten but the type of foods.

What type of foods are the biggest culprits? You probably know.

  • Chips
  • Pastries
  • Cookies
  • Soda
  • Crackers
  • White rice
  • Pasta
  • Processed foods, especially heavily-processed types, like the kind you find in your pre-made meal section of your grocery store

All of these foods cause a chemical reaction in our bodies that raises the insulin levels and causes the body to store the calories as fat. Dr. David Ludwig, an endocrinologist and researcher at Harvard Medical School, calls insulin the “Miracle-Gro for your fat cells.” Insulin causes the cells to snag the calories and immediately store them as fat cells.

And that quick process leaves you feeling hungry and unsatisfied. And if your body is subjected to this insulin-hiking cycle too often, your metabolism will change gears and start hanging onto the calories it’s stored. That’s not a scenario you want to encounter if you’re trying to lose weight or maintain a healthful diet.

The bottom line? It’s the quality of the calories and not the quantity that matters.

 

Calorie counting solution?

To break or snap this fat-storing cycle, you’ll need to replace processed carbs (pastas, ice cream, cookies, chips, crackers and snacks) with healthful fats (olive oil, fish, nuts). Yes, fats! And why fats?

Because fats don’t raise insulin so they aid weight loss.

Studies show that people on low-fat diets tend to lose less weight than those on low-carb programs.

And eating good fats, like omega-3s (salmon) and monounsaturated fats (avocados) doesn’t appear to cause weight gain.

 

The healthful diet Gold Standard—

For years scientists have known that people who follow what is known as the Mediterranean diet—a diet rich in vegetables, good fat and some fish—lose more fat and maintain healthier hearts.

One study showed a 30% reduction of heart disease in the group that were low-carb dieters when compared to low-fat dieters.

 

What’s the goal?

Your overall goal should be to go for the healthful fat and proteins and slash your sugar.

When designing or planning your meals, aim for real, natural foods that contain fiber, protein and fat. These are satisfying foods that fill you up and curb your hunger. They also result in a slower insulin level rise in your body. Foods like:

  • Veggies or whole grains
  • Protein like fish and eggs
  • Healthy fats—going for the olive oil to sprinkle on your salad rather than a processed, creamy one. Also avocado and egg in this category.

 

Some of the top food choices would be:

  • Fish
  • Avocados
  • Artichokes
  • Broccoli
  • Eggs
  • Quinoa or Millet
  • Almonds and Walnuts
  • Lentils
  • Yogurt, especially Greek
  • Bananas
  • Apples
  • Oatmeal
  • Lentils and White Beans and Black-eyed Peas

 

But BEWARE the peanut butter and almond butter scoops! Portion control is important, and this is where keeping an eye on some calorie counts may be helpful for you.

Think well-rounded meals. And when selecting proteins, like fish or chicken, it’s best to aim for no more than 3 – 6 ounces, the amount that would fit in your hand. (The number varies depending upon your age, activity-level, and sex. Athletes need more protein for muscle development, protein aids in healing, and, surprisingly, recent research indicates older adults don’t get enough protein.)

 

Slow down when you eat!
  • Think chopsticks. That’s what a dietary specialist told me during an article interview I did with her. You’ll eat more slowly and focus more on your meal.
  • And eat like kids tend to eat, minus the cookie binges, of course. They tend to graze and stop eating when they’re full. Don’t force yourself to eat everything on your plate.
  • It takes 20 minutes for the brain to register satisfaction and fullness, so scarfing down your meal can override the benefits of this trigger. You’ll end up eating too much before you feel stuffed.
  • Converse when eating, not with your mouth full, of course.
  • Chew thoroughly so the enzymes released in your mouth can start breaking down the food for digestion. It’s easier on your digestive system.
  • Put your fork down between bites, instead of taking a bite and then promptly re-loading your fork. You’ll end up forking in what you’ve packed on it, rather than waiting until you’ve thoroughly chewed what you already have in your mouth. You’ll end up looking like a squirrel when you’re eating.

 

Learning to be a mindful eater—

Finally, be more conscious of how your body feels and what it’s telling you about eating.

Don’t just eat because the schedule indicates it’s time to eat. Eat when you’re really hungry, when your body is telling you that it needs nourishment. You’ll feel more satisfied and more in control, which is usually what everyone strives for anyway.

So discard your calorie counting cards!

One a side note: I want to give a Happy Birthday shout-out to my baby boy, who turns 24 today! What a miracle and blessing he is to me!

Beginning next Wednesday, Workout Wednesdays will be going on hiatus until April 3, when I’ll be back with healthful body tips, a way for you to sign up to receive my posts on a regular basis, and a freebie for your generosity in wanting to stay connected!

 

I’m undergoing knee surgery this Friday, March 1, (as long as I can rid myself of this nasty cold), and I will be spending March recuperating.

Please mark your calendars for April 3 to re-join me!

 

Until then, have fun trying new foods and meals with your rediscovered fats and proteins. I know you’ll be happy you did!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

The Potential Dangers of Intermittent Fasting and Rapid Weight Loss

As we covered in last Wednesday’s blog, Intermittent Fasting has its benefits, to be sure.

Reducing the number of carb calories ingested and forcing the brain and muscles to run on ketone bodies can reduce brain sluggishness and joint-stressing excess weight. Some medical professionals believe the protein foods eaten on a Keto diet can support thyroid health. And Intermittent Fasting is linked to keeping the body tone and supple when losing weight, rather than ending up with saggy excess skin.

 

But like anything, good things can be taken too far to end up being bad things. Intermittent fasting is no exception.

What happens when you decide to reduce your calorie consumption to 500 calories every day rather than follow the 5:2 plan?

 

Problems with excessive fasting—

Athletes can be prone to living in extremes—extreme workouts and extreme diets. For years this kind of problem has manifested itself in sports and activities like gymnastics, ice skating, and dance, where low weight is highly sought after. After all, it takes a lot to throw body weight around, and the lower the body weight the easier it is to move.

One huge problem is that low body fat often accompanies low body weight, and young girls and dancers who work to stay thin and in possession of a low body fat percentages often wreak havoc with their hormones. Amenorrhea, (cessation of menstruation; or not menstruating by the age of 15), is a condition that accompanies low body fat in girls or women. Long-distance runners can also suffer from this malady.

It takes a certain body fat percentage to become pregnant and support a pregnancy. And amenorrhea can lead to an early onset of osteoporosis, or a higher likelihood of having osteoporosis when you age.

Not having enough body fat to support hormone function messes up other body functions too.

 

And what about the risks of rapid weight loss?

It may seem wonderful that you’ve dropped double-digit poundage in one week rather than the recommended 1-2 pounds, but rapid weight loss can be harder on the heart than rapid weight gain.

Rapid weight loss has been shown to:

  • Slow your metabolism and lead to future weight gain later.
  • Weaken your immune system and make you more susceptible to illness and disease.
  • Increase your dehydration risk.
  • Increase cardiac stress and heart palpitations.

 

When thin or athletic puts a mask on body fat reality—

I used to do a lot of body fat measuring as part of my work, both in the clinic and out in the field. I’d often take my skinfold caliper to sporting events, like recreational cycling races, to measure participants’ body fat after their race. I’d always offer foot massages too, which was a godsend for some peddlers.

What I often found was that many of these people weren’t as conditioned, or as toned, as they believed they were.

Thin people were appalled to learn that their body fast percentage parked them in the unhealthy, over-fat or obese category. Big, athletic people found the same discrepancy between their perceived fitness and their actual health. When my husband took the caliper to work one day to measure his friends, they all lined up for a pinch. The skinniest member of the group—a rail-thin administrative assistance—came in at a whopping obese level. She was depressed at the revelation, to say the least.

 

The point is: appearance does not always equal reality—in either a highly-competitive athlete that pushes the boundaries on her body’s capabilities or a thin, sedentary person who sits in a chair in front of a computer all day to work. Or a recreational athlete who believes he can ride his bike 50 miles on a Saturday and then eat as he pleases every day of the week, and even more after the ride.

You need to know your body, select carefully, and avoid the extremes. Be as consistent as possible; don’t starve yourself for days to make up for some over-indulgent ones.

You don’t want to run the risk of making an idol out of your diet or dieting. Too often food obsession morphs into disorders like anorexia, binging, bulimia (binging and then throwing up what you’ve eaten), and extreme obsession with healthful foods and “watching” what you eat.

 

Take it from someone who suffered for years with an eating disorder and all the mental and physical side effects that come with it.

Intermittent Fasting is just that—intermittent fasting. Not fasting every day.

Don’t get carried away. Have a plan and work it.

And enjoy the good food God has given us for our enjoyment and health!

Until next week, when we’ll address calorie counting, and maybe worry more about your actual body fat percentage than those scale numbers and that dress or pants size.

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How Do Genes and Gut Bacteria Affect Weight Loss?

My ninety-seven year old mother is decidedly opinionated about seriously overweight people.

“How can they let themselves get like that?” she laments while shaking her head and cruising along with her walker.

 

Sounds terribly judgmental, doesn’t it?

Yet scientists are proving there is an undercurrent of truth to that sentiment. A strong undercurrent.

 

Research indicates that the majority of the obese people in our country—40% of us fall into that category—didn’t get there by having bad or “fat genes.” On the contrary, evidently genes account for only 3% of the differences in people’s sizes.

Most overweight strugglers got that way for a variety of other reasons than genes:

  1. Learning how to and eating the wrong foods. (Family habits.)
  2. Learning how to and eating too much food. (Family habits.)
  3. Not exercising enough.

 

And now scientists know other variables play into the problem. Things like:

  1. Not enough sleep.
  2. Too much stress.
  3. Wrong kind of stress.
  4. Socioeconomic status.
  5. Mental health.
  6. Daily responsibilities at work and home.
  7. The health of your microbiome—your gut bacteria.
  8. Kitchen smarts and comfort—knowing how to cook and being comfortable preparing meals.

 

And I would add another variable:

Spiritual health.

 

So the verdict is in:

Experts agree that genes alone do not explain the rapid rise in obesity we’re seeing today.

 

National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientist, Kevin Hall, laments the fact that scientists still don’t know why weight loss can vary so much from person-to-person when they’re all on the same diet. He says it’s the biggest open question in the field.

 

What if you do have a “fat gene”?

It might seem easy to fall back on the knowledge of having a “fat gene” as a good excuse for not being able to lose and maintain a healthy weight. But John Mathers, a professor of human nutrition at Newcastle University in England sites a study of 9,000 people that found that being a fat gene carrier had no influence on that person’s ability to lose weight. Mathers says,

“Carrying the high-risk form of the gene makes you more likely to be a bit heavier, but it shouldn’t prevent you from losing weight”

(Sifferlin, Alexandra. “Why Your Diet Isn’t Working and What to do What It” The Science of Weight Loss: Special Time Edition, 2019; page 16).

 

What about that microbiome—the gut bacteria?

Researchers for the Personalized Nutrition Project at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have been studying how gut bacteria may play a role in weight loss and maintenance. Their researchis fascinating.

In a nutshell, they found that blood sugar levels vary widely among people after they ate the exact same meal. That finding alone debunks the common and popular idea of everyone responding identically to the same diet recommendations.

And they were able to go further. They developed a mathematical algorithm for every person involved in the test trial, and that algorithm can accurately predict that person’s blood sugar response to a specific food just on the basis of their personal microbiome!

Knowing that could be the next frontier in weight loss prescription—your doctor being able to design a tailor-made diet plan, just for you and your body!

 

Another big contributor to weight gain and weight loss struggles are…

Chemicals.

Yup. Chemicals we’re exposed to in our daily lives. Chemicals like:

  • BPA found in canned goods lining
  • Cash-register receipts
  • Flame retardant material in sofas and mattresses and children’s clothing
  • Pesticide residue on our food
  • Phthalates in plastics (think water bottles and food storage containers) and the makeup we wear

 

What’s wrong with these chemicals and how do they factor into obesity?

These chemicals are able to mimic human hormones. And that leads scientists to believe they can, and are, wreaking havoc on our endocrine systems. They’ve been found in human breast milk. And some doctors believe it’s what contributing to children experiencing puberty at younger ages.

Some doctors are going so far as placing this chemical-endocrine danger as the third lynch pin—along with poor diet and lack of exercise—in the trilogy of weight loss obstructers and obesity epidemic contributors.

 

Case Study—

I’d like to pin my current overweightness (not yet in the obese category) on a lot of things, including my slowing hormones. But when I take an honest look at my current lifestyle, it’s a far cry from what it was even two years ago, when I exercised regularly and paid closer attention to what I ate.

Although I’m eating healthier now than I did then, I’m eating more and burning off less. I had started sitting at my computer too much and stopped going to the gym regularly, all while continuing to consume the same number of calories I did when much more active.

I’d like to blame it on my slowing hormones, too, but first I’m ramping up my exercise again, before rushing off to my doctor for a thyroid test. I want to see if increasing my muscle mass will improve my metabolism to a point where the weight loss is regular and a healthy weight obtainable and manageable.

And because I’m getting older, I know my daily calorie requirements are dropping, so I need to take an honest look at what I’m packing in and when. And I’ve been accumulating sleep data, courtesy of the cool fit watch my younger son gave me for Christmas. From that I’ve determined I do best with 8 ½ hours of sleep. And, surprisingly, I seem to get more and better sleep when I go to bed later and rise a little later than an early bird.

Maybe that’s how my clock is wired, to be a night owl, even though I do on occasion enjoy waking up early enough to see the sunrise. Maybe not on a regular basis, though. So, I adjust to my personal biorhythms. Thankfully, I can do that since I’m self-employed. My poor husband—who definitely leans toward night owlness—doesn’t have that luxury.

Another thing that helps me immensely in getting adequate, restful sleep is shutting down all of the tech appliances well before bedtime. An hour is best, but I’m aiming for longer time between computer/phone/tablet and lights out. I find my sleep switch starts kicking in earlier and gradually ramps up the melatonin production in preparation for bed.

And one last thing I watch is how much food I eat for dinner and what time my last meal is. If my last meal is at 3-4 hours prior to bedtime, I sleep better. And if I consume my last glass of water 3 hours before going to bed, I’m less likely to be awakened by bladder pressure screaming its needs in the middle of a good dream!

 

As the long-living Seventh Day Adventists say, “Eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper for dinner. It’s great advice!

NEXT WEEK, we’ll take a closer look at this Keto diet craze and the benefits of food restriction or fasting a couple of days a week.

Until then, take heart! You don’t have to be stuck in your unhealthy weight mode. Perseverance and consistency can get you where you want to be—healthy!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

How to Maximize Weight Loss Success

What would you say the distinguishing factor is between your ability to lose weight and successfully keeping it off?

Genes? Family food heritage? Type of diet? Amount of exercise?

Well, according to the researchers at the National Weight Loss Registry (NWLR), the answer is…

 

Motivation.

 

Yup. It’s not genes or family food heritage or just exercise or the type of diet. It’s sheer motivation. Hard work.

And another important factor the researchers have learned?

 

 That no 2 people lose weight the same way!

 

So what does that last finding have to do with you?

It means that in order to lose weight and successfully keep it off, you need to play around with ANY diet and exercise plan you follow, to see what works and what doesn’t.

 

Some of the things you can play with as variables:
  • Times of day you eat.
  • Amount of food you eat at one meal.
  • The times of day you exercise.
  • The types of exercise you engage in.
  • What food you actually eat.

 

Other things to keep in mind while designing a health and fitness program:
  • Understand yourself and where you personally struggle.
  • Don’t be discouraged if you need to try several different plans or programs before hitting on what’s right for you.
  • It may take about a month for a new habit or lifestyle to take hold. Keep at it and eventually the brain—and body—will respond.
  • Trying to lose weight can seem overwhelming. Having an accountability partner or motivating fitness coach can help.
  • Aiming for a health lifestyle change rather than just a weight scale number will provide you the most success.
  • Slow and steady, rather than fast and dangerous, wins the prize!
  • Write down all meals and food eaten throughout your day.
  • You may find eating more frequent, smaller meals is best.
  • When selecting an exercise program, choose to do something you love. You’ll be more likely to stick with it.
  • Don’t allow yourself to be pigeonholed into a specific diet.
  • Be determined to persevere and push through the tough days.
  • If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again!
  • Remember, as you age, you’ll likely need to tweak your diet and exercise program again as your flexibility, metabolism and muscle mass change.
  • And in some cases, mental health must be addressed and successfully managed before you can find dieting success.
Some specific weight loss success tips:
  • Pay attention to your portion sizes. Most of us eat way too many monster meals, especially at restaurants or all-you-can-eat buffets.
  • If necessary, purchase smaller plates and fill them up. It will give you the impression you’re eating more.
  • Sit down to eat and slow down to eat. It takes a while (about 15-20 minutes) for your brain to get the notice that you’re full. Scarfing food usually means too much food intake. And then that stuffed feeling.
  • Don’t allow yourself to eat on the run, in the car, or while standing in the kitchen.
  • Keep a food journal. In it keep track of everything you eat and how you feel after eating it, even into the next day. If you do that for 30 days, you’ll start getting an idea about what foods may be causing you problems, from allergies to bloating to indigestion and sluggishness.
  • Also keep track of your food-eating triggers, like stress, lack of sleep, late night eating, etc.

 

Moving forward—

Losing weight can, and does, change your life!

If you’re already on a diet plan and haven’t seen much success with it in, say, a month, try tweaking it a bit. Change the food portions; change the time of day you eat the prescribed meals. Exercise more; sit less. And make sure you’re getting enough replenishing water. Believe it or not, many times we think we’re hungry when it’s really our thirst mechanism kicking in. First take a drink and then wait to see if the hunger pangs continue.

Understanding and taking into account all of these factors is known as the “whole body approach” to health and fitness. It’s not a one-size-fits-all undertaking. You’re unique, and you need a unique—or tweaked—health and fitness plan!

NEXT WEEK, we’ll talk a little about the genetic factor, and the newest research on the importance of healthy gut bacteria. Can anyone say “probiotics?”

Until then, don’t throw in the towel. Keep at it until you find your sweet spot. Your health will appreciate you for it!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

Is Exercising More or Reducing Calories the Answer to Successful Weight Management? What You Need to Know About the Science of Weight Loss

Which of these statements have you heard?

“To lose weight, all you need to do is eat less and exercise more!”

“Losing weight is all about calories in and calories out.”

“All calories are the same—a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.”

 

For years this is what we were taught in nutrition and exercise physiology classes, and it’s what we told our patients.

Recent research is showing that these statements don’t paint the whole, complex weight loss picture. But before we dig deeper into what we’re learning now, let’s get an overview of the ugly reality of weight and fatness in the United States.

 

The discouraging facts—

  • In 1990, 15% of adults were classified as obese.
  • Now, at least 71% of Americans are considered to be overweight; nearly 40% are clinically obese.
  • Sadder still is that 17% of kids and teens are obese. When I was a kid it was rare to have a fat kid in your class. (I know that blunt statement sounds mean, but we need to start calling it like it is: these kids are in serious danger of having premature health problems and living burdened lives saddled with chronic health issues.)
  • Excess body fat dramatically increases the risk of serious health problems, like:
  1. Type II Diabetes
  2. Heart Disease
  3. Depression
  4. Respiratory problems
  5. Major cancers
  6. Fertility problems
  • Millions and millions and millions of us spend billions on diet pills, special meal plans and group weight loss programs, and gym memberships.
  • The National Institute of Health considers the problem to be so dire that the organization provided 931 million dollars in 2018 to research the problem.

 

What does the recent research show?

So what has all of that money and research shown us? The answer is both complex, and a relief.

Scientists have concluded that a calorie is not always a calorie, and that it’s not as easy as calories in and calories out.

What they have found is: it’s the composition of the food you eat rather than how much of it you can burn off exercising that allows you to sustain, and maintain, weight loss.

And these scientists know something else: the diet that’s best for your friend is probably NOT the best one for you!

Evidently people’s individual responses to diets vary enormously. But what they’re not absolutely sure about is why that’s true.

 

So what’s a dieter to do?

Apply yourself to finding out what works for you! And that may require some trial-and-error time.

 

A story of the dreaded calorie and counting it—

Before WWI, scientists throughout Europe had been focusing on and studying the concept of a calorie being a unit of energy. In college, that concept was hammered into my head, and into my nutrition calculations. We studied bomb calorimeters— wonderful devices you put food into and burned so you could determine just how much energy was released during the destruction process. That gave you the calorie count for that particular food item.

But in WWI, in the midst of a global food shortage, the United States wanted a way to prompt people to reduce their food intake. So the government devised its first-ever “scientific diet” for Americans to follow. At its core was the concept and practice of counting calories.

The following decades saw bone-thin bodies as the ideal body structure, so dieting plans were developed along the idea of eating low-calorie meals. One example of this is the still–popular grapefruit diet, where you consume half a grapefruit at every meal. People believed the grapefruit enzymes were natural fat burners. Then the cabbage-soup-every-day diet appeared. I’m not sure what they thought the cabbage might contribute, except to enhance digestion and whisk the fat away.

Then in the 1960s, a woman named Jean Nidetch and her co-founders became insta-millionaires with their Weight Watchers meetings program. She turned a small, weekly encouragement meeting she held in her living room into a billion dollar (today) business.

Her idea promoted that if you ate less fattening food, then the weight would disappear. That helped propel the late 70s idea that if you just eat less fat, you’ll be less fat. I remember promoting that erroneous idea in the 80s. Based on what I’d learned in school, it seemed to make sense—fat gets stored in the body as fat, so if you consume less of it, then you should wear less of it.

How did that work out?

Not well. Not only did people not lose weight, they actually gained weight!

 

The metabolism factor—

Something else scientists have found contributes to what’s been a frustrating mystery.

When you lose weight, your resting metabolism (the energy your body burns while at rest, just to keep the system going) actually slows down. And when you gain back some of the weight, that metabolism doesn’t speed up. It remains stubbornly entrenched in slow mode. And the number of calories a day it doesn’t burn can be startlingly high.

For some contestants on the reality show The Biggest Loser, their metabolisms registered at burning around 700 fewer calories per day than they did prior to their fat burning journey on the show!

But my question is: could that result be due to the fact that contestants lost a huge amount of weight in a very short period of time, something doctors do not encourage, for a variety of reasons, including heart health.

 

Regardless of the answer, the sad truth is that most people replenish their lost weight at two to four pounds per year.

On the surface, this finding seems to support the idea that the body undermines your efforts to take away what it wants to keep.

 

More of the weight loss story—

Some people—and you probably know one—seem to succeed in losing weight with any diet approach.

Yet there is a bright side to the story.

Take a group of people eating a low-carb diet and compare them to a group following a low-fat plan, and you see almost no overall difference in the weight loss results.

What you do see, however, are three types of people: those who lose a lot of weight on the plan they’re following; those that stay stagnant, with no weight loss; and those that actually gain weight.

Do scientists understand why that happens? Unfortunately, not yet, but they are making inroads to cracking the secret.

 

Rena Wong, a Brown University professor of psychiatry and human behavior has been tracking dieters for 23 years through the National Weight Loss Control Registry (NWCR). What she and her colleagues have found is that most of the people on the list have lost significant amounts of weight—a minimum of 30 pounds—and been able to keep it off for several years by varying means.

The significant finding? Most of these people had to try more than one diet before landing one that worked for them.

 

How did these dieters keep their lost weight off?

It turns out that the most successful dieters have some similar characteristics:

  • Most modified their diet in some way.
  • Most reduced how much food they ate in a day.
  • 94% increased their physical activity.
  • The most popular exercise among them was walking.
  • Most ate breakfast on a daily basis.
  • Most weigh themselves weekly, in order to keep an eye on weight creep.
  • Most watch less than 10 hours of television weekly.
  • Most exercise a minimum of an hour every day.

 

And they also have similar attitudes and behaviors:

  • Most do not consider themselves to be hard-charging, super-performer Type A’s.
  • Most are self-described morning people.
  • Most were motivated by a health scare; a desire to live a longer, healthier life; and to be able to spend more time with their loved ones.
  • And they were highly motivated to find what worked for them and to persevere.

 

Take-home lessons for us:

This information can be disheartening and encouraging.

It tells us that we can lose weight, if we diligently try to find the method that works for us, stay determined and positive, and persevere in best diet practices for our body, at any age.

It’s nice to know that there’s more to the story. It gives many of us a sense of relief and re-invigoration of determination and hope.

And I think it’s important for us to always remember that a loving God fearfully and wonderfully makes all of us. He starts knitting us together in our mother’s womb.

 

I know only too well how easy it is to throw up your hands in frustration when the one-size-fits-all plan fails you. But I invite you to rejoice over your uniqueness, knowing that you will find something that gives you success, if you want it badly enough and are willing to stick with it.

NEXT WEEK: How to find what diet and exercise regimen works for you.

Until then, take heart, you can find success if you know the science of weight loss!

Blessings,

Andrea

“Certainly there was an Eden….We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

For more information on this particular research, see the article “Why Tour Diet Isn’t Working and What to Do About It by Alexandra Sifferlin in Time magazine’s special edition publication The Science of Weight Loss, 2019.