Tag Archives: dieting

Wanna shed some pounds? Get rid of the “dieting mentality”

Posted on by
2

iStock_000006918985SmallWhen you read or hear the word “diet,” what comes to mind? How about pain, suffering, deprivation and misery? Does failure come to mind? Maybe “weight rebound?” So why in the world would anyone want to go on a diet? Simple – to get the results of going on a diet. The problem is diets are typically a temporary thing – you do it for a while until you can’t do it anymore and what happens?

You know the answer . . .
Most of us can’t – and won’t – suffer and deprive ourselves for the rest of our lives to get and stay at our ideal weight. But, if you can find a way to enjoy food while maintaining a healthy weight, I’ll bet you can lose the weight for a lifetime.
Here’s what it boils down to – a numbers game. No different than your checkbook – you need to know how much is coming in and how much is going out. Your body needs a certain number of calories to stay balanced. That is, to maintain your current weight. If you’re depositing more than you’re spending, what happens to your balance? It increases, just like your waistline. If you spend more than you deposit, what happens? Your balance goes into the negative and now you have to use your savings. The body does the same thing – if you spend (burn) more than what’s coming in, it will tap into your savings (fat reserves) and your waistline shrinks.
So doesn’t it make sense to know your balance? Do you know how many calories you need every day? Do you know how much is being deposited? Most people don’t yet they wonder why they “can’t” lose weight. As our founder, Neal Spruce, wisely put it – you can’t manage what you don’t know and you won’t manage what you don’t see. We’ve made it easy for you connect with your numbers with the Me program.  The food logging system and eight different lifestyle menus show you how to incorporate the foods you enjoy so you can manage your daily calorie budget.

Join us for a free webinar on November 11 and we’ll not only give you the facts of weight loss, we’ll show you exactly how our program works. It’s time to stop dieting and enjoy the freedom of dotFIT Me.

Link to www.dotFIT.com/webinars

Are you struggling to lose weight? Maybe it’s time for a change.

Posted on by
Reply

Let’s get real. Gaining weight is way easier than losing it OR maintaining a healthy weight. And dieting stinks. Period.  No one intends to gain excess weight – it sort of happens over time if you don’t pay attention. And as a registered dietitian, personal trainer and working mom, I’ve come to realize that I have to make a conscious choice to maintain a healthy body weight – everyday.

Some days are easier than others (ladies you know what I mean) but it IS a choice. If I blame it on my overweight parents, negative relatives , my busy schedule, the economy, my finances, PMS or stress, I give up my power. And in the end, I give up on myself. I’m NOT doing that and neither should you.  When you take the time to nurture yourself, you’ll have more energy, you’ll be less stressed and you’ll be much more pleasant to be around. If you don’t do this, you’ll start to lose yourself, if you haven’t already. So maybe it’s time for a change. A change in the way you view yourself AND the way you approach weight loss.

Proven Strategies for Weight Loss, Maintenance of Weight Loss, & Prevention of Weight Gain

Posted on by
2

Dieting to lose weight is difficult at best, and generally ends in frustration for the average person. The majority of people gain most of the weight back within the first year (1,2). However, there are three strategies that have consistently proven to be effective in losing weight and maintaining the loss. When combining all three, a person may have the greatest chance of succeeding in accomplishing their desired weight loss (when compared to all current conventional methods of weight loss). When incorporating the three simple methods shown below during caloric restriction, the dieter should significantly reduce the overall effort generally associated with dieting. This allows the participant to more comfortably achieve and maintain the desired outcome.

1.    Self-weigh as often as possible and chart your progress

All studies investigating self-weighing as a weight control strategy have demonstrated that the more you weigh yourself the greater the weight loss , maintenance of the loss and prevention of weight gain (3,4,5,6).  Research also validated the reverse: the less frequently subjects weighed in, the lower their chance of success, and  those who checked their weight the least or never gained weight. Presumably by the time they would weigh themselves, if ever, it was too late to undo the damage without a significant lifestyle change, hence they continued to gain weight.

Figure 1 captures the significant results of regular weighing. More significant is the fact that as time went on the subjects who consistently weighed themselves continued to reduce their body mass index (BMI). This is completely opposite today’s norm.

Subjects weighing multiple times a week reported that any time weight was not trending in a desired direction they would make a simple adjustment. Sometimes eating slightly less (including skipping a meal) or an alteration in exercise would allow them to maintain an easy, steady course to the goal (7).  Additionally, the fact that one has to weigh each day (or most days) influences people to “think twice” about consuming something that might give them an undesirable weigh in.

12 Month Weighing Frequency

24 Month Weighing Frequency

Figure 1 shows the results of weighing frequency: the red bars were subjects attempting weight loss. The black bars were subjects attempting to prevent weight gain. These amazing results clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of regular weighing.

2.    Use of pharmacological agents (prescription drugs) to assist weight loss

The goal of incorporating a dietary supplement or drug into a weight loss program is to assist the participant in complying with the conditions necessary for weight reduction. In 19 studies, participants using weight loss drugs that prevent dietary fat/ calorie absorption and speed metabolism significantly increased total weight loss combined with a dietary/lifestyle regime than when compared to subjects using the dietary/lifestyle regime and placebo (8).  The treatment groups were, on average, three times more likely to lose more than five percent of their total body weight and four times more likely to maintain the weight loss after two years.

The problem with drug therapy is that prescription weight loss drugs should not be used for extended periods of time because they bring along known side effects. Therefore, the goal would be to find safe, natural alternatives in dietary supplements that have the same basic actions (increase calorie burning and block unneeded calories), thus potential to assist in weight loss (9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22). The dieter would cease supplementation once the weight goal is reached or when they have their daily routines under control to continue making progress without the supplements.

3.    Incorporating meal replacements into daily diet

In all studies, meal replacements (MR) have been shown to be an extremely effective aid to weight reduction (23) and in almost all cases more effective than conventional methods of dietary restrictions (24,25,26,27). Additionally, meal replacements have been shown to be just as effective as dietary restriction combined with pharmacological therapy. (8) And most importantly, continuous use of meal replacements may be the most effective means of all treatments when it comes to maintaining weight loss (1,28,29,30) (see figure 2).

Meal replacements are generally used to replace one or two meals a day and allow the individual complete freedom for their remaining daily calories.

Meal replacements allow

* Portion control: people generally attempt to consume meals to completion (31,32); therefore, meal portion size significantly impacts a person’s total calorie intake. (17,33) Overwhelming evidence validates that the smaller the portions, the fewer daily calories consumed33 and vice-versa – i.e. people tend to “eat with their eyes not their stomachs”. Use of portion controlled meals has proven to yield greater weight loss than conventional diet therapy alone. (34,35,36,37)
* Accurate calorie counts of total daily food intake when compared to having to estimate the calories of self-prepared or unmarked meals. (38)

Figure 2: In all six studies the groups using meal replacements (PMR) as part of their overall calorie intake lost significantly more weight than subjects using the reduced calorie diet (RCD) alone. Heymsfield SB (2003)

Figure 3: In a 1-year follow-up in the groups that were tracked, the subjects still using meal replacements maintained significantly more weight loss than the RCD group. Heymsfield SB (2003)

References