Today during lunch, my colleagues and I were talking about healthy eating and weight loss. One of my colleagues has actually lost about 50 pounds recently. He told us that his secret was to follow the Weight Watcher’s point system religiously, and to exercise regularly. That really is the only way to real sustainable weight loss.
I’m actually in the same boat. I’ve lost around 30 pounds since December of 2004. I feel much better, with much more energy, and it gives me a great sense of accomplishment.
Simply put, to lose weight, one needs to make sure the amount of energy spend > amount of energy consumed. A rough estimation I’ve come across says 3,500 Calories = 1 pound of body fat. That means, over the long run, to lose one pound, you need to take in 3,500 Calories less than you expend. If you can do that within a week’s time, then 50 consecutive weeks will enable you to lose 50 pounds.
Of course, what I told you about was the “ideal” situation. The body actually maintains an “ideal” weight. If your weight goes above the “ideal” weight, the body will expend more energy performing the same tasks (eating, sitting, walking etc..) to bring the weight back down to the “ideal” weight. If you weight falls below the “ideal” weight, the body will conserve more energy when perform the same tasks, it will try to bring your weight back up to the “ideal” weight. That’s the biggest problem with keeping the weight off.
Anyone who has tried to lose weight can tell you that keeping the weight off is the tough part, especially when your body is constantly trying to thwart your effort.
However, there is hope at the end of the tunnel. The author I mentioned couples of posts ago, Malcolm Gladwell, wrote an excellent article on obesity. You can find it here. In it, he mentioned that there were studies done that proved that once you keep your weight off for more than three years, the body will set that new weight as the “ideal” weight.
I strongly recommend you read that fascinating article, where he talks about all the fad diets and why they don’t work. It’s written in typical Gladwell style, informative, insightly and engaging. I also found Dr. Mercola’s blog very informative. Read the archived articles, a lot of them were focused on obesity and weight loss.
I’ve changed my diet significantly since I started my weight loss program. Now I eat fruits between meals to control hunger, substitute fruits for snacks, eat thing high in protein, fiber, and monosatuated fat. I also try to take a walk after lunch to get some sun as well as some fresh air and I run about 1.5 miles on my treadmill after dinner everyday.
All these seems to be paying off. I’ve lost 30+ pounds since 2004, gotten sick less lately, and I’m able to keep the weight off.
It’s really the only way for weight loss, you’ve heard it thousands of times. Eat less and exercise more. But here, less means less calories, eat more fruits and veggies, which are low on calories and high on bulk (give the sense of fullness). Exercise regularly is also key, if you don’t, you’ll be losing more lean muscle than fat. You have to make healthy living a habit.
Hopefully I can say the same couple of years from now. 😀