February 2011 – Keeping the momentum going!

Hello everyone!

I can’t believe it is February already! Most of us will be back to work and our children back to school or varsity, those New Year resolutions may seem like they were made eons ago! So many of us will have started off the New Year with great intentions and perhaps the weight started melting away but perhaps now our weight loss has stalled?

The problem is that when we embark on an exercise and food program to lose weight, we automatically think that ‘magic’ will happen. Without realising it, we could be sabotaging our good intentions or we may not be burning as many calories as we think.

Here are some of the most common issues:

• You are not exercising as much as you think you are! It’s easy to overestimate how many calories we are burning when exercising. Many factors determine calories burned, including duration and intensity of exercise, whether the intensity is varied, and the type of exercise. Weight-bearing exercise, like running, walking, and aerobics, leads to burning more calories since gravity requires the body to work harder. With non-weight-bearing exercise, like cycling and swimming, there isn’t as much gravitational stress on the muscles, which means fewer calories are expended.
• Solution: The best way to truly monitor your exercise would be via a journal and heart monitor to see the actual duration and intensity, and how they could be increased. If in doubt, speak with a well experienced personal trainer who can guide your exercise program.

• You are skipping meals. Skipping meals can lead to food cravings and overeating later in the day — reaching for whatever food is available and making up for the missed calories by wolfing food down. Research at Vanderbilt University found that after approximately 72 hours of not eating consistently, the body shuts down its calorie-burning abilities and begins to store fat. In clinical studies, after one week, healthy women were seen to lose 16 percent of their resting energy expenditure, which led to increased fat storage and a decrease in metabolism.
• Solution: regular smaller meals and snacks which give you all you fruit, veg, complex carbohydrates and protein etc needs over a day.

• You are eating more than you think you are! You might think you’re cutting back on portions, but may not realise the real number of calories you’re eating.
• Solution: Use measuring utensils and/or a food scale; learn visual cues to estimate portion sizes. For example, a 90g piece of protein is the size of a deck of cards or a chequebook, one cup of rice or pasta resembles a baseball, and 15g of cheese looks like two playing dice. Keep a food journal of everything you eat and drink to be truly aware of the total amount consumed over the course of the day.

• You are drinking too many calories. Very often people lose sight that beverages can contribute a significant number of calories. Consider the calories in these 330ml servings: fizzy drinks, between 150 and 200; no-sugar-added fruit juice, up to 180; sweet iced tea, about 150; and many sports drinks, 100 or more. Drinking three servings daily over a week can add up to 3,500 calories, or the 500g of weight you could have lost.
• Solution: Switch to good, plain water, and you will save lots of calories and start to see the weight come down. Dilute your fruit juices, and please, please cut back on fizzy drinks! (Look back at December’s newsletter to see the calories in alcoholic drinks).

• You are slipping on weekends. Weekend indulgences add up very quickly. Having an appetizer before dinner, eating extra snacks, and splurging on dessert and alcoholic drinks will increase your daily intake by easily hundreds of calories. The problem is that whatever is eaten over the weekend will have an impact over the entire week. Rather than taking in an average of (for example) 1300 calories a day that could lead to weight loss, your average might end up being closer to 1600, wiping out any significant weight loss because of going crazy over the weekend.
• Solution: Have a day off, but decide before hand what your treats will be so you don’t go on an unconscious binge! Or add your favourite can’t-live-without treats to your average weekly calorie intake so you don’t ever feel you are being deprived. Taking the time to work out the maths with enable you to lose weight and feel good about your new lifestyle plan at the same time.

• You are not sleeping enough. There are many regulatory hormones secreted at night and during periods of sleep. The lack of sleep could possibly affect the proper sequence of hormone release. Staying up late may lead to extra calories if you snack when you watch late-night TV or partying with friends.
• Solution: Good old balance! Realising that getting enough sleep is actually being good to you. You will be a better influence and role model (to those who look up to you), and have more willpower if you take care of yourself as well.

• Stress. A study done at Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago and the University of Pittsburgh found that stress can lead to weight gain. There is a link between having altered sleep patterns and fat conservation, both possibly hormonally related. And another problem is many people simply manage their feelings with food, eating mindlessly, because food is a very accessible and quick soothing resource, and unfortunately, an easy way for the calories to add up too.
• Solution: Stress-less tools. Meditation, exercise, creating quiet times, learning to prioritise, delegate or bin! Learning to say "no" is critical. A coach can help you here too.

• You haven’t really changed your habits. Okay I know this is a hard one to admit!! You go to the salad bar and load up on veggies, but then add hundreds of calories with rich dressing and toppings like grated cheese, bacon bits, and croutons. You burn 300 calories by walking for 5 kilometres and then reward yourself with a muffin with the same number of calories, erasing the effect of the workout.
• Solution: You need a healthy, calorie-controlled meal plan with exercise to help maximise calories burnt. Resist becoming careless about calories because you exercise, and resist becoming negligent about exercise just because you’re cutting calories. It all comes back to balance again!

• You are impatient and want results NOWJ! Weight loss needs time for us to see results, for the body to change its shape, access its fat stores and use them for energy, and re-contour itself by building lean body tissue. Remember, 500g of weight is equivalent to 3,500 calories. If for example, you need 2000 calories just to maintain your weight, you would need to consistently eat only 1500 calories daily and exercise about 30 minutes daily (to burn another 250 calories) in order to see a true 750g weight loss in one week. It sounds like a lot of effort — and to start with, it will be. Diet plans that make hard-to-believe promises are exactly that — hard to believe. Any rapid or extreme changes in the body, such as large amounts of weight loss or extreme diets, trigger systems in the body to protect against starvation. There are systems set up in the body to decrease energy expenditure, the amount of fat that can be directed to and stored in your fat cells, stimulate cravings for sweets and fats, and even trigger feelings of anxiety and depression. Extreme diets have been found to lead to unbalances in different neurotransmitters such as serotonin, blood sugar levels, and even electrolytes.
• Solution: Patience!! Losing 500g – 1kg a week is a healthy sustainable weight loss.

• Your health or medication may be impacting on weight loss. Any condition leading to decreased mobility and less activity will make the ordeal of trying to lose weight even more of a challenge because exercise is limited and you might end up eating more if you’re home with more free time to snack. Some medications could lead to difficulty managing weight or even to weight gain, including steroids, some psychiatric medications, insulin, and certain beta blockers.
• Solution: Talk to your physician about alternatives, such as receiving some rehabilitation activity, adjusting meds, or working with a dietician to embark on a specific meal plan.

• You have reached a plateau. Hitting a plateau is a common occurrence, but you need to realise that it isn’t all about what you read on the scale. You might also be experiencing positive physiological changes that may not be evident just by looking at a scale: As you’re losing fat tissue, you could also be gaining more lean body tissue and getting leaner. In time you’ll resume your weight loss, as your metabolic rate starts to increase. What appears to be a plateau could also be due to other factors including hormones or fluid retention.
• Solution: Don’t lose heart, and don’t give up! If you are still concerned speak with your Doctor or Dietician/Coach and check if there are subtle changes you need to make. Taking your body measurements, and/or body fat percentage may also give you other means of measuring your progress.

Remember that living a balanced healthy lifestyle has far reaching positive effects way beyond just weight loss – the effects of living a longer, more energised, happier and healthier life!

Wishing you a month of perseverance and happiness

Warm regards

Lesley Wood

021-4182843

082 3 782 782

www.weight-masters.com

All feedback appreciated!! I love hearing from you whether it’s receiving your news, questions, recipes or queries! Email me at info@weight-masters.com. I will endeavour to return your mail within 48 hours.

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.                                      John Quincy Adam 1767-1848, Sixth President of the United States

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it. I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning.                                                        Mahatma Gandhi 1869-1948, Indian Nationalist Leader

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Research from www.everydayhealth.com and  www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com