How to Successfully Control Your Weight
Many people gain 5-7 pounds during winter due to the lack of exercise from the cold weather. Any amount of weight gain can be discouraging, but don’t get depressed! Now is the right time to get motivated about weight loss and revamp your commitment! The new season offers better weather, more convenient outdoor activities, as well as healthy fresh produce.
What kind of diet and exercise should you focus on?
To lose weight, you have to be careful what you put in your mouth. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with the plethora of options in the grocery store, but “limiting your stimulus” can be very freeing. Limit your food options to as few as possible. We include meal replacements and partial meal replacements in our weight loss plans to help patients concentrate their food options. Many have seen amazing success with this simple supplement!
But what if meal replacements aren’t an option for you? What should you be eating? With all the fresh produce that spring offers, be careful – although many fruits have great nutrients and vitamins, they also contain a large quantity of sugar. Remember to count your calories, look for nutrition information, and watch your proportions.
Vegetables
Although most vegetables aren’t good sources of protein, they’re packed with nutrients, vitamins, and especially fiber. These high in fiber, non-starchy veggies should be your focus. Men need about 30-38 grams of fiber a day, and women about 20-25 grams, depending on age.
Fiber improves bowel movements, and makes you less hungry by keeping you fuller for longer. We recommend leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, asparagus, broccoli, etc. Starchy veggies to avoid are corn, peas, and potatoes. Some vegetables, such as lentils, are high in fiber but high in carbohydrates as well, so control your portions.
Fruits
Many fruits are high in fiber, but they also have a lot of sugar, so once again, portion control is crucial. Most berries, such as blueberries, blackberries, and strawberries, are beneficial to weight loss. Other fruits like watermelons and pineapple have too large a quantity of sugar.
It’s important to divide your plate into appropriate proportions of carbs, fats, sugars, etc.. Just to put portion in perspective, a handful of grapes is fine even though they are very high in sugar. But if you consume a significantly large bunch, you’re putting quite a bit of sugar into your system, most of which will be stored as fat.
Exercise
Weight loss begins with your diet, but exercising is an important fitness tool. Regular exercise will help you maintain your new weight and avoid regaining the weight back. If you’re truly serious about exercise, it will also help you lose weight faster.
We suggest exercising for 35-40 minutes a day, so choose a form of exercise that you can retain for a long period of time. Aerobic exercises can be beneficial, but we also recommend resistance training, so alternate your exercises between the two. Exercise in the morning to get it over with – before you have a chance to make excuses!
Resistance training will increase your metabolic rate, help you build muscle, and burn more calories. You won’t be as likely to lose muscle tone even as you age. You don’t have to join a gym or be a bodybuilder. If it’s more practical to stay at home, then do the resistance exercises at home. If you’re on medication or have a tight schedule, then just exercise at home. Exercising outdoors is a wonderful option as well, especially as a social activity. Consistency, however, is key, so make outdoor activity a routine.
Keeping Weight AWAY!
Why do people, especially women, gain weight as they age? Even if their diet never changes, they can see the pounds slowly climb. Our metabolism slows down during the aging process, so we don’t burn as many calories as we do when we’re young. Resistance training, however, helps us keep those stubborn pounds away!
For some patients, the problem is not losing weight, but gaining weight back. We want to offer you the opportunity to be responsible or accountable to someone. That’s why we ask to meet with you often, call you every two weeks, email you encouragement, take your measurements, watch your blood pressure, and track your medications. Often, when weight gets out of control, other health issues get out of control as well.
During our lifelong program plan, we see you once every month or every quarter to check how you’re progressing along your weight loss journey. We offer constant counseling concerning food, nutrition, exercise, and motivation. We want to make sure our patients see success long after the completion of our weight loss program. Contact us if you have any questions about the programs or meal plans we offer, or if you’d like to schedule a free consultation!