Trying to lose the babyweight

This is my way of giving myself a pep talk for weight loss, it contains advice I often give patients, so you are all welcome to take it or leave it.  Plus, I’m interested in hearing what my other doctor/nutritionist/health care or other friends out there tell people (and would tell me) so please feel free to comment.

1. It is simple math.  If you create a 500 calorie deficit on a daily basis (from your baseline needs) you will lose a pound a week (3500 calories = 1 lb).  Whether you do it with diet or do it with exercise doesn’t really matter for weight loss (although there is evidence that exercise even without weight loss may prolong your life so it is good in and of itself). People don’t like hearing that it is simple math when I tell them this in the exam room I have been met with eye rolling and people saying, “but I already do that and I STILL am not losing weight.”.  So I encourage food journaling for 3 days (I find asking someone to do it for longer than 3 days is too hard for them to do) and bring in their journal to me and show me.  Do you know how many people have come back to me with that food journal?  ZERO.  Which leads me to believe they either ignore me completely or they do the food journal and realize that they aren’t actually reducing their caloric intake.  I currently am using the Lose It! App on my iPhone for food journaling.  It has some nice little features, like a bar code scanner (so you can scan your cereal container in the morning with your phone and it automatically puts it in your log), it also helps you see where you are in terms of your daily and weekly weight loss goals based on your caloric intake and exercise.  I would be interested in hearing if anyone else has other calorie counting apps or websites that they recommend.

2. When you are trying to lose weight, food should not be your friend.  Food can be a lot of different things for me and for other people too: it can be a creative material (cupcakes!), it can be tradition, it can be celebratory, it can be a show of kindness and love, and it can be fuel.  There are probably other things not on that list that it can be.  But, when food becomes really emotional it puts a level of control over a person that is probably not healthy.  Occasionally I have people in the exam room start crying when we talk about diet/weight loss when they start talking about their relationship with food.  To me that is a sign of an unhealthy emotional attachment to food. I encourage them to seek counseling, and I have seen people finally able to successfully tackle their weight loss goals once they work through their emotional issues.  For me, I do better with changing my diet when I look at food as fuel.  I’m not saying it shouldn’t be enjoyable or taste good, but somehow looking at it as energy for my body is helpful for me in terms of weight loss.  I often recommend the book “Eat what you love, love what you eat” to patients; I saw this author (who is a Family Physician) speak at a women’s health conference and she has a great story and message and if you have an opportunity to hear her speak I would encourage it: http://www.eatwhatyoulovelovewhatyoueat.com/

3. Make small changes.  The human body and mind doesn’t like change.  Trick it if you can.  Substitute whole grains where you would normally have rice or pasta, it’s not as hard as it sounds!  Or make changes in activity that are continuations of routines you already do.  For example, if you walk your kids to the bus stop every day, walk a little farther than the bus stop each day after they leave and soon you’ll be walking a mile or more.  I don’t encourage people to try things that seem painful or hard to do or difficult in terms of timing.  Plus, I really think activity should be fun as you’re more likely to keep doing it.  I also think it’s good to take advantage of your natural attributes as well.  For example, if you’re a competitive person, set a goal for some sort of race or competition to keep you active.  If you’re a social person, find a group activity or class that you might enjoy.  (Personally I’m going to be signing up for a half marathon in late spring to motivate me).

4. Get and maintain support.  Use a spouse, family member, friend, trainer, nutritionist, or anyone you can find who is willing to support your efforts and help you.  It’s good to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to look over things with you to keep you on track and make sure you maintain balance.  Of course it goes without saying you should see a doctor if you haven’t in awhile to make sure that your plan is good as well (it can also be a good motivator if you find out you have high blood pressure or high cholesterol).

5. Accept it will not be easy.  I always laugh a little when commercials make weight loss sound easy.  It’s really hard.  Just accept that your body will hurt sometimes (I mean muscle soreness, not a real injury, which everyone is at risk of having and should make sure to start off slow and build up a good aerobic base before pushing their limits) and that sometimes you will be hungry.  I don’t mean starving, but it’s pretty hard to cut your calories and not be hungry at times, I think it actually helps you listen to your body better when you occasionally can say, “oh, that is what hungry is like, I should fuel my body now.” (instead of always being in a state of semi-fullness, which is where I probably spend too much of my time!).