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Weight Loss

There are only two ways to lose weight: eat less or exercise more. Warning: if you decide to exercise more in an
attempt to lose weight, keep in mind that you'll need to keep eating the same amount of food (not increase it), or you may
not get the results that you want. Likewise, if you decide to lose weight by eating less food, keep in mind that you will
need to exercise the same amount as you were before (not less) or you may not get the results that you want.

Read over the "Myth Versus Fact" table below to see if you can detect weight loss myths. Then read over the
general weight loss information, dieting principles, and specific advice about how to lose weight.

Myth Versus Fact: Try to pick out which is a myth and which is fact.
Eating a cookie late at night will make you gain more weight than eating a cookie at 2 pm.	The foods many people choose at night are less healthy than those they may choose during the day (e.g., at home from work, hungry, in front of TV, time to relax)
Grapefruit burns calories	The grapefruit diets cause weight loss because they are low in calories, not because grapefruit has any magical properties
Margarine has fewer calories than butter	Margarine and butter have the same amount of calories, but margarine is lower in saturated fat than butter
Wheat bread is healthier because it has less calories and fat than white bread	Wheat bread has the same amount of calories and fat as white bread
Potatoes and bread are fattening	It’s what you put on the potatoes and bread that makes them fattening

Which is myth and which is fact?
MYTH: Eating a cookie late at night will make you gain more weight than eating a cookie at 2 pm. (It’s overall calorie intake, not when you eat those calories; putting your body into starvation mode tends to make you want to “pig out”; Try to spread your food out over the day so that you don’t get over hungry and overeat.)	FACT: The foods many people choose at night are less healthy than those they may choose during the day (e.g., at home from work, hungry, in front of TV, time to relax)
MYTH: Grapefruit burns calories	FACT: The grapefruit diets cause weight loss because they are low in calories, not because grapefruit has any magical properties
MYTH: Margarine has fewer calories than butter	FACT: Margarine and butter have the same amount of calories, but margarine is lower in saturated fat than butter
MYTH: Wheat bread is healthier because it has less calories and fat than white bread	FACT: Wheat bread has the same amount of calories and fat as white bread
MYTH: Potatoes and bread are fattening (88 calories for medium potato and 70 calories for a slice of bread; it’s what you put on the bread and potatoes that makes them fattening)	FACT: It’s what you put on the potatoes and bread that makes them fattening

GENERAL WEIGHT LOSS INFORMATION:
Things that impact your weight:

Your genes
Your metabolism (the rate your body burns energy; aka calories)
Body composition
Even if you are not doing “fat burning” aerobic activity, building muscle (lifting weights, strength exercises, yoga) can help you to lose weight because muscle burns more calories than fat
Level of physical activity
What you eat

Whether or not your weight is healthy for you depends on:

Where your body fat is located
Apples and pears: Are you an apple or a pear? Being an apple, bigger around the middle, can be riskier than being a pear.
How much of your weight is fat
Muscle weighs more than fat, can you pinch an inch on the back of your upper arm?
If you have weight-related health problems
Such as diabetes, or high blood pressure

Specific weight loss tips:

You can’t "spot reduce"-- people tend to lose weight all over their body, not just in one place; for example situps will not cause just your stomach to get smaller.
The longer and harder you work out, the more weight you will lose
If you reduce your calorie intake 500 calories per day, you will lose 1 pound in a week, that’s 4 pounds a month and almost 50 pounds a year (48 pounds). That’s about the right speed to lose weight. Alternatively, you could reduce your calories intake 250 calories per day and work out to burn the other 250 calories. For example, for a 170 pound person, weight training burns 230 calories in one hour. You burn more calories if you weigh more.

DIETING PRINCIPLES
Adequacy
· Don’t skip meals and put your body into starvation mode

Balance
· All foods fit
· No food has power

Nutrient density
· Apple has 60 calories; vitamins, fiber; Donut has 300 calories; nothing in it but fat
· select foods with the greatest nutrient density; that’s brightly colored fruits and vegetables instead of potato chips. Even low-fat potato chips are empty of nutrients. A rice cake will not have as much nutrition in it as an apple or an orange. A glass of orange juice or milk versus regular or diet soda.

Moderation
· You decide when to eat, what, how much, and how often (hunger cues… we lose touch… kids are a good example of people that really listen to their bodies. Not hungry for dinner)
· Rather than ban certain foods, just limit portion sizes
· Pace yourself (it takes 20 minutes for signal to reach brain that you are full… 2 sets of TV commercials)
· If you leave a restaurant feeling comfortable, you’ve done a good job; don’t want that really full feeling; that means you’ve eaten too much.
· Eating out versus eating at home: eating out often gives you more calories than eating at home (unless you often fry your food at home)
· If you eat 1 high-fat meal, to make up for it, eat 2 low-fat meals; 1 high-fat day, eat 2 low-fat days

Variety
· Remember the Food Guide Pyramid
· Lose taste buds as you age, so keep trying new foods

SPECIFIC ADVICE
Substitution
· Substitute high fat foods with low fat products (low-fat mayonnaise, salad dressing, cookies, crackers…)

Avoid fat as a seasoning
· Eat cooked vegetables without added butter, salt pork, ham hocks, or meat drippings

Avoid fried foods
· Doughnuts, fried appetizers (e.g., egg rolls), French fries, chips, fried chicken

Modify meats
· Remove skin from chicken, buy lean cuts instead of sausage, pork ribs, and ham hocks

Replacement
· Replace high-fat foods with low-fat alternatives such as fruits, vegetables, grains, e.g., eating fruit for dessert

Portion sizes
· Smaller.

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