Being overweight increases your risk for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer. If you are overweight, losing just 5 to 10% of your weight and keeping it off lowers your risk for most of these diseases. Your healthcare provider can give you a good idea of how your weight increases your risk.
Changes that will help you lose weight include:
Healthy diets for losing weight involve:
Losing weight most often means eating fewer calories and avoiding some foods. However, a weight loss diet needs to give enough nutrition and a good variety of satisfying foods as well as fewer calories. The new ChooseMyPlate strategy is a simple way to manage how much you eat of each food group at each meal.
What works best is a gradual change in your habits of eating and physical activity—a change that you can continue the rest of your life. The ideal diet helps you lose weight slowly but steadily, so you can keep a healthy weight after you have reached your goal. The best weight loss plan is one that fits your needs and food preferences.
Ask your healthcare provider for a safe, healthy, and effective weight loss program.
ChooseMyPlate is a new image designed by the US government to help you make healthy food choices in the right portions. It divides the plate into portions for 4 food groups: fruit, vegetable, grains, and protein. A circle next to the plate represents a portion of dairy foods. You can use this plate to choose foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Simply fill half of a 9-inch plate with fruits and vegetables. The other half of the plate should be split between starches (such as whole grains and starchy vegetables like potatoes) and lean proteins (such as lean meat). Beans and peas are a good meat substitute. A cup of low-fat or skim milk or yogurt on the side can fit in.
Using this plate as a guideline for getting the right amount of each food group every day helps you eat more healthfully. It also helps you manage your portions so you can control your weight.
In general, a healthy eating plan for weight loss is one that:
Keep track of everything you eat in a food diary. As soon as you eat or drink, write it down. It may be helpful to use a small pocket diary. Seeing what you eat and drink will help you learn more about your eating patterns and food habits.
Try to avoid the following types of food:
The American Heart Association advises that women should get no more than 100 of their daily calories (25 grams of carbohydrate) from added sugar. Men should get no more than 150 calories (37.5 grams of carbohydrate) from added sugar. When you read labels, remember that 1 gram of sugar has 4 calories. Look for snack foods that are 100-calories per serving to help you with portion and calorie control.
Also avoid:
Alcoholic drinks add calories to your diet with very little nutrition. If you choose to drink alcohol, do so in moderation. Moderate drinking means up to 1 drink a day for women and up to 2 drinks for men. A drink equals 12 ounces of regular beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1 and 1/2 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.
A calorie is a way to measure the energy value of food. Your body burns calories for energy. Proteins, carbohydrates, and fats contain calories. To lose weight, eat fewer calories without giving up nutrition and burn more calories with more physical activity. If you are getting fewer calories from your food, your body will burn fat stored in your body to get the energy it needs and you will lose weight.
You can lose 1 pound a week by eating 500 fewer calories a day than you need to keep your present weight. Try to lose 1 to 2 pounds a week. If you lose more than that each week, you begin to lose muscle rather than fat.
Most weight loss diets suggest 1200 to 1500 calories a day for women and 1500 to 1800 calories a day for men. However, calorie needs can vary a lot. They depend on your activity level and current weight. Ask your healthcare provider how many calories you need a day.
Don't lower your calories too much. If you get too few calories a day, your body will slow down your metabolism so that you can survive the lean time. This can happen if you go on a "starvation diet." The body's survival response will then stop you from losing weight.
There are many popular diets. Some are considered to be fad diets and unsafe for the long term. Others are healthy and may be right for you. Remember that no one diet works for everyone. Some broad categories of popular diets are:
Research has yet to determine the long-term benefits or risks of high-protein, low-carb diets. Recent studies of people following the Atkins Diet showed that they lowered their triglyceride levels (unhealthy blood fat) and increased their HDL (good cholesterol) even though their diet was rich in saturated fat. A possible risk is that this diet limits foods that help lower the risk for cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and other health problems, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. It is not clear if these diets are better than a calorie-controlled, low-fat diet for maintaining weight loss.
Each year more and more diet books are published, each promising great results. Some diets are very low calorie (less than 500 calories a day) or total fasting. These diets can be dangerous—even life-threatening—and must be supervised by your healthcare provider. It is hard to keep up or know which diets are based on good science. You can read diet reviews by nutrition professionals on the American Dietetic Association Web site: http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.aspx?id=264&terms=diet+reviews.
In addition to diet, daily walking can help you manage your weight. Walking for 15 to 30 minutes, 3 to 6 times a week, is a good start. With your healthcare provider's approval, your goal should be to build up to 5 hours (300 minutes) of moderate exercise a week. (Moderate exercise means you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat.) Or you may increase the intensity of exercise and try to get 2 hours and 30 minutes (150 minutes) of vigorous activity a week. The increased level of exercise will have even more health benefits and improve the chance that you will lose weight and be able to keep a healthy weight.
As you exercise you will burn calories. If you are unable to walk, ask your healthcare provider to recommend another type of exercise.
Also do some form of strength training using gym equipment or your own body weight 2 or more days a week. Strength training will make your muscles stronger and able to work longer without getting tired. Muscle mass burns more calories than fat so as your muscle increases, so does your ability to burn calories.
In addition to helping you lose weight or keep a healthy weight, regular physical activity lowers your pulse, blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar. It also increases your energy level and improves your sleep.
Be sure to check with your healthcare provider before you start an exercise program.
If you compulsively overeat, the Overeaters Anonymous organization may help. The program is free. Write or call:
Overeaters Anonymous
Phone: 505-891-2664
Web site: http://www.oa.org.
You can learn more about healthy eating from The Dietary Guidelines for Americans available on the Web sites
