Most people can lose a quick five or ten pounds before a big event. But how do you keep the weight off today, tomorrow, and for the rest of your life? Not even everyone with "lucky genes" can stay slim for a lifetime without the help of a few basic strategies.
These five secrets to lifelong weight loss can keep you leaner and more important, healthier now and forever.
Lifelong weight-loss secret #1: Acknowledge that your body and your life change as you get older, and fine-tune your habits accordingly.
Aging begins well before you turn 40 or 50. "Lifelong weight loss comes down to paying attention at every life stage. "You need to acknowledge that you're always changing, and you can't do the same things you've always done to maintain the same weight."To put this in practice:
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Leave food on your plate. The older you get, the
more your metabolism slows -- one to two percent a year after age 30. "It doesn't take much food to add up to weight gain. Extra bites can add 100 calories a day, or ten pounds at the end
of the year."
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Move away from three square meals a day.
Digestion slows as we age, especially digestion of fiber. So lightening
the load by eating smaller, lighter meals and healthful snacks keeps
your energy levels more stable and makes you less prone to hungry
gorging.
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Count the liquid calories. A five-ounce pour of
wine with dinner contains about 150 calories. That can add up to 15
extra pounds in a year. Two glasses? Double that.
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Pay attention to how food is prepared. Midlife
and older adults often cook less and eat out more. But when you're not
controlling the food prep, extra calories sneak in. It's not that you
shouldn't socialize but that you need to be hyperaware of what's going
in your mouth.
Lifelong weight-loss secret #2: Keep moving (not necessarily in the gym).
A gradually slowing metabolism from young adulthood onward means you need to eat less than you could in your 20s to keep weight comparable. But you can also compensate for the slowdown by fighting midlife inertia and a sedentary lifestyle. Thinner people move more, numerous studies have shown. Lean older adults don't necessarily follow vigorous workouts; rather, they keep moving all throughout their day -- gardening, doing chores, walking, climbing stairs, and staying engaged and active.To put this in practice:
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Get up -- every hour. One famous study found that
obese people sat for 9.5 hours a day, compared with lean people, who
sat fewer than 7 hours a day. University of South Carolina researchers
found in 2011 that people who sit more have larger waist sizes (along
with a host of undesirable blood-work results). But it's not enough to
sit for long periods and then go physically wild; better to stand up and
exert calories throughout the day, which stimulates muscles and body
functions better.
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Rely less on "labor-saving devices." One Mayo
Clinic study compared those who performed daily chores like dish washing
and doing local errands manually or on foot with people who did the
same things with electric or mechanical devices like dishwashers and
cars. The comparative calorie savings were small (26 extra calories for
hand-washing the dishes), but they added up, day after day, to the tune
of as many as 11 more pounds per year for those who relied on devices.
Obviously you can't walk everywhere, but the takeaway is that the more
you can do on your own, the better for your body.
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Wear a pedometer. This can help you track how much you're moving. Aim for 10,000 steps a day.
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Start fidgeting. Research shows that some people
are natural-born fidgeters, genetically programmed to move around more
than others. But that doesn't mean you can't train yourself to emulate
them.
Lifelong weight-loss secret #3: Eat plants -- all day, every day.
Michael Pollan, author of Food Rules, has famously distilled healthful eating to "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." "Eating lighter, eating better, always comes back to a more plant-based diet.To put this in practice:
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Include a plant at every meal, every snack. Don't
worry about how many fruits and vegetables you're supposed to eat in a
day. Just include one at every single meal and snack.
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Make sure veggies and grains dominate your plate.
Break free of the "meat-potato-veggie" definition of a decent meal.
Don't limit yourself to just one vegetable per meal, and explore the
wide world of whole grains. Consider meat a condiment.
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Choose fruits, vegetables, and grains that are fresh and whole.
By definition, you'll be eating fewer processed foods. That, in turn,
helps you minimize sodium, which is bad for blood vessels that grow less
flexible and more prone to high blood pressure over time. Eating fewer
processed foods also helps you avoid inflammatory fats. Chronic inflammation is a biochemical process that can fuel unwanted weight gain.
Lifelong weight-loss secret #4: Stay super hydrated.
Sure, water fills up your stomach -- but that's not the only reason drinking a lot will help keep your weight low. It's important to keep well hydrated, especially as you get older, because thirst receptors lose their ability to recognize thirstiness over time, says Duke University's Beth Reardon. Since we're water-based beings, our organs rely on staying well hydrated in order to perform optimally. Older adults often take multiple medications that need to be metabolized by the liver, for example, and drinking water helps flush them through the system.You might not directly connect this process to your scale, but stabilizing weight is easier when the body's organs are performing optimally.
To put this in practice:
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Don't confuse hunger with thirst. "Make sure that before you grab something to eat, you check whether you're really thirsty.
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Carry a water bottle everywhere. Bring it in the
car, to doctor's appointments, when you're going for a walk -- "just
like you carry your wallet everywhere.
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Make water tasty. To help develop the habit, try
flavoring your water. Drop in a lemon or orange wedge, or even a slice
of watermelon or some berries. Or add an herbal tea bag or flavored
green tea bag to cool or room-temperature water to enhance its taste.
Lifelong weight-loss secret #5: Don't be a night owl.
A large body of research now shows that poor sleep directly influences how tightly those pants fit when you get dressed in the morning. On average, those who sleep less, weigh more.Why? People with disrupted sleep cycles or who fail to get enough restorative sleep experience many hormonal shifts that influence appetite. Levels of leptin, which regulates satiety, sink; ghrelin, which triggers appetite, rises. Many people with poor sleep have poorer control of their cravings. And cortisol (a.k.a. the stress hormone) rises too, which can contribute to insulin resistance and prediabetes. Six to eight hours of sleep is an often-cited goal for those trying to break this problematic cycle.
To put this in practice:
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Consider sleep as important to weight control as diet and exercise. Most people simply discount sleep. But lifelong weight loss is more than simply a calories-in-calories-out formula.
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Learn how to manage problems that interfere with sleep, such as sleep apnea or overactive bladder triggers.
Physical problems are often at the root of disrupted sleep.
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Avoid eating close to bedtime. Your body will
spend energy digesting the food rather than shifting into restorative
sleep. Leave at least three hours between dinner and
bed. If you must have something, make it a glass of milk, which may
increase seratonin levels.
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Try enhancing sleep with supplements. Magnesium
and melatonin have relaxing, sedative qualities.
Periodic use of over-the-counter sleep aids can also help reset a
pattern of disrupted sleep.
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If you're a caregiver and someone else's sleep is affecting yours, get help. Ask a doctor about medications that can help regulate sleep in an older adult with dementia who has sundown syndrome, for example. Your sanity, your health, and, yes, your weight management may all depend on it.
orig: http://health.yahoo.net/caring/5-secrets-to-lifelong-weight-loss
