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Tips for Weight Loss
and Maintenance
January
2007 – Make a resolution to eat well and be more
physically active. Healthy choices have a positive
impact on not only yourself, but also those around you.
If
you want to lose weight or maintain your current healthy
weight, here are some tips to help you achieve your
goal. Remember, to maintain weight, you must balance
calorie intake with calories burned through physical
activity. If you eat more calories than you expend,
you gain weight. If you eat fewer calories than you
expend, you lose weight.
Make
healthy choices a habit. Make a commitment to
eat well, move more, and get support from family and
friends. Even better, start eating healthier and
being active together!
Remember
to be realistic about your goals. If you try to
reduce the calories, fat, saturated fat, and sugar in
your diet AND promise to make a drastic change in your
physical activity level, you may be setting yourself up
for failure. Instead of trying to make many changes at
once, set smaller, more realistic goals for yourself and
add a new challenge each week.
Conduct
an inventory of your meal/snack and physical activity
patterns. Keep a food and activity journal. Write
down not only what you ate, but where, when and what you
were feeling at the time. You will see what triggers
your hunger and what satisfies your appetite.
Eat
enough servings of vegetables and fruits per day. The
amount you should eat depends on your age, sex, and
activity level. Dietary
Guidelines for Americans 2005 provides advice about
how good dietary habits for people aged 2 years and
older can promote health and reduce risk for major
chronic diseases If you're adding fruits and
vegetables to your diet, try substituting them for
higher calorie, less nutritious foods. Check out the 5
A Day website at http://www.5aday.com
for suggestions on how to incorporate more fruits and
vegetables into your diet, along with some healthy
recipes.
Eat
foods that are high in fiber to help you feel full.
Whole grain cereals, legumes (lentils and beans),
vegetables, and fruits are good sources of fiber that
may help you feel full with fewer calories.
Prepare
and eat meals and snacks at home. This is a great
way to save money, eat healthy, and spend time with your
family. When preparing meals, choose low-fat/low-calorie
versions of your favorite ingredients and learn how easy
it is to substitute. Here are some examples:
-
Switch
to 1 percent or nonfat milk and low-fat cheeses.
-
Use
a cooking spray instead of oil or butter to decrease
the amount of fat.
-
Prepare
baked potatoes with low-fat blue cheese dressing or
low-fat plain yogurt instead of butter or sour
cream.
Read
nutrition labels. Read food labels to determine
serving sizes. A full bowl of cereal may actually be two
servings. A small frozen pizza may contain up to three
servings (check the nutrition information label). This
can add up to more calories than you think you’re
getting. Being aware of serving sizes may make it easier
to avoid those extra calories.
Choose
snacks that are nutritious and filling. A piece of
fresh fruit, cut raw vegetables, or a container of
low-fat yogurt are excellent (and portable) choices to
tide you over until mealtimes. Take these snacks with
you for a healthy alternative to chips, cookies, or
candy.
Take your time: Eat only when you are hungry and
enjoy the taste, texture, and smell of your meal as you
eat it. Remember, it takes approximately 15 minutes for
your stomach to signal your brain that you are full.
When dining out, remember
these important suggestions: Watch your portions.
Portion sizes at restaurants (including fast food) are
usually more than one serving, which can result in
overeating. Choose smaller portion sizes, order an
appetizer and a leafy green salad with low-fat dressing,
share an entree with a friend, or get a "doggy
bag" and save half for another meal.
Forgive
yourself. If you occasionally make mistakes, don’t
give up! Forgive yourself for making that choice and
keep working on it. Eat an extra healthy lunch and
dinner if you had a high-calorie, high-fat breakfast,
and do not forget to add more physical activity to your
day.
Become
more active: Ideally you should aim for at least 30
minutes (adults) or 60 minutes (children) of moderate-intensity
physical activity five or more days of the week.
Check with your physician first, and then start with a
few minutes of activity a day and gradually increase,
working your way up to 30 minutes. If you already get 30
minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity a day,
you can gain even more health benefits by increasing the
amount of time that you are physically active or by
taking part in more vigorous-intensity activities.
Here are some examples of each:
-
Moderate-intensity
physical activity: the effort a healthy person
might expend while walking briskly, mowing the lawn,
dancing, swimming or bicycling on level terrain.
-
Vigorous-intensity
physical activity: the effort a healthy person
might expend while jogging, participating in
high-impact aerobic dancing, swimming continuous
laps, bicycling uphill or carrying an item weighing
more than 25 pounds up a flight of stairs.
Small
steps can make a big difference: If you are just
starting to be physically active, remember that even
small increases in physical activity provide health
benefits, such as increased physical fitness and a lower
risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and
other conditions. An easy way to get started is to
take the stairs instead of riding an elevator or
escalator.
For
more information on healthy eating and proper exercise,
visit the Southern Nevada Health District’s “
Get
Healthy
Clark
County
” website at http://www.gethealthyclarkcounty.org.
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