Customized Weight Control Programs
No one has the same health, neither should your weight control plan.
Expert Insight by Dr. Richardson
Behavior Modification Therapy
Purpose: To plan for upcoming eating situations and offer healthy alternatives to previously unhealthy eating behavior.
- Do not serve foods "family or boarding house style", which encourages larger portions and second helping. Instead, place appropriately sized portions on individual plates.
- Place leftovers directly into the garbage. Don't let tomorrow's meal actually become tonight's munching.
- Resist the urge to turn yourself into a human disposal to clean up all the leftovers. This really doesn't help those starving kids overseas, no matter what your parents told you when you were growing up.
- Become acutely aware of your nibbling "danger times". Plan ahead for some activity (hand and mind occupying) which will divert you from the kitchen during that time.
- Do not talk on the telephone, read, or watch television while eating as this will detract from your oral satisfaction and leave you feeling "cheated".
- Substitute diet foods whenever possible (diet soda, skim milk, artificial sweetener, diet margarine, act.). Check caloric composition on packages carefully. "Dietetic" may just mean "reduced salt", not reduced calories. Also be aware that "low fat" or "no-fat" items do not automatically mean low or "no calorie". In fact, some low fat items may have more calories than the regular version of the product due to substitutions of sugars to replace the fat in the product. Be a label reader.
- Put high calorie foods in difficult to open, opaque containers in the back of the refrigerator. Wrap tightly as this will discourage nibbling.
- Prepare low calorie "finger foods" ahead of time and keep them in clear, easy to open containers in the front of the refrigerator. If you keep several vegetables cut up and in zip lock bags, this will make for healthful snacking or a nice salad at any time, depending on your mood.
- Give away or alter your clothes as soon as they become too large. If you don't, this is just giving yourself "permission" to regain lost weight. Eating a meal in clothes that are a little snug around the waist is one of the best reminders for sensible eating that you can have.
- Before attending any "high caloric banquet", eat to satisfaction your low calorie/high nutrient foods at home. Even when traveling out-of-town, you can usually eat several fruit to help suppress your appetite before dinner. A gourmet celebration in conjunction with a ravenous empty stomach will result in disaster.
- Watch calories from alcohol. The higher the proof, the higher the calories. Mix drink with club soda or diet ginger ale to cut down on calories. Refilling it with more soda when half-full will keep the calories down and make it last longer.
- Switch your social life away from eating and drinking events towards activities, such as bowling, dancing, skating, or spectator sports.
Obesity Potpourri
Importance of Fat
- Protects internal organs, cushions the skin and joints, and insulates against cold.
- Major source (storehouse) of internal energy.
- Contains important fat-soluble vitamins (Vit. A, E, D and K)
Physiology of Energy Utilization
- Men have a larger ratio of muscle-to-fat than women. Since muscle burns calories, even at identical heights and weights, men burn more calories than women.
- A man's basal metabolism (resting energy level) is about 7% higher than a woman's, so do not compare your weight-loss to your spouse.
Economics of Obesity
- Dieting and health spas are a multi-billion dollar U.S. Industry.
- There are almost 35,000 methods of weight loss, but less than 6% are considered safe or effective.
- At any given time, over 10 million Americans are in some type of weight program.
- Two-thirds of the entire population reports going on at least one or more diets each year.
- The average dieter goes on about two diets a year. Women dieters average 3.5 per year.
- Nine out of ten weight losers are back to their original weights in 9 months.
Obesity Morality
- A 15% excess weight shows a 10% increased mortality over average males. Thirty-five percent excess weight has roughly a 35% mortality. Males 50% over their ideal weight show over a 100% increase in mortality.
- Obese male death rates are higher from accidents, diabetes, kidney disease, stroke, and cancers of the colon, rectum, and prostate.
- Obese women have higher incidence of deaths due to arteriosclerosis kidney disease and cancers of the gallbladder, biliary tract, breast, uterus, and ovaries.
Effect on Our Children
- Eighty percent of children born to two obese parents, and about 40% of children born to one obese parent, become overweight.
- If both parents are thin, chance of child becoming obese drops to 7%.
Reasons for Overeating
- Primary reason: poor dietary education or motivation. We eat too many empty calories and not enough filling nutrients.
- Lack of eating appropriately (three meals daily) and on-time.
- Inability to deny yourself anything you really want.
- Psychological: food used for comfort, tranquility or relief from boredom/depression. Binge eating may be a means of tension, anger, or depression release.
Reasons for Failure in Weight Loss
- Saboteurs — a friend, relative, party hostess, or even your spouse. Your new lifestyle may be taking away the "thrill of culinary pleasures" they are accustomed to.
- Your readiness to fail at losing weight. You don't expect to succeed, so you don't. If you constantly tell yourself that you have no willpower, you won't have any. Like your muscles, willpower has to be exercised in order to build its strength.
- Trying to short cut the principles of this program can lead to failure. Don't neglect your first month's calorie chart. Do try to eat your calories earlier in the day. Keep your visits consistent. Hit-and-miss visits will generally give you the same kind of weight results.
- Relying on medications to make changes you should be making. Drugs may help you with weight loss, but it takes nutrition education and a change of habits and lifestyle to treat the life-long tendency towards obesity.
- Temporary motivation=temporary weight loss.
- Giving up. Remember, to falter is not to fail. Pick yourself back up emotionally and mentally and get going again. Winston Churchill gave a now famous twelve word commencement address to a graduating class that is certainly true in regards to successful weight management: "Never give up. Never, never give up. Never, never, never give up."
Contributors to Weight Gain
- Decreased activity — age, "desk jockey", illness, etc.
- Hormonal changes may induce premenstrual cravings for sweets or salty items.
- Medications such as some types of antidepressants, anti-inflammatory agents, contraceptives, steroids, and tranquilizers may contribute to added weight.