Don't Go Too Low

In the efforts to ‘get the weight off’ as quickly as possible, it’s important not to drop your calories too low. As I discuss in the blog entry listed here, “Determine Your Daily Calories,” there are healthy calorie calculators that indicate, for your particular height and desired weight, the proper number of calories to take in each day. Dropping the calories too low will backfire because the body is apt to go into starvation mode, shutting down its metabolism, resulting in NO weight loss at all. And even if you can get away with lower calories for awhile, eventually your cravings will kick in and you’ll end up standing in the pantry or in front of the refrigerator in an out of control binging frenzy, not to mention that hardly eating anything is just dead boring! What kind of life is that?

One to two pounds a week is a good healthy weight loss. I’m talking long term, steady, consistent. I know that’s frustrating when you wake up one morning and decide you really want to do this, have the motivation, the desire. You want the weight gone – now! But slashing your caloric intake or, Heaven forbid, going for one of these advertised plans that claim you’ll lose 20-pounds in 1-2 weeks, are not only ridiculous - they would be dangerous if they really worked. And trust me, they don’t. Think of it, if they did, none of us would be overweight.

So go slow and steady. You didn’t put on the weight overnight - don’t expect to take it off that way. As baby boomers, the days of extreme dieting to fit into that dress for the prom is over. Those of us who are still going for the cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, Hollywood liquid diet plans, are just fooling ourselves, -because with that kind of dieting, if you lose it, the weight always comes back – sometimes twice as much.

No, this is a lifestyle change. It’s weight loss for the purpose of good healthy maintenance so we feel good about ourselves and don’t have weight-associated health issues like heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers. Be smart. Be sensible. Look great!

Motivation in Menopause

If you haven't gone through menopause yet, you're in luck. I hesitate to use the word 'easy' in talking about weight loss, but it's going to be easier for you to lose those 20-pounds now, then later. When we go through menopause, our bodies experience a number of changes. Besides the hot flashes and thinning hair, another major change, as if we didn't have enough, is that our metabolism slows down. The slower the metabolism, the fewer calories it takes to maintain our desired weight.

You can see how health experts even predict the need for fewer calories as we age, by going to the Calorie Control Council website, http://www.caloriecontrol.org/, and clicking on the weight maintenance calculator. Adjust the number in the 'age' box to see how your daily calorie needs change. The older the filled in age number, the lower the result for the calculated number of calories. It's disappointing, to be sure. It's just not fair that as we get older and have accomplished so much of 'life' at this point, that we don't get to enjoy a second helping of dessert! But there it is. No reward. Not in more food, anyway.

The good news is that if you haven't gone through that next stage of life yet, you have time to lose the weight now, getting slightly ahead of the game. If you've already gone through menopause, trying to lose that 20-30 pounds now is going to be very difficult. Doable, but difficult. Don't you deserve to look your best right now? Don't wait until 'one of these days' or 'next year' or '...after the kids graduate from high school or college.' Taking control of your life 'tomorrow' may never come. But without fail, our bodies will change whether we want them to or not. Let us be the ones to have a say in how much.

Making A Move

How much you can eat, the number of calories in your day, depends on how much you move. If you go to the website http://www.caloriecontrol.org/ and go to the 'more calculators' category, using the maintenance calculator to help determine your daily calorie needs, you'll find the answer depends on your height, age, gender, and activity level. The only one of those you can do anything about is your activity level.

I haven't mentioned exercise on this site before because, well, I haven't wanted to encourage you to do something I'm not doing! It's hard for me. I don't like it. In fact, I dislike exercise so much that even though I will have bursts of genuine attempts, my efforts fade in just a few weeks. Like losing weight, exercise is a choice. If I really really wanted to do it, I would. It's not like I'm sitting on the couch all day eating bon bons instead. I am moving, just not in an organized fashion. My excuse? What there is of it: It takes time to do it, for one thing. There is always something else I think I should be using that hour for: office paperwork, writing/blogging, house cleaning. The exercise, the me time, if you will, is more easily set aside when something or someone else needs my attention. I do enjoy walking, but outside right now we're battling triple-degree heat and I don't have a treadmill. Still, I know in my brain that it would be better for me if I got up off my butt and moved in some steady repetitive and productive way besides taking out the trash.

Not only is exercise better for us because it gets our metabolism running, which burns more calories in the long run, (did you know if your metabolism increases you even burn more calories when you're sitting on said couch?), it increases our muscle and bone health overall. As we age, that becomes more critical. People who are active in their younger years, have a longer active life. I recently spoke with an elderly friend, he's in his 90s, who used to be quite the avid golfer. I asked if he still played. He said all the friends he used to play with are now dead! But he is still doing remarkably well, and when he does have health issues, he seems to recover more quickly from them. I have no doubt much of his good health is due to his life-long level of activity.

So, if you're like me and can't abide the actual hour a day for focused physical activity, you might consider starting small. Don't circle the parking lot over and over looking for that space nearest the building entrance, park farther out so you can burn a few extra calories walking to the store. Take the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator at the mall. Spend 10 minutes of your lunch hour walking the halls (and stairways), of the building. In the evenings while watching television, don't speed through the commercials with Tivo, instead use those breaks to get up and do something, move around. And if you are of a mind to go to the gym or simply don the tennis shoes and head down the sidewalk for a brisk walk, more power to you! Get up and move! It will undoubtedly help your weight loss and your level of health. I promise, I too plan to get around to doing that again, one of these days, soon, maybe, if I don't have a load of laundry or some filing to do.

Snacking Healthy

Do have an afternoon snack. It's important for a couple of reasons. If you don't snack, you're going to feel either deprived and possibly overeat when dinnertime rolls around, or you'll feel entitled to eat more at mealtime since you've not had much of anything "all day," and thus, again, overeat. Remember, calorie counting is not about depriving yourself of anything, other than too many calories. Also, "between meal" snacking, allows your metabolism to keep firing up, burning more calories in the long run.

I would say that if it's possible, you'll be better off making it a healthy snack. There are all kinds of combinations you can come up with for around 200 calories. One of my favorites is a serving of cottage cheese and a serving of Wheat Thins. The total comes in at around 210 and the crackers give me that mouth-feel-crunch that can be so satisfying. An apple and one of those small individually wrapped round cheeses like Babybel come in around 150. A handful, that's 1 ounce, of nuts is anywhere from 170 to 210 calories depending on what kind you're eating. Cashews and pecans can be a little on the high side. A toasted English muffin at 120, coupled with a 1 tablespoon smear of peanut butter, (which melts beautifully on a warm muffin!), is a very tasty 215 calories.

Snack time need not be unhealthy filled with Cheetos and candy bars. I've found that the more unhealthy the snack, the less of it I can have which always leaves me, in the end, most unsatisfied and wanting "something else" to fill that hunger void. Nobody likes feeling hungry and if you'll eat better, you'll find that those pangs and twinges will be more easily satisfied and you'll be doing yourself a favor all the way around.

Determine Your Daily Calories

Fourth Entry: Finding out how many calories you need to consume in a day to either maintain or lose weight, is easier than ever. There are numerous websites and books on the subject. Find a good one. The Calorie Control Council at caloriecontrol.org is an excellent website that contains a number of wonderful calculators to help you figure this out. The website includes how to burn calories by activity levels, calculating calories for meal planning, and of course guidelines for maintaining your weight.

First, their Healthy Weight Calculator helped me determine my proper weight, that is the weight I SHOULD weigh, based on my height and gender. For me at my height of 5'4, that is 120 pounds. The Maintenance Calculator helped me figure out how many daily calories I would need to achieve my goal. I put in my vital information that included my sex, height, age, and regular level of activity. Then where it asked: "weight to maintain," I instead put in my goal of 120 that I wanted to reach. The result was the number of calories I would need to maintain that weight, around 1500 a day. Since I was then 140-pounds, I knew that amount had to be less than I was already consuming. It would undoubtedly allow me to lose.

These calculations are, of course, only guidelines. Every one of us has a different body type with its own unique metabolism. All I can say is that for me, it worked. It still does. :)