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| THE NO-DIET APPROACH TO WEIGHT CONTROL |
By adopting sensible eating habits and practicing
portion control, you can eat nutritious foods so that
you take in as many calories as you need to
maintain your health and well-being at your ideal
weight. Often, weight loss occurs on its own simply
when you start making better food choices, such as
avoiding:
- processed foods
- sugar-laden foods
- white bread and pasta (substitute whole-grain
varieties instead)
- foods with a high percentage of calories from fat
- alcoholic drinks
While nothing is absolutely forbidden, when you do
succumb to temptation, keep the portion size small
and add a bit more exercise to your daily workout.
By replacing some unwise food choices with healthy
ones, you'll be cutting back on calories. If you add
some moderate physical activity, you have the
perfect weight-loss plan without the need for special
or inconvenient (and often expensive) diet plans.
Let's look at an example of a successful no-diet
weight loss program:
A 45-year-old woman complains that she has
gradually put on 12 pounds over the past year. In the
last month, she's faced a stressful work deadline and
added another 4 pounds to her frame.
This individual's goal is to lose the 16 pounds she
has gained. Since her weight has been gradually
increasing, she knows that she is consuming more
calories than she is burning, especially with her
sedentary job. She decides that a weight loss of 1
pound per week (equal to a deficit of about 3,500
calories, or cutting 500 calories per day) would be
acceptable and would allow her to reach her goal in
about four months.
She decides to make some changes that will allow
her to cut back an average of 250 calories per day.
Skipping a large glass of sweetened iced tea will
save about 200 calories.
Substituting mineral water for the cola she regularly
drinks during meetings can save another 150
calories.
Foregoing her morning muffin snack (or eating only
half a muffin) can also save 250 calories or more.
To reach her goal of a 500-calorie-per-day savings,
she adds some exercise.
Getting up early for a 20-minute walk before work
and adding a 10-minute walk during her lunch break
add up to a half hour of walking per day, which can
burn about 200 calories.
On weekends, she plans to walk for 60 minutes one
day and spend one hour gardening the next day for
even greater calorie burning. If walking for 60
minutes is too much, two 30-minute walks one day
would burn the same number of calories.
Twice per week she plans to stop at the gym on the
way home from work, even if only for a half hour of
stationary cycling or swimming (each burning up to
250 calories).
By making just some of the dietary cutbacks
mentioned and starting some moderate exercise,
this individual can easily "save" the 3,500 calories
per week needed for a 1-pound weight loss, leading
to a healthy rate of weight loss without extreme
denial or deprivation. Furthermore, her changes in
diet and lifestyle are small and gradual,
modifications that she can maintain over time.
