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Congratulations on taking this first step towards losing weight. Like any worthy goal, losing weight requires discipline and effort, but the rewards are beyond measure. You will feel more alive, more vibrant -- with greater energy and vitality to do what you love and achieve what your heart desires.

I firmly believe that when we treat our body as a gift from God that we are privileged to help build and maintain, we not only benefit physically, but also experience an untold level of mental calm and spiritual well-being. Though I often speak of the importance of healthy attitudes and beliefs in influencing our physical health, I sometimes understate the powerful influence of physical strength and vitality on our emotional well-being. When we honor our body through healthy eating and vigorous exercise, we can achieve a truly remarkable level of emotional and spiritual growth.

I wish you all the best in your efforts and may God bless you with the strength, vitality and physical health necessary to make all your dreams come true.

1.     Eat only when you’re hungry.

Ask yourself before every bite, "Am I really hungry, or am I tired, frustrated, angry, sad, etc.?" If you’re tired, take a nap, don’t eat. If you’re angry, process your anger by talking about it or hitting a pillow, but don’t eat. If you’re frustrated, deal with your frustration without eating. If you’re sad, call a friend from comfort, don’t eat food for comfort.

    If you know you’re not hungry, but you still want to eat, then make a commitment to break the pattern of unconscious eating or comfort eating by doing 15 pushups, sit-ups, squats or jumping jacks before you eat. Then if you are still hungry, eat. Breaking a pattern can be incredibly powerful. Try it. Next time you think you are hungry and reflexly reach for something to eat, get down and do 15 quick pushups or 15 sit-ups or both. You may be surprised to find that you are no longer as hungry as you thought you were. Make a commitment to try this for one week. Lasting change always begins first in consciousness.

2.      If you’re serious about losing weight, exercise for 60 minutes at least 4 to 5 times a week.

The first 30 minutes of exercise only burn up your body’s glycogen stores. Glycogen is a form of sugar that is stored in your muscles and liver. Most people are thrilled that they have exercised 30 minutes, but you have not even begun to burn off fat stores. Thirty minutes is fine for aerobic conditioning and cardiovascular health, but it will not burn fat and in most cases, will not lead to significant weight loss.

    Between 30 and 45 minutes of exercise, your body transitions from burning glycogen to burning fat. Then, from 45 to 60 minutes, your body is burning pure fat stores. This is when your body really burns off the fat, resulting in the greatest weight loss. Many patients complain that they exercise 30 to 45 minutes and still can’t lose any weight. Now you know why. The most important 15 minutes of exercise comes during the 45 to 60 minute time period.

    I like to tell my patients that there’s this great exercise room where if they only exercise 15 minutes five times a week, they will burn off lots of fat. The bad news is you have to walk 45 minutes to get there! The good news is you don’t have to walk back!

    You do not need to exercise at full intensity the first 45 minutes. In fact, it is best to exercise moderately (at about 60% to 70% of your maximum heart rate). At this rate, you should be able to carry on a conversation with someone without huffing and puffing. Then increase your intensity for the last 15 minutes of the hour’s exercise.

    You can calculate your maximum heart rate by subtracting your age from 220. For example, if you are 40 years old, your maximum heart rate is 220 – 40 = 180. So a moderate rate of 60 % of maximum would be 60% times 180 = 108 beats per minute. If you are 60 years old, 60% max heart rate would be: 60% times (220 - 60) which is 60% times 160 = 96 beats per minute. Don’t worry about exact calculations, these are rough estimates. The important thing is that at a moderate intensity (60 to 70% max heart rate) you should be able to exercise and comfortably carry on a conversation. If you can’t converse, decrease your intensity a bit.

    Patients often ask, "Do I need to exercise all 60 minutes at one time, or can I break it up into smaller sessions?" You can break it up into two 30-minute sessions, but you cannot eat any food in between sessions. Drinking water is okay, but no juices. You could get up and take the dog for a 30 minute walk, then sit down and read the paper or do some chores and then hop on the treadmill for another 30 minutes, but you cannot eat any calories in between those 30 minute segments. Only drink water.

    Once you have achieved your desired weight loss, you do not need to exercise 60 minutes to maintain. Then you can cut back to 30 or 45 minutes 3 to 4 times a week.

3.      Lift weights at least 3 times a week.

You do not have to become a muscle man or a body-builder, but lifting light weights for 20 to 30 minutes 3 times a week will improve your muscle tone, increase your muscle mass, increase your metabolic rate and improve your sense of well-being. The best way to increase your metabolic rate is to increase your muscle mass. Lifting weights increases your muscle mass.

    Aerobic exercise is great for building a healthy heart, but it will not increase your metabolism significantly. Start a weight training regimen for building muscle mass. When you increase your muscle mass, you increase your metabolism, which means your body burns more calories even when you are not exercising, resulting in greater weight loss. This is called "after-burn." Aerobic exercise does not dramatically increase "after-burn," that is, it only burns calories while you are exercising, but does not increase your body’s burning of calories after you stop exercising.

    A great book to help you get started is The 12 Minute Total Workout by Joyce Vedral Ph.D. Using just light hand weights and home furnishings, you can develop an effective plan for building muscle.

4.    Calculate your ideal body weight (IBW) by the following formula:

    If you are a man, you get 106 pounds for the first 5 feet in height and 6 pounds for each inch over 5 feet. So a man 5’ 10" tall should have an ideal body weight (IBW) of 106 + (6 times 10") = 106 + 60 = 166 pounds. Now you can adjust plus or minus 10% depending on body frame, i.e. if you have a small frame decrease by 10% i.e. your IBW is 166- 16 = 150; if you have a large frame, increase by 10%, so your IBW is 166 + 16 = 182.

    If you are a woman, you get 100 pounds for the first 5 feet and 5 pounds for each inch above 5 feet. So a woman who is average frame and 5’4" tall would have an IBW of 100 + (5 times 5) = 100 + 25 = 125 pounds.

    The above formula gives you your ideal body weight. Sometimes, as we get older, that weight is really unachievable for many reasons, and it is perfectly okay to have a goal weight that is higher than your ideal body weight. Calculate your goal weight based on the weight at which you feel most comfortable and happy with the way you feel, look and fit into your clothes. The goal is not to become anorexically thin like Madison Avenue represents to us in million dollar ads and TV shows. This is not healthy. The goal is to be strong physically, to honor our body as the beautiful gift that it is -- allowing us to achieve our goals and carry out our responsibilities in life. One rule of thumb is that if your goal weight is more than 20 pounds above your ideal body weight, be careful you aren’t being an underachiever.

5.      Aim for losing 1 to 2 pounds a week.

Don’t be a weekend warrior. The best way to lose weight is to develop a long-term commitment to losing 1 to 2 pounds a week. Progress, not perfection is the key goal. Trying too hard, too fast and having unrealistic expectations only leads to frustration and failure. 1 to 2 pounds of weight loss per week is ideal.

6.    Here is a quick lesson on calories.

    One pound of fat has about 3500 calories in it. That is, to lose one pound of fat, you need to decrease your calorie intake by 3500 calories. So if you want to lose one pound a week, you need to eat 3500 fewer calories that week, or 500 fewer calories each day for seven days.

    Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the number of calories your body burns in 24 hours, assuming you are completely at rest, i.e. totally inactive. Your BMR can be calculated by multiplying your body weight (in pounds) by 10. So if you weigh 120 pounds, your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is about 1200 calories a day (i.e. 120 times 10).

    So, if you weigh 120 pounds (i.e. your BMR is 1200 calories a day), but your ideal body weight (IBW) is 110 pounds, then you need to lose 10 pounds. If you do no exercise and continue to eat 1200 calories a day, you will maintain your present weight. Remember that’s what BMR is, the number of calories your body needs to maintain it’s present weight. So a BMR of 1200 means you get to eat 1200 calories a day to maintain your present weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat fewer than 1200 calories a day. If you want to lose 1 pound a week, you need to eat 3500 fewer calories that week, that is, 500 fewer calories a day. So to lose 1 pound a week, instead of eating 1200 calories a day, you can only eat 700 calories a day (1200 – 500 = 700). If you remain inactive, and only eat 700 calories a day, you will lose 1 pound a week

    By exercising, you increase your total daily caloric burn, that is the number of calories you burn each day. This allows you to add a "fudge-factor" to your basal metabolic rate (BMR) in the following way. If you are mildly active (walk a little at work, go up and down the stairs 5 to 10 times a day, or do light work around the house): add 15% to your BMR. If you are moderately active (walk at least 30 to 45 minutes total throughout the course of the day, lift light objects and go up and down the stairs a good bit): add 30%. If you are extremely active (in a formal exercise program with 45 to 60 minutes of dedicated exercise 4 to 5 days a week, in addition to whatever walking around, up and down stairs, etc. that you do all day): add 50%.

    You can see how increasing your activity increases your caloric burn by adding to your BMR, allowing you to eat more and still lose weight. Let’s go back to the example of our 120-pound individual with a BMR of 1200 calories a day. If our patient is mildly active, the total daily caloric burn increases from 1200 calories a day to 1380 calories a day. So to lose a pound a week, we now subtract 500 calories from 1380 calories for a result of 880 calories per day! That’s better than 700 calories a day! If our patient is moderately active, the total daily caloric burn increases to 1200 + (30% times 1200) = 1200 + 360 = 1560 calories a day. Now, to lose a pound a week, we subtract 500 calories from 1560 calories for a result of 1060 calories a day! So now, by increasing our activity alone, we can eat 1060 calories a day and still lose a pound a week. If we increase our activity level to extremely active, our total daily caloric burn increases to 1200 + (50% times 1200) = 1200 + 600 = 1800 calories a day. Now, to lose a pound a week, we subtract 500 calories from 1800 for a result of 1300 calories a day. Fantastic, eh! Just by increasing our activity, we can now eat 100 more calories per day and still lose 1 pound a week.

7.    Be careful about cutting your calorie intake too low.

No one should eat less than 1000 calories a day without supervision. The body shuts down when the caloric intake is too low. When caloric intake is below 1000 calories a day, your body goes into "starvation mode" and tries to preserve all it’s bodily energy stores and your BMR decreases significantly, impeding weight loss. So be careful!

    The most effective way to lose weight is to moderately decrease your caloric intake, while dramatically increasing your exercise and activity level.

8.    Consider lowering your carbohydrate intake as a short-term aid for weight loss.

If you frequently crave carbohydrates (sweets, desserts, white bread, pasta, potatoes, white rice, crackers, cereal, etc.), then you may want to try a low carbohydrate diet. The short explanation of why this helps is that high carbohydrate meals result in the oversecretion of insulin by the pancreas. When blood insulin levels are high, the body is "fooled" into believing there is an excess of energy around and it goes into "fat-storage" mode. This causes the body to hold onto fat stores even when you are restricting your caloric intake and should be losing weight.

    The best way to avoid high insulin levels in the blood (hypersinsulinemia) is to minimize the consumption of simple sugars and carbohydrates. If you frequently snack on carbohydrates like candy, cookies, breads, pastas, or fruit (especially if you "graze" all day long), your insulin levels remain elevated in the blood. This prompts the body to hold on to fat stores.

    The good news is that proteins and fatty foods do not dramatically increase your blood insulin levels. That is why eating lean meat, low fat cheese, nuts, eggs, peanut butter and the like, in moderation, will fill you up, without elevating your blood insulin levels. You still have to be mindful of your total caloric intake, but in moderation, lean meat, fish and chicken are excellent low fat sources of protein that will not dramatically increase your insulin levels and will not cause your body to go into fat storage mode.

    One very simple way to follow a healthy low-carbohydrate plan is by limiting your carbohydrate intake to one meal a day. This is discussed in detail in the excellent book, The Carbohydrate Addicts Diet by Heller. Put simply, their plan says to choose one meal a day when you will eat all your carbohydrates. At that meal, you can also eat protein and low-fat foods, but you must complete your meal within a 60 minute time period. At all other meals, avoid any carbohydrates at all, by eating lean meat, fish or chicken along with a salad, but skip any bread, pasta, white rice, cereals, fruits and desserts. On this plan, it is critical that you don’t eat in between meals. This will eliminate the problems created by carbohydrate craving.

    A few other popular high protein, low carbohydrate diets are The Zone Diet by Barry Sears, Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution by Robert C. Atkins, M.D. and Sugar Busters. I don’t recommend these diets long term, but they can be a useful aid in initiating weight loss and decreasing cravings. Don’t stay on any one of them longer than 2 to 3 months without advice from your doctor.

    One simple low carbohydrate diet that may be effective is circulating as the "New Mayo Clinic" diet, although I am not at all certain that this is actually from the Mayo Clinic. There have been other presumed Mayo Clinic diets that the Mayo Clinic denies having any connection with. However, this particular plan has been helpful to some of my patients and it may be okay in the short term (less than 2 to 3 months) for you, UNLESS you are on cholesterol lowering medicine or have heart disease. I have modified the information I received to what makes scientific sense:

    Breakfast: 1/2 grapefruit or 8 oz. grapefruit juice (Be careful if you are on Red Yeast Rice, perhaps stop the Red Yeast Rice till you are off the extra amounts of grapefruit juice); 2 eggs (any style); 2 slices of bacon

    Lunch: 1/2 grapefruit or 8 oz. of grapefruit juice (unsweetened); Salad, any dressing, any amount; Meat, any style, any amount. (But aim for low fat meats)

    Dinner: 1/2 grapefruit or 8 oz. of grapefruit juice (unsweetened); Meat, any style, any amount (fish may be substituted); Vegetable, any green or red (cooked in butter or any seasoning)

    Bedtime Snack:  Glass of tomato juice or skim milk

    INSTRUCTIONS (For the New Mayo Clinic Diet)

    1) At any meal, you may eat until you are full, until you cannot eat anymore.

    2) Don't skip bacon at breakfast or omit salads, it is the combination of foods that burn fat. (I've never seen any scientific evidence for this, but it's okay to try it)

    3) The grapefruit is important because it acts as a catalyst that starts the burning process. (Grapefruit juice does activate some of the liver enzymes that help the body's metabolism.)

    4) Cut down on coffee, it affects the insulin balance that hinders the burning process. Try to limit to 1 cup at mealtime (3 cups a day) (I'm not sure of the scientific evidence for the effect of caffeine on the insulin release in the body, but cutting down on caffeine is a good idea anyway.)

    5) Don't eat between meals, if you eat the combination of foods suggested you will not get hungry.

    6) Note: the diet completely eliminates sugars and starches. You can use butter on your vegetables.

    7) Do not eat desserts, breads, white vegetables or sweet potatoes. You may double or triple helpings of meat, salad, or vegetables. Eat until you are satisfied.

    8) You may lose up to 10 pounds in 10 days; there will be no loss for the first four days. After that, aim for weight loss of 1 to 2 pounds per week.

    9) All soft drinks need to be diet and caffeine free.

    10) You may not have: white onions, potatoes or celery. You may have: red onions, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, bell pepper, green onions, cabbage, radishes, spinach leaf and carrots. 

    Stay on the diet for 12 days and then stop for 2 days.

9.    Always drink plenty of water, especially when losing weight.

Your body stores many toxins in fat cells and when you lose weight, your fat stores are metabolized and these toxins are released into your body. Drinking plenty of water safely flushes out these toxins. Drink enough water so that your urine is almost always clear like water.

10.    Take a good multivitamin.

When losing weight, you should always take a good multivitamin for building healthy new cells, keeping your immune system strong and detoxifying the toxins released from the breakdown of fat cells. My favorite vitamins are Twin Labs Daily One Caps or NOW Special Two Tablets (not capsules). You can get these at most health food stores, like Mother’s Market or Apple-A-Day. GNC also makes a great vitamin called Ultra Mega Gold. These vitamins are far superior to Centrum or One-A-Day and offer your body much more protection for a minimal increase in cost.

11.    In general, avoid most weight loss supplements.

They tend to include stimulants that are unhealthy and can create problems with heart palpitations or blood pressure. Always check with your doctor before using any supplements. If you do decide to use them, limit their use to 2 or 3 months maximum.

    Three supplements that have some benefit in weight loss and are very safe are chromium picolinate, L-carnitine and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA).  You can take up to 800 micrograms of chromium daily. I would recommend dividing it into two doses, 400 micrograms in the morning and 400 micrograms in the evening. If you are diabetic, do not take chromium without checking with your doctor first. It can lower your blood sugar, potentially causing hypoglycemia. L-carnitine should be taken in a dosage of 500 milligrams once a day. The data on conjugated linoleic acids are relatively new, so check the dosage at the health food store. 

12.    Monitor what you eat by keeping a food journal.

Years of research in effective methods for changing behaviors show that the simple act of monitoring what you eat (by writing it down in a journal) results in eating healthier, eating less and losing weight. I know it sounds too simple to be true, but it is. Just reap the benefits of it by purchasing a pocket size notebook to record every little thing you eat, as you eat it. I promise you it will make your weight loss efforts more productive and yield powerful results. Commit to keeping a food journal.

Reward your efforts, celebrate your success!

Every single meal that you choose wisely, every day you exercise well, every time you do a set of curls should be a cause for celebration. Part of being successful at achieving any new goal is to fully celebrate the victories. We all tend to focus on what we don’t have, the clothes we don’t yet fit into, what we wish we looked like. Change your focus to an appreciation of the positive steps you are taking towards your goal. We all have ups, downs and diversions on our path toward greater health. Reward your efforts by doing something you really enjoy (other than eating!) like buying a new CD, taking a warm bath or whirlpool or getting a massage. Celebrate your new body as it is changing into the body you want it to become. Don’t wait until you reach your end goal to celebrate. Honor your movement towards your goal. There is reward in the effort. God bless.

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