MyNetDiary Blog

What Helps Adults Lose Weight & Maintain Weight Loss?

Did you watch HBO’s “Weight of the Nation” earlier this week? It is a four-part film series made for the general public – it combines compelling personal accounts along with accurate, evidence-based information about weight control. Everyone would benefit from watching this documentary, including health care providers who do not already work in the area of weight control.

Adults & Weight Control

In “Part 2: Choices,” the focus was adult weight control. Although the film covered many important topics, I want to share a few summary points that I found particularly helpful in regard to weight control.

1. Journaling food intake and exercise helps us be accountable for our eating and exercise behaviors. Consider using a mobile app to make journaling simple and at your fingertips.

2. Fad diets might succeed at weight loss, but they fail at weight maintenance since they are not sustainable eating plans. These diets typically exclude entire food groups – this leads to a big drop in calories intake which then causes dramatic weight loss. But once people go off these plans, they simply regain the weight that they lost.

3. Mindful eating helps us pay attention to the “what, why, where, and when” of eating. It is particularly helpful to tease apart eating to relieve hunger vs. eating to relieve stress or boredom.

4. Avoid drinking your calories since those calories are just added on top of food calories. Caloric beverages to be especially careful to limit given their sugar content: soda pop, sweet tea, energy drinks, juice drinks, and juice.

5. Regular physical activity is important for weight loss maintenance. Exercise will increase total calories burned, supports strength and balance, and helps control blood pressure, blood glucose, and stress. About 1 hour of moderate exercise per day works appears to be most effective for weight maintenance.

6. Social support helps people stick to their weight loss and maintenance goals. The documentary shows how three women, who lost about 100 lbs each, lost and now maintain their weight using social support. If you are isolated, considering using an online forum to help connect with others.

7. Losing weight is easier than maintaining weight loss. Researchers have found that a person who has lost a significant amount of weight and is maintaining at that weight will require about 20% fewer calories than another person of the same height, weight, sex, and age. That is, the “weight loss maintainer” might need 1600 calories to maintain her weight whereas the “never-lost-weight” friend might need 2000 calories. Long term calories tracking can help you become an expert on how many calories you need to maintain your weight.

8. Lifestyle always matters. Eating fewer calories from a variety of healthful foods from all food groups and regular physical activity are basic behaviors that are harder to master initially, but result in weight control success over the long term. Lifestyle factors are also critical to reducing the risk of progressing to Type 2 diabetes.

9. Your genes are not your destiny. Your health is a result of the interaction between your genetic make-up and your lifestyle choices. A great example of this is comes from the story of Tim and Paul, middle-aged identical twins featured in the documentary. Tim controlled his weight and exercised regularly, which prevented him from progressing to Type 2 diabetes. Paul did not pay attention to those lifestyle changes and found himself struggling to control Type 2 diabetes.

10. First, aim to lose 5-10% of your body weight. Significant health benefits are seen with losing 5-10% of body weight when an individual is overweight. That would be 10-20 lbs for a 200 lb person. See my MyNetDiary blog post for more information on setting SMART goals.

Have questions or comments about this post? Please feel free to comment on MyNetDiary’s Forum or Facebook page. I would love to hear from you!

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources

Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics. Consumer Diet Lifestyle and Book Reviews.

Dietitians-Online. Health Choices: How to Spot a Fad Diet.

MyNetDiary Blog.

WebMD. Weight Loss & Diet Plans. This is a website devoted to reviewing all eating plans, including fad diets.

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Why Smart Eating, Exercise and MyNetDiary Work for Weight Loss

Fad diets are so out of the loop, at least according to a new study published online in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine. Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center analyzed data from over 4,000 obese people who participated in a survey by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention between 2001 - 2006.

The study looked at how these individuals tried and succeeded at losing weight. Those who were most successful did two very simple things: ate less fat and exercised. A significant number of people also lost weight when they joined a structured weight loss plan, crediting the importance of guidance.

However, those who didn’t lose weight were the ones who participated in a variety of fad diets (liquid diets, nonprescription weight loss pills, diet foods/products, etc.).

More than a third of Americans are obese, and 50-70 percent of them are trying to lose weight. And just a 5 percent reduction in weight can improve one’s health.

MyNetDiary members benefit from having support and structure through the RD-moderated Community Forum and many articles published here on the blog and through the MyNetDiary website. We encourage simple, healthy eating and active lifestyles, all tracked through our web or mobile apps. We don’t encourage fad diets or “lose weight fast” mentalities.

We hope you’ve had great success using MyNetDiary. Please keep sharing with us your success stories. And if haven’t yet done so, we always appreciate a review of our mobile applications. They really do help us make them as useful as we can!

Cheating to Win: How it Can Work for Weight Loss

How many of you have felt shame when sneaking a mid-morning doughnut at work or have been scolded by your diet partner for getting 2% milk in your latte instead of skim? Probably a lot of us have. This notion of shame, or guilt, can actually be self-destructive to losing weight, and unless we change our mindset about food - realizing that we can “cheat” to win - we risk starting a downward spiral that derails us from our goal to lose weight.

The definition of cheating is essentially doing something outside the rules in order to win or gain an advantage. We hear a lot about cheating in sports or contests, but dieting and weight loss are not games. We have to eat food to survive, so why should food have a negative connotation? Why do we feel the need to label this food as “good” and another “bad”? If we place negativity around certain foods, we can bring on a sense of discouragement in ourselves just by being around them. Who has felt some level of stress or pressure when a coworker brings in a plate of fresh-baked cookies, and that’s even before we ate one? Just looking at a cookie made us wonder if our willpower was strong enough to withstand the bits of tasty “evil” hidden inside those chocolate chips. These feelings won’t help us reach our goal to be healthy and lose weight because they cause us discomfort during our journey, and if we feel discomfort every day just by being around food we run the risk of giving up because it gets too hard.

The powerful tool that is a food diary allows us to budget for any food, and we can remove the label of “bad.” Now we know, of course, that some foods are more or less healthy for us, but by tracking calories we understand how to maximize our portions in relation to our nutritional needs. “Bad” foods are often rich in calories, so one bite of that chocolate cake may run us 75 calories or more. Whereas a whole medium apple is about the same (according to MyNetDiary). Just knowing this can help us in deciding whether or not we really want that cake anyway.

Other diets (aka. fad diets) are about restrictions, and they thrive on the notion of “good” and “bad”, but using a calorie tracker shows us that we can find joy in all foods - as long as we budget for them. Think of calorie tracking as a financial budget: if we want that new set of golf clubs or fun vacation, we plan and save for it, don’t we? The same goes for calories - if we know we’re going somewhere that has great desserts, we can “save up” on calories a day or two before, or a day or two after so we’re averaging out to our daily calorie goal. Calorie goals are not something set in stone; they represent our limits as an average. This way we don’t have to feel discouraged if we go over one day. We can just aim to make that difference up over the next couple days.

Some MyNetDiary members find it helpful to pick a night of the week (or a day) that is their “splurge day” (or cheat day). It’s a day where they can take a break from the pressures of avoiding this or that and enjoy those treats. Of course, they still record what they eat so they are aware of their calorie intake, but they’ve planned for this time all week. It’s something they look forward to. You, too, can do this - plan and hold yourself accountable. In fact, it’s encouraged because a little “cheating” can go a long way when it comes to losing weight.

Tell us, have you tried to stop thinking of foods as “good” or “bad” now that you track what you eat? Let us know on the MyNetDiary Facebook page or in our Community Forum. We want to hear from you!

Is Calorie Counting Still the Way to Achieve Success?

A new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine is taking a crack at disproving long-held beliefs that calories are all the same, and that eating less and exercising more coupled with “everything in moderation” are going to get you slimmer and fitter. The study, performed by five public health and nutrition experts from Harvard University, followed 120,877 well-educated men and women (none of whom were obese or had any chronic health issues at the start of the study) for 20 years (1986-2006). Researchers checked in with these individuals every four years and asked them to complete questionnaires about their weight, eating habits, lifestyle, etc.

The study showed that participants gained an average of 3.35 pounds during each four-year interval, and researchers linked weight gain to the types/quality of foods participants ate on a daily basis, among other things. The major daily food culprits listed in the study were:

Potato chips (+1.69 pound gain over the average)
Potatoes (+1.28 pounds gain)
Sugar-sweetened beverages (+1 pound gain)
*Dairy products (low-fat and full-fat), interestingly, were shown to have a neutral effect on weight loss/gain.

On the flip side, researchers considered what healthy foods contributed to weight loss or reduced weight gain over each four-year period. These daily good food choices were:

Vegetables (-.22 pound less than the average)
Whole grains (-.37 pound less)
Fruits (-.49 pound less)
Nuts (-.57 pound less)
Yogurt (-.82 pound less)

From these two lists, it could be said that the best two food changes you could make to improve your diet would be to eliminate potato chips and increase your consumption of yogurt. But is it really that simple?

The study also considered other daily lifestyle choices in relation to weight changes. Notable relationships include:

Regular exercise (-1.76 pound less than the average)
Alcohol consumption (+.41 pound per drink per day)
Smoking (+5.17 pounds gain for new quitters; +.14 pound gain for former smokers)
Sleep (increased weight gain for those who got <6 hours or >8 hours sleep per night - you can sleep too much or too little!)
Television watching (+.31 pound gain per hour per day)

When discussing the results of the study in a New York Times article, the lead author of the study, Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, said, “This study shows that conventional wisdom — to eat everything in moderation, eat fewer calories and avoid fatty foods — isn’t the best approach…What you eat makes quite a difference. Just counting calories won’t matter much unless you look at the kinds of calories you’re eating.”

Specifically, Dr. Mozaffarian aimed at proving that calories are not just calories, and there are, in fact, good calories and bad calories. This is where the study’s underlying statement is made that simple calorie counting is not the answer for weight loss and eating healthy foods is. However, what may be overlooked is that even too many “good” calories can lead to long-term weight gain. So doesn’t that just make everyone right? Weight loss has been shown to have a direct relation to “calories in versus calories out,” but nutrition has been shown to be helpful in keeping weight off. It’s why so many “gimmicked” diets don’t work over the long haul - because some (most?) aren’t nutritionally sound or sustainable.

Even our own consulting dietitian, Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD, who exercises six days a week, says, “I already eat the foods the study found to be related to be beneficial and I still gain weight if I don’t track. The problem is I still eat too many of the good things over time when I don’t track. My calories intake gradually drifts upwards and exceeds my calories expenditure.” However, she also fully understands that calorie quality matters and has written a very informative article on the matter. See “Foods to Meet Nutrient Needs” on MyNetDiary.com.

The bottom line: it’s all important. Healthy foods matter. Portions matter. Sleep matters. Thankfully, MyNetDiary members have access to a great tool that goes beyond tracking calories. It allows you to track a complete nutritional snapshot of your diet and encourages healthy lifestyle choices based on ADA guidelines. How many times have you seen MyNetDiary’s recommendation to increase your fiber intake at breakfast? We hope you find it useful to achieving your success.

Now tell us, will you eat less potato chips and more yogurt after seeing these results? Share your comments in our Forum or on our Facebook page.

My Favorite Nutrition Websites

Since so many people have asked me for good nutrition website links, I thought it might be useful to simply list them here. Most of these websites are geared for the general public. They contain information about weight control, as well as other nutrition topics. This list is not a complete list of all the wonderful websites available – they are simply my favorites to date. They also provide sound, evidence-based nutrition information.

American Dietetic Association
Great basic information for both consumers and health professionals. Be sure to check out their section devoted to weight loss. If you like thorough position papers, then check out this link.

American Heart Association
This is a wonderful website with tons of links. This site includes basics of healthy eating for heart health, as well as information about activity and weight control. It also includes information on fats and how they affect your blood cholesterol levels.

Cooking Light
Many of you are familiar with Cooking Light magazine, but their website is even niftier! You can browse the site for basic nutrition information or if you prefer, view nutrition videos. My favorite section is the recipe finder. I can always find a healthier version of my favorite dish on this website!

Harvard Health Publications
Browse the website for topics of interest, but be sure to sign up for the free email newsletter, “Healthbeat.” I’m enjoying this newsletter – lots of great info. The occasional pop-up is annoying, but the material is well-researched and well-written! Also, I have been very happy with the special health reports that they publish and sell.

Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic’s website has well-written nutrition articles on a wide variety of topics.

MedlinePlus
This is a useful all-purpose website about health and disease, formatted like a dictionary or encyclopedia. For a website devoted to supplements, see Office of Dietary Supplements/National Institutes of Health.

MyNetDiary
Of course, I always refer people to MyNetDiary, an online diet and exercise tracker. I am the consulting dietitian with MyNetDiary so I understand how the system works and the care that goes into the articles, blog and forum replies. And yes, this is definitely a biased viewpoint!

National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse
There is a lot of information on this website – both in English and Spanish. In addition to browsing the site, be sure to check out “Eating and Diabetes,” “Diabetes Prevention Program,” and “The National Diabetes Education Program.”

National Heart Lung and Blood Institute
This website has great information on nutrition and hypertension, heart disease and weight control. Also, check out their PDF file on portion size.

National Weight Control Registry
This website provides useful Information about weight maintenance. Folks are eligible to join the registry if they have lost at least 30 lbs, have kept it off for at least one year or longer, and are at least 18 years old. See the website for more information. TIP for MyNetDiary members: include registering with this website as one of your milestone markers!

Obesity Society
Mostly a website for healthcare providers, but there is a consumer’s section with FAQs, stats, definition and links to other helpful sites.

WebMD
This website has lots of information about health and disease, but I especially enjoy reading Kathleen Zelman, MPH, RD’s articles on diet and nutrition. Here’s a link to a list of her articles published on WebMD.

Weight-Control Information Network
This website includes helpful resources on nutrition and physical activity for the public as well as for health care professionals.

Have questions about this topic? Let’s hear from you! Post your questions on MyNetDiary’s Forum.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Setting a Healthy Target Weight
How do you determine a healthy weight goal? Some people rely on their memory of how they felt at a specific weight, whereas others simply want to fit into a particular size of clothing or belt. In addition to knowing what weight you feel best at, there are tools to help you set weight goals that are correlated with improved health.

BMI
Body mass index or BMI is your weight in kilograms divided by the square of your height in meters (kg/m2). For example, a person 5’4” tall and weighs 140 lbs has a BMI of 24.0 kg/m2. Is that okay? For the general population, a BMI of 18.5 – 24.9 is correlated with lowest health risk. Overweight is defined as 25.0 – 29.9, obese is ≥ 30.0, and underweight is < 18.5. A BMI outside the lowest risk range typically means higher health risk. For an online reverse BMI calculator, check out Southern Illinois University’s School of Medicine’s website. You can enter your height and desired BMI to get a target weight.

BMI & White Adults
On December 2, 2010, the New England Journal of Medicine published an important study on all-cause death and BMI. The authors reviewed data from 19 studies and found that in a population of just fewer than 1.5 million white adults, including smokers, the lowest-risk BMI range is 22.5 – 24.9. However, for adults who do NOT smoke, the healthiest BMI range expanded to 20.0 – 24.9. [So smokers take note – being super skinny puts you at higher risk.]

BMI & Other Groups
There is discussion that BMI risk categories need to be adjusted for specific populations. In the future, look for more information on BMI norms for African Americans (healthy BMI range might be shifted higher) and Asian Americans and older adults (healthy range might be shifted lower). Also keep in mind that athletes with low body fat but high muscle mass will often fall above the healthy BMI range despite not being at higher risk.

Lose 10% of Your Body Weight
If you are overweight and find that reaching a BMI of 24.9 seems too daunting a goal, consider a stepwise approach to losing weight. The American Dietetic Association recommends a realistic, achievable, and sustainable weight loss of 10% within six months, with an average weight loss of 1-2 lbs/week. This recommendation is part of the Evidence Analysis Library on Adult Weight Loss. Losing 10% of your initial body weight is enough to help you improve your risk for chronic disease, as well as manage existing chronic disease (e.g. high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes). To calculate your target weight, multiply your current weight by 0.90. Example: 210 lb initial body weight x 0.90 = 189 lb target weight. To lose an average of 1 lb (0.45 kg)/week, one would have to eat less than their total energy expenditure by about 500 calories per day. One pound of body weight is about 3500 calories. Could you do the math if you wanted to lose 0.75 lbs/week or 1.25 lbs/week?

You can use an online tracker such as MyNetDiary to discover what your personalized caloric deficit needs to be to meet your target weight by your target date. A calories deficit can be achieved by eating fewer calories, burning more calories from exercise, or a combination of both. MyNetDiary will also auto adjust your caloric goals based upon your current body weight, target weight, target date, food intake, and calories burned. So, put your calculator down and just remember to log daily.

Have questions about this topic? Let’s hear from you! Post your questions on MyNetDiary’s Community Forum.

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

More Resources
American Dietetic Association. Evidence Analysis Library.

de Gonzalez et al. “Body-Mass Index and Mortality among 1.46 Million White Adults.” N Engl J Med 363:123;2211-2219.

National Heart, Lung, Blood Institute. “Calculate your Body Mass Index.”

U. S. Department of Health & Human Services. NIH News 12/1/10: “NIH study identifies ideal body mass index.”

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.

Plan to Succeed and the Skills Will Follow

Trying to lose weight without a plan in place is kind of like driving to your favorite restaurant with your eyes closed - you think you know the way, you’re excited to get there, but a lot of things can come between you and your destination.

Most people who are successful in achieving their weight loss goals set out with a definite plan - “I want to lose X pounds by this date,” or perhaps they set a weight loss rate or goal for exercising a certain number of minutes per week. The important part was that they had a plan in place. Additionally, new studies are now showing that creating and sticking to a weight loss plan also builds valuable life skills which extend beyond the pursuit of slimming down.

The first step in creating a plan is identifying and addressing your potential barriers. Do you lack specific fitness or nutrition knowledge? Do you struggle finishing tasks in which you feel alone? Do you suffer from low self-confidence and need support from others? Whatever your barriers may be, find the solutions before moving on.

Every goal needs a finish line, and great goals have little checkpoints along the way. While your goal might be to get back to your high school weight before your wedding day, you can still set mini-goals along the way - such as lose five percent of your body weight in a certain number of weeks, or fit into a specific size pants by the next holiday. By breaking up your journey, it won’t seem as long.

Add fitness goals to your weight loss goals. Your plan should be comprehensive; don’t make it all about the numbers on the scale. Set fitness goals, such as taking the stairs at work every other day, or walking during lunch twice a week or completing a 5K next month. The American College of Sports Medicine says it takes four to six weeks of committing to an exercise program to experience significant improvements in fitness, so be patient. Losing weight and getting healthy require lifestyle changes, so plan for your entire day - not just the eating part of it.

In a recent issue of BioPsychoSocial Medicine, those who developed the skills to self-regulate (both food intake and exercise) were the most successful in losing weight. So by setting a plan and sticking to it, people learn to self-regulate and improve their self-efficacy, and then the weight comes off. It’s a symbiotic relationship. And as a bonus, self-efficacy is a skill that improves self-confidence, allowing you to overcome peer pressures or feelings of negativity.

So what’s your plan? Share with us and others what keeps you on the road to success.

Resources for Improving Fitness/Nutrition Knowledge:

Weight Loss with MyNetDiary
Food Diary and Diet Articles by Katherine Isacks, MPS, RD

Degrees of Separation

Ever hear of the game called “Six Degrees of Separation”? It’s built on the premise that nearly any two people in the world can be linked together through six people. Kevin Bacon popularized this concept in Hollywood by claiming any actor can be linked to him by connecting him/her through six or fewer movies.

So what does this have to do with weight loss, you ask? Researchers have found that our connections to others who are or become obese may increase our own chances of becoming obese. This doesn’t mean we get to say that we’re overweight entirely because of familial or friendly influences, but it is something of which we can be mindful.

The study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007, was a culmination of data collected for over 30 years and included over 12,000 individuals. It looked at the likelihood of a person’s weight gain being attributed to their relationship to another obese person. Researchers found that the type of relationship the two people had was the greatest factor in how likely a person was to gain weight. Here’s a summary of the results: if your closest friend gained weight, your risk of obesity increased by 171 percent; however, if your adult sibling became obese, your risk of also becoming obese is only increased by 40 percent. And what about the influence from our spouses? If our spouse becomes obese, our risk of obesity is only increased by 37 percent. This means our closest friends have the most influence over our potential for gaining weight.

But it wouldn’t be fair to blame our friends and family for our weight gain, and another study has shown that we can actually benefit from their support while losing weight. Researchers examined the power of recruitment when people work together with a friend or family member to lose weight. It was discovered that our social network can greatly increase our chances of success. The study showed that when someone was recruited by a friend to lose weight he/she lost more weight over a four-month period than if that person had done it alone, and two-thirds of those who lost weight with social support maintained their weight from months 4 to 10. However, only 24 percent of those without social support could maintain their weight for six months after the loss occurred.

So if you haven’t already, motivate your friends and family to join or support you in your weight loss goal. Your chance of success will improve greatly, and it will just be more fun to do it with them! And don’t forget, MyNetDiary lets you connect to others through the Online Community and Groups.

Staying Motivated

Congratulations! You have achieved your weight goal. What are you going to do now? Do you have a plan? Most people who lose weight will regain most, if not all, of their weight back. That doesn’t have to be you. Buck the statistics and keep control of your weight. Create a goal for maintenance just as you did for weight loss. And most importantly, identify what motivates you to maintain your weight.

What motivates us to persevere so that we reach a goal? For some, reward or recognition from others is extremely effective. For others, the satisfaction of having achieved an important life goal is its own reward. For some, the knowledge that maintaining their goal weight will increase their chances of living longer and better is their motivation. Is one motivation better than the other? Not necessarily, as long as it truly motivates you to continue to engage in positive behaviors that support health. For instance, some might scoff at the notion that a woman might be motivated to lose weight for a 20-year school reunion. She wants to look good in front of her old classmates. What happens after the party? Does she gain back the weight? Not necessarily – perhaps her next goal is to look fabulous at her daughter’s wedding one year later. Perhaps she is motivated by two driving forces: to look good in front of others, but also, the feeling of confidence and success at maintaining her weight. Mind you, I am not referring to being “skinny.” I am referring to a person’s individualized goal weight. A woman who has been over 300 lbs. for much of her adult life is going to look and feel much better at 200 lbs.

My motivation is simple - to feel better. I continue to engage in behaviors that support my maintenance weight because I feel better physically, as well as mentally. When I don’t get enough exercise, I feel hungry, lethargic, stressed out, stiff from arthritis, my legs get restless, I sleep poorly and I eat too much. Sometimes I perceive exercise as a nuisance on a busy day, but the effects of exercise are so strongly positive for me that it motivates me to get out of my chair and onto the trail.

So, right now, while you are still reading this post, I want you to write down what motivates you to maintain your weight. And then write down the behaviors that allow you to maintain your weight. Post this list where you will see it every day – at your desk, or even on your refrigerator or kitchen counter. This will help you remain mindful of why you want to maintain your weight. It will help you make choices that support weight maintenance rather than choices that pull you, like a strong undercurrent, back to old habits that will result in weight regain. Choose to be mindful to protect your hard-earned weight loss. Don’t let mindless drift happen. You don’t have to be perfect, you just have to make better choices often enough to maintain instead of gain.

If you want ideas for weight maintenance planning, please be sure to read my article “Weight Maintenance.” In addition, there are other informative articles to read in that section of MyNetDiary.com under the “Weight Loss” tab, then click on “Diet Articles.”

Best,
Kathy Isacks, MPS, RD
Consulting Dietitian for MyNetDiary

Disclaimer: Please note that we cannot provide personalized advice and that the information provided does not constitute medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, please visit a medical professional.