scrwedupmuscle’s BodyBlog

List how you could benefit from changing your lifestyle

“I can’t change my DNA, but I can change my fate”

Don’t fall into the “I’ll have just one” trap

(Oprah.com) — You know those suggestive little voices that whisper in your ear … and suddenly you’re knee-deep in ice cream? Change the sabotaging, discipline-destroying thoughts, and you can change your life — or at least your weight.

You’re out to lunch and you’ve ordered the grilled cheese. Don’t say, “I ordered the grilled cheese, so why not get the fries, too?” Instead, think this to yourself: “One treat at a time. I’m indulging in grilled cheese, so I’ll trade the fries for a salad.”

University of Toledo psychology professor Janet Polivy calls it the “what the hell” effect and says it causes people to devour so much food that they feel they’ll never get back on track.

To prevent this scenario from playing over and over, Polivy says, you have to redefine your idea of healthy eating. Allow yourself the occasional treat, as long as it’s accompanied by smarter food choices like fresh fruit and vegetables. Oprah.com: Check out some smarter food choices

If there is a treat nearby, don’t fall into the “I’ll have just one” trap. Instead, say to yourself: “If I can’t stop at one or two cookies, I shouldn’t have any at all.” It’s okay to eat your favorite foods, provided you’re the type who can stop after a small amount.

“One cookie could turn into 1,000 calories or more if you proceed to eat the whole bag,” warns Stephen Gullo, PhD, president of the Institute for Health and Weight Sciences. He suggests that you take a step back and honestly assess how you’ve reacted to your favorite foods in the past. You may discover that chocolate chip cookies trigger uncontrollable cravings but one square of dark chocolate appeases your sweet tooth quite nicely.

Even if a loved one as close as your husband comments on your weight, say to yourself: “I want to get in shape for myself, not him.”

Whether or not you need to shed a few pounds, acting in response to someone else’s hurtful remarks will breed self-doubt and lower your self-esteem, says Marlene Schwartz, PhD, co-director of the Yale Center for Eating and Weight Disorders in New Haven, Connecticut.

To reset your weight loss goals so they revolve solely around you, sit down and figure out how you could benefit from changing your lifestyle. (Writing your thoughts out on paper might help.) If you identify areas that need improvement, talk to your spouse about how he can play a part: Plan low-fat weekly menus together in lieu of eating out, or take walks after dinner instead of watching TV.

Alternatively, if you’re exercising, eating right, and feeling pretty healthy the way you are, Schwartz says, “tell him that this is his problem, not yours.”

In the dead of winter, it can be hard to stay motivated. Don’t put getting in shape off until summer. Instead, think this to yourself: “By eating more now, I’m creating a lot of extra work for myself when spring rolls around.”

A study by scientists at the National Institutes of Health tracked 195 people through the holidays and found an average weight gain of about a pound. By the following year, most had gained another half pound, and the researchers predicted that the trend would only continue.

To prevent this outward creep, Gullo says, keep thoughts of summer in your house all year long by hanging a bikini or skimpy sundress on the back of the bathroom door, and visualize yourself wearing it every time you head for the leftovers. He also proposes committing to a regular exercise program in the fall, “before the winter blahs set in.”

If being overweight is a prevalent trait in your family, say to yourself: “I can’t change my DNA, but I can change my fate.”

“Genetics helps determine your natural weight range, but you have some control over where you fall within that range,” says Edward Abramson, PhD, an expert on obesity, dieting, and weight disorders and the author of Body Intelligence. Rather than aiming for a size 2, aim for health: If being overweight is a family trait, diabetes, heart disease, and other obesity-related illnesses could be, too, Schwartz says.

Walk to the grocery store, choose the stairs over the escalator, and take good care of the body you were born with. “It’s important to distinguish between body size and body health,” she says. “Research shows that people who are overweight and physically fit can live longer than people who are ideal weight and not physically fit.” Oprah.com: Find out more about body health

So you’ve had a fantastic workout. Does that mean it’s time to reward yourself with a bacon double cheeseburger? Not exactly. If you’re tempted, say to yourself: “After busting my butt at the gym, my body deserves the VIP treatment.”

“Most people overestimate the number of calories they’ve burned,” says Brian Wansink, PhD, a professor of marketing, applied economics, and nutritional science at Cornell University and author of Marketing Nutrition.

To burn off a bacon double cheeseburger, the average 140-pound woman has to jog at a rate of five miles per hour for more than 60 minutes. Recast your concept of reward: Instead of seeking food, take a luxurious bubble bath, rent a guilty-pleasure movie, buy a new pair of shoes, or lose yourself in a good novel.

We’ve all experienced that mid-afternoon energy slump. Instead of reaching for a candy bar, remind yourself that you need food that will help you go the distance. Candy and other sweets have little nutritional value, and they destabilize blood sugar, causing you to have more cravings later on, Gullo says.

The healthiest way to lose weight is neither crash diets nor bursts of exercise. The body likes slow changes in terms of food and exercise.

For example, someone who has not exercised for years should not rush into running miles a day or pounding the treadmill. Not only will the struggle to do so leave you feeling disheartened and demotivated, you’re also far more likely to injure yourself and set your fitness levels back further.

The same goes for people who suddenly start starving themselves. Diets that severely restrict calories or the types of food ‘allowed’ can lead you to be deficient in the nutrients and vitamins that your body needs.

So if you need to lose weight, what should you do?

Energy needs and weight loss

Your body uses food for energy. It stores any excess energy as fat. This means if you eat more food than your body needs for daily activities and cell maintenance, you will gain weight.

To lose weight, you need to get your body to use up these stores of fat. The most effective way to do this is to:

* reduce the amount of calories you eat

* increase your levels of activity.

This is why experts talk about weight loss in terms of diet and exercise.

Introduce changes gradually

Small changes can make a big difference. One extra biscuit a week can lead you to gain 5lb a year – cut that biscuit out of your diet and you’ll lose the same amount.

You are also more likely to stick to, say, swapping full-fat milk for semi-skimmed or making time for breakfast each morning than a diet that sets rules for all foods.

You should think of weight loss in terms of permanently changing your eating habits. While weight-loss goals are usually set in term of weeks, the end game is to sustain these changes over months and years.

Increase your activity levels

Someone who increases the amount they exercise, but maintains the same diet and calorie intake, will almost certainly lose weight.

No matter if you hate gyms - even light exercise such as a short 20 minute walk will be beneficial if done most days of the week.

Every single time you exercise more than usual, you burn calories and fat.

There are lots of ways to increase the amount of activity you do. Team sports, racket sports, aerobics classes, running, walking, swimming and cycling will all improve your fitness levels.

Find something you enjoy that’s easy for you to do in terms of location and cost. You are then more likely to build it into your routine and continue to exercise, despite inevitably missing the odd session through holidays, family commitments, etc.

* Get out and about at the weekend. Leave your car on the drive and walk to the shops. Try to incorporate longer walks into outings to the park, coast or countryside and take a picnic so you are in control of what you are going to eat that day.

* Every extra step you take helps. Always use the stairs instead of the lift, or get off the bus a stop before the usual one and walk the rest of the way.

* Use commercial breaks between TV-program to stand up and do exercise, or consider using an exercise bicycle in the living room while watching your favorite program..

Reduce your calorie intake

What is overweight?
Doctors use BMI to assess weight.
A BMI of 19-25 is healthy.
If you have a BMI of more than 25 you are overweight.
Over 30 is obese.
Over 35 is morbidly obese.
To calculate your BMI, you’ll need to know your weight in kilos and your height in metres, then follow the example below.
1. Multiply your height by itself, eg 1.7×1.7= 2.89.
2. Divide your weight (eg 80kg) by this figure.
3. 80 ÷ 2.89= 27.7.
27.7 is the BMI.
If you are overweight, you can’t continue with your current eating habits.

It’s not possible to reduce body fat while eating lots of food, cakes and sweets. This doesn’t mean you can never have any treats, but you need to learn how to limit these foods to small quantities - say, for special occasions.

In terms of weight-loss, you can get your body to use up existing stores of fat by eating less and making healthier choices.

This doesn’t mean crash diet (anything less than 1500 calories), which usually ends up with you either getting weaker or giving up in desperation. Quick-fix diets can lead to a yo-yoing effect of drastic weight loss followed by weight gain, resulting in a vicious cycle.

There are no shortcuts to losing weight in a healthy and reasonable way.

Eating 300 to 500 calories less per day should lead to a loss of between one and two pounds per week. This is a realistic target. It may seem slow, but would add up to a weight loss of more than three stone in a year.

Fat contains the most amount of calories out of all the food types (protein, carbohydrates), so a good way to achieve this is to cut down on fatty foods and eat more wholegrain bread, fruit and vegetables.

Below are ways to reduce calorie intake without having to alter your diet significantly.

* Replace fizzy drinks and fruit cordials with water.

* Swap whole milk for semi-skimmed, or semi-skimmed for skimmed.

* Eat less lunch than usual. For example, make your own sandwich and limit the use of margarine/butter and full-fat mayonnaise (store-bought sandwiches often contain both).

* Stop taking sugar in tea and coffee.

* Have smaller portions of the food you enjoy.

* Avoid having a second helping at dinner.

* Cut out unhealthy treats such as confectionary, sugary biscuits and crisps between meals.

* Cut down on beer and alcohol.

All these things will influence your health in a positive way.

Finally, don’t be tempted to skip breakfast – or any meal to lose weight. While skipping a meal will reduce your calorie intake for that hour, it will leave you much hungrier later on.

Not only are you likely to overeat to compensate, but you’ll often make bad choices to fill the gap: a cereal bar is not as healthy as a bowl of cereal or as filling, leading you to ‘need’ something extra for lunch.

Irregular eating habits also disrupt your body’s metabolism, which makes it harder to lose weight in the first place.

Write down your plan

The one phrase that can turn any relationship into a nuclear winter is: “I need to drop 5 pounds–I’ll cut out the beer.”

And here is the ugly truth: One beerless Patriots game and your guy is back in his high school gym shorts. You could forgo beer forever and be about as close to getting into your high school gym shorts as you are to fitting into one of Barbie’s dream gowns. It’s not fair.

Face it, guys are just losers. Well, better losers than we are. Even though we’d knock ‘em dead in the Jeopardy! weight loss category–we know everything there is to know about calories and fitness–they have the physiological edge. When Paul Tasner decides to drop a few pounds, says his wife, Barbara Walter, an ambulatory surgery nurse and a wellness coach in the San Francisco area, it seems to happen overnight: “It looks like he had a belly suit on, and then a day later, he takes it off and there’s a slim guy underneath. It really pisses me off.”

Men’s bigger muscle mass–in fact, their bigger-ness overall–helps them burn 30% more calories than we do, says nutritionist Cynthia Sass, RD, coauthor of Your Diet Is Driving Me Crazy. They have other advantages, too: For one, their hormones don’t leave them waterlogged–and heavier–1 week a month. We generally have more body fat and are biologically more inclined to store it (possibly to nourish those dozen babies nature wants us to have).

The bad habits guys overcome (beer and chips) seem to result in instant weight loss, while ours (mistaking a box of Ring Dings for a therapist) seem too emotionally hardwired to short-circuit. Finally, in the gym, they grab the big, macho barbells and do routines that make them grunt. Our weights tend to be pink…and puny.

But all is not, ahem, lost. We women may never have the biological or psychological weight loss advantages men enjoy, but we are clever enough to learn new tricks. In other words, if there’s no way to beat them at the dieting game, we might as well join them. Here are five guy habits that can help you lose weight–and keep it off. Happily, none of them involves testosterone.

He doesn’t crave sweets
Both men and women have cravings, and no, he doesn’t have an easier time fighting them off. But your comfort food is likely to be chocolate, pudding, or a cheese Danish, while his is a thick, juicy steak. A recent Cornell University study found that women seek out sweets to ward off the blues; men turn to meat when they want to indulge. The advantage of his choice: It’s protein, which will help fill him up far better than your coffee cake. A study published last year by researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine found that the secret weight loss weapon of low-carb diets is protein, because it promotes satiety, the scientific term for fullness, which curbs overeating.

If cravings are your downfall, you have a choice of tactics here:

Eat a little protein
When a craving hits, have low-fat string cheese, a low-fat turkey and cheese roll-up, or fat-free cottage cheese mixed with some cut-up fruit instead of a sweet.

Have protein-packed chocolate
Take a tip from Prevention weight loss advisor Holly Wyatt, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center: “When I’m craving chocolate, I have a chocolate-coated energy bar or another similar protein bar for 210 calories. I’ve gotten to the point where that tastes like candy to me.” But not so good that she starts in on a second.

He doesn’t berate himself when he screws up
Okay, you blew it. You had PMS, or your accountant called with news of a surprise audit, and the jelly doughnut hollered, “Eat me!” What do you do next? If you’re a woman, you throw up your hands, tell yourself what a bad person you are, and reach for another doughnut. Then you wallow in self-loathing for days. And what does a guy do?

“He feels okay, maybe even good, and really enjoys that steak,” laughs emotional-eating expert Edward Abramson, PhD, a professor emeritus of psychology at California State University and author of Body Intelligence. But he doesn’t order another one–he climbs back on the weight loss wagon, no harm, no foul. The best way to beat that diet-busting trap:

Apply his 80% rule
“Most guys avoid anything that even smacks of perfectionism,” and that applies to dieting, too, says Pamela Peeke, MD, an assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and author of Body for Life for Women.

“When women start a diet, they go from zero to 100–they become ‘perfect’ overnight, which is a hallmark of failure. That’s why I developed the 80% rule: Hit your weight loss goals 80% every single day you can. One day, it’ll be 120% because it happens to be a great day. Other days, you’ll hit 50% or even 20% when you’re dealing with PMS. Just make sure it averages out to 80%.”

He goes for weights with muscle
Women are catching on to strength-training, but some experts think women ought to approach weights more like a man. “When a guy goes to the gym, he’ll usually pick an exercise that allows him to use the most impressive-looking weights,” says Lou Schuler, a certified strength and conditioning specialist and author of The New Rules of Lifting.

The result: muscle building in less time, working a range of muscles at once instead of one in isolation. “A woman, on the other hand, will go for light dumbbells and do an exercise that allows her to use perfect form–but will do the least amount of good.” To wit: “the 12 triceps exercises women do” to rid themselves of underarm dingle-dangle, says Schuler.

“All those little exercises are like Chinese water torture for your muscles: a little drip here, a little drip there. You think if you do them enough then these nice, streamlined muscles will show up, but no, they won’t.” So, stop wasting your time, and do what the Y chromosome folks do:

Drop the “Barbie” weights
If you’re doing two sets of 12 or 15 reps, your weights are probably too light, says Schuler. Graduate to the black weights–the ones made of real iron–and move toward higher poundage that makes you strain to do 8 to 10, says Schuler. “Once your body is used to 10, then increase the weight until you’re only able to do 3 reps. At sports medicine conferences, I’ve seen scans of women’s upper arms before and after this kind of training program, and the girth of their upper arms hasn’t changed, but you can see the fat tissue is reduced and how much more muscle there is.”

Work out in life’s gym
Daily tasks offer opportunities to strength-train. “As you boogie through your day,” advises Peeke, “say, ‘No, I can lift those grocery bags. I don’t need a man to help me.’”

He doesn’t use food as a therapist
Women are twice as likely as men to binge because they’re depressed, reports a 2004 University of Minnesota study that examined the eating behavior of 1,800 people for a year. Women are also twice as likely as men to be depressed, which makes for a lot of eat-a-thons.

Worse, after a binge, a woman is likely to feel guilty, become even more depressed, and soothe herself with more gluttony. Confessed one woman (who requested anonymity because her boss reads this magazine): “When I’m really depressed, I’ve been known to wheel into McDonald’s and order two shakes–one for me and one for my invisible friend in the back seat. No kidding. One vanilla, one chocolate.

Sometimes I even turn my head around and say, ‘What do you want, chocolate?’ like the drive-thru guy on the intercom can see me. It’s sick!” Bottom line: No guy thinks he can boost his mood by mainlining frozen dairy products. You shouldn’t either. Get off that circuit with these tips: