As many of my friends know, I’m a news nerd. A few years ago, I saw a CNN documentary entitled Fat Chance that was all about losing weight. One segment focused on the National Weight Control Registry that investigates long-term, successful weight-loss maintenance.
According to the documentary, this study had found that there were seven keys to losing weight and keeping it off. They are:
1) Expect failure but keep trying.
2) Don’t deny yourself – aka have that occasional piece of chocolate.
3) Weigh yourself often.
4) Exercise an hour a day.
5) Add little bits of activity into your daily routine.
6) Eat a high-carbohydrate (complex carbs), low-fat diet.
7) Eat five meals a day.
If you have time, you may want to visit the Registry’s Web site at: http://www.nwcr.ws/default.htm to dig deeper into its studies and read the posted success stories. Another one of my goals is to become part of this study.
What do you think of these 7 tips? Have you followed any of them and found them effective?
~~~
Today's progress:
Good news -- the scale went down again. I'm approaching 5 pounds lost and hope to be able to announce that soon.
Calorie intake: 1,349
Exercise: None (but 21 pages written)
Steps: 3,503
7 comments:
I always find the tips so interesting. Everyone has different tips! I definitely agree with #1 and #2. As for #3 I prefer to choose one day a week and weigh myself then. Weighing every day is too depressing, especially if you're not losing, or you go up a pound and down a pound. I like the 5 meals a day. I pretty much do that routinely. But i'm not sure about the diet. What ARE complex carbs anyway?
Interesting column, Michelle!
I'm like you, Annie, in that I don't like to weigh every day. It's more exciting and inspiring to me to wait at least three days between weighing because there's more potential for a bigger drop in the number.
I found this description and listing of complex carbs:
http://www.weightlossforall.com/complex-carbs.htm
Hi Michelle, I do all 7 of this things. They are good and can be modified to fit personal needs.
#3 I'm a daily weigher. I like seeing the fluctuation, but I do have a specific day of the week/time of day for my official weekly weigh-in.
#2 Skinny people eat cake. They just eat it in moderation!
#5 I'm walking the stairs at work for mini-exercise breaks during the day. Some days as many 36 flights, but 18 minimum. (24 stairs a flight. Do the math. It adds up!)
Not listed, but a food dairy has really changed my perspective on eating and I've seen the pounds coming off since I started keeping one. Thanks for the great post.
I'm back from Toronto. I had a great time at the ASAE conference - ate too much but it was part of enjoying it and I'll just make up for it later. I did check this blog early Monday but wasn't able to respond until now.
Annie,
I think the "often" in #3 is open to interpretation. I'm doing well if I can make myself weigh weekly, and I think that's how the documentary approached often - weekly or monthly once you've lost the weight. Like you said, there's way too much fluctuation day-to-day.
Re: complex carbs
They are basically carbohydrates with high fiber or whole wheat content. It's eating whole wheat or multigrain bread instead of white bread; high fiber cereal instead of cocoa puffs; whole wheat pasta, barley, lentils, wheat berries, brown rice instead of pasta or white rice or a baked potato covered with sour cream, cheese and butter; a small cranberry oat bran muffin or small blueberry, whole wheat scone instead of cakes, pies, danishes.
Nicki said:
#2 Skinny people eat cake. They just eat it in moderation!
They do. I do sometimes find it interesting to pay attention to the portion control of the "skinny people" I know. They can eat a lot less at times.
The food diary can be so helpful - WW calls it tracking. It's so easy to forget or even lie to yourself about what you've eaten.
Trish, thanks for the list of complex carbs!
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