I’m addicted to watching The Biggest Loser (don’t worry, I’m gearing up for a loooong series of posts re: this show very soon – later this week, actually, so sit tight.) I love watching the massive transformation that takes place in a relatively short time. It is amazing, don’t you think? Off the show, people just like that are able to lose weight, and keep it off. They aren’t famous, of course, like the contestants, but they should be. Keeping weight off is HARD work. So how do they do it? I want to know, don’t you?

Fortunately, weight loss is a subject that colleges and universities spend a lot of time, and money, researching, which means the answers we seek are ripe for the picking, if you know where to look.

Cue Dr. Len Kravitz, Assoc. Professor of Exercise Science at The University of New Mexico. I’ve had the pleasure of attending a few of Dr. Kravitz’s courses at various fitness conventions, and I simply adore him. I knew he’d have the answers to this pressing question: How do you keep weight off successfully? It didn’t take long to dig up an article on the University of New Mexico website written by Dr. Kravitz. Kravitz summarized (thank you Dr. Kravitz!) the results from The National Weight Control Registry. It turns out, those who are successful at losing weight, and keeping it off, have specific traits and habits. This is what I learned…

Successful weight losers…

1. Make exercise a priority, and exercise more. According to Kravitz, women burn an average of 2,545 calories/week during planned physical activity. That is about 360 calories per day, or the equivalent of a thirty-minute run, or one-hour walk. The sad truth is, most people don’t exercise. In fact, in all of the states but five (Washington, Oregon, California, Hawaii, and Alaska), less than 18% of Americans engage in sports or exercise on an average day. (http://www.bls.gov/spotlight/2008/sports/pdf/sports_bls_spotlight.pdf)
2. Eat healthy 80% of the time (or more), making low-fat, low-calorie foods the mainstay of their diets. Also, participants in the registry noted that their eating patterns were the same on weekends as they were during the week. Weekends can ruin otherwise healthy eating patterns, so I’m not surprised to learn that successful weight losers try hard to stick to their usual, healthy eating habits. Although, 39% did say they followed stricter diets during the week. Those that ate consistently healthy all week long were 1.5 times more likely to maintain their weight loss during the following year.
3. They live a healthier lifestyle for themselves, rather than for another person, or to fit into a social norm. In most cases (85%), there is a “trigger” that sparks their weight loss journey, such as a medical condition (23%), reaching an all-time high in weight, or seeing a picture themselves. There were several contestants on this season’s Biggest Loser that said seeing a picture of themselves “shocked” them into realizing how big they had gotten, and motivated them to start losing weight. I have also noticed the shock on the contestants’ faces when the show’s doctor delivers the scary medical prognosis for each of them, if they don’t lose weight.
4. They weigh themselves frequently. Self-monitoring is key to reaching any goal, especially weight loss. Read “Successful Self-Monitoring: Log and Chart your progress” for tips on self-monitoring.

Bob's Red Mill Oatmeal

(And I added 3 of my own traits, based on health behavior change paper I wrote in college):

5. They eat breakfast every day. This is SO important. Although, I know many people who just aren’t hungry in the morning. I do wonder if, for people who this is the case, eating a regular breakfast would bump up metabolism enough that in time they would be hungry in the morning? I’ll research that bit some more. (Not sure what to eat? Check out the post: “The Best Breakfast is the one you’ll eat!”)

6. Don’t focus on the short-term effects of weight loss. Instead, they view the changes they’ve made as “lifestyle” changes that will last a lifetime. This part is really important. To keep weight off, a lifestyle change is key.
7. Watch less television. Think about it – not only is the sedentary behavior setting you up for a slower metabolism, but TV watching also promotes mindless snacking. And I suppose that for those who have to give something up in order to make time for exercise, TV is a logical activity to forego. Although, I have a dear friend that trained for a full marathon, on a treadmill mind you, by taping and watching her favorite shows while she logged mile after mile. I admire her focus. Even with my favorite shows to watch, I couldn’t stay on a treadmill that long, but I say, if it works for you, by all means, DO IT!!

IMPORTANT STUFF: According to the NWCR study, those who kept weight off for 2 years or more had significantly higher odds of keeping the weight off, reducing their change of “regain” by almost 50%!!

If you’d like to read the full article, here it is: Winning at Losing: Secrets of Long-Term Weight Loss

If you have successfully lost weight, please share your own Secrets to Success! Everyone struggling with weight loss or weight maintenance would benefit from hearing how others managed to pull it off, and keep it off.

Earth Day is nearing, and I’m in the mood to recycle, reuse, etc. (Also, I’m really busy this week and out of original ideas to write about.) BUT, as luck would have it – I’ve unearthed some of my articles from waaaay back, and will be posting them all week long. Recycle, reuse, re-purpose…call it what you will, in honor of the upcoming Earth Day (drum roll please)...THE IMPORTANCE OF SELF-MONITORING!

Self-Monitoring is essentially the process of recording various aspects of behavior and progress toward your health and fitness goals. The act of logging your daily journey toward improved health allows you to clearly see where you started, where you are now, and where you are headed. It is a motivational tool seldom taken advantage of, yet it can yield tremendous results when implemented correctly.

What do you log?

• Food intake
• Workout details (what you did, how long you did it, or why you didn’t exercise on a particular day, how it felt, etc.)
• Changes to your routine

By logging your food/exercise habits, you can:

• Measure your progress
• Evaluate inconsistencies in your routine
• Identify problematic foods and eating patterns
• Make connections between various emotions and eating behavior
• Discover reasons why you do/don’t exercise on certain days
• Decide if it is time to make changes to your routine

The process of tracking your progress enables you to modify your behaviors on the fly. For example, by tracking your workouts and food intake, you may discover that you do great during the workweek, but free fall out of control on the weekends, overeating and putting off exercise. Or, you may find that fatigue in the evenings prevents you from working out consistently. In this case, switching to morning workouts may be the solution that leads to lasting success.

Research confirms that the practice of self-monitoring increases success.

Often, we overlook progress and choose to focus on “all-or-nothing” thinking. When this happens, those little setbacks or changes in your schedule can derail your efforts for days, weeks, or permanently. By monitoring yourself on a consistent basis, you can evaluate what is working and what isn’t, where your weaknesses lie, and gain an overall picture of the changes taking place. This lessons the likelihood for failure by a large degree.

Follow these tips to get the most out of your exercise / nutrition-tracking system:

• Do get in the habit of focusing on your successes.
• Don’t give yourself a bad grade when you slip up.
• Do evaluate your strategies often to notice what is working and what is not.
• Do focus on what you can control: workout length, workout intensity, type of exercise, and what you eat, rather than focusing on what you can’t control (blood pressure, body fat, medical needs, losing “x” number of pounds today).
• Do record your thoughts/feelings associated with exercising and eating and the beliefs you need to work on changing.
• Do tweak your routines and diet when you aren’t noticing progress. Small changes can bring big results.
• Do keep a positive attitude at all times.

I often peruse message boards to gain insight about women, and what problems they are facing in terms of fitness. I ran across a post that I thought would be relevant to a lot of readers, so I’ve posted a synopsis of this woman’s question, and my complete answer here.

Enjoy!

[abbreviated from WedMD message board:  I had a baby one year ago, gained 70lbs, and have had minimal success losing the excess weight. I have a stair climber that I use at home, but I'm not getting results using it and don't have all day to exercise. What (exercises) can I do at home that will help me lose weight, but don't cost a lot of money? ]

This is a very common problem: post baby weight loss woes. Often, new moms are often strapped for both time and money as well. Add to that the frustration of not losing weight after the baby as quickly as it was put on, and you have a recipe for tired with poor body image and the feeling that the new, post-baby body will be the forever body.

First off, I suggest drawing up a plan of attack. Sit down with pen and paper, and write down a realistic goal for yourself. You said you want to lose 70 or so pounds, so assume that at 2 lbs per week, you’ll reach your goal in 35 weeks or so.

Now for the hard part: consistency. How much time can you reasonably commit to exercising every day? Because to lose 2 lbs per week, you’ll need to create a calorie deficit of 7000 calories, or 1,000 calories per day. You can skin this cat several ways. You could burn off 500, and also reduce calorie intake by 500, for a combined 1,000 calories, or any combination that helps you reach that 1,000 calorie deficit goal. Just make sure you’re eating at least 1200 calories per day, or you’ll wind up doing more harm than good, and weight loss will surely stall as the body goes into starvation mode.

Back to the exercise part: what to do with what you’ve got. If you like the stair master, stick with that, gradually increasing the time spent exercising, as well as the intensity, until you’re exercising continuously for 45-60 minutes. I don’t know if you have weight equipment at home, but I highly recommend 2- 3 days of weight training per week, doing 2-3 sets of 8 or 9 exercises, targeting the major muscle groups. This will help build lean muscle, and improve your metabolism.

As the weather gets nicer, walk, walk, walk…or jog. If you don’t already have one, consider getting a quality baby jogger that is designed for jogging. You can buy used to save money. Check garage sales, Craig’s list, even Play it Again Sports or Once Upon a Child. It is a great investment, and your baby will love the activity as well. Groups such as Stroller Strides or Stroller Fit, and also Baby Boot Camp, are fantastic for moral support and camaraderie.

You don’t need any equipment to get a great workout. Jumping jacks, jump squats, push ups, bear crawls, burpees, tricep dips, and so on, all can be done using only body weight. There are numerous online resources for designing a workout like this. Try using keywords like: full body workout without equipment, or something like that. You can also check out my website for help: http://www.blueskygym.com/blog

Finally, stick to it. I know being a mom is tiring, and busy. Very busy (I have four kids myself, so I totally understand about not having all day to exercise.) Enlist the help of your husband and extended family and friends so that you grab an hour or so each day for yourself. You’ll be a happy, more energetic mom if you make this time for yourself. You deserve it!

Good luck! I know you can do it!

Back in the 90’s, I recall reading the advice that skipping food before an early morning workout forces the body to utilize fat stores for fuel right away. At the time (and not knowing better), this sounded reasonable. I was never able to stick to that “rule,” mainly because I was so dog-on hungry in the morning and would also return from my workout with the jitters from low blood sugar if I didn’t eat beforehand. I ignored that advice, and when I returned to school some years later to complete my BS in Exercise Science, I learned that the body always uses carbohydrate for fuel, and also requires carbohydrates to burn fat. So much for the aforementioned myth.

Here’s the deal: The body uses carbohydrates first. No exception. The chemical reactions that support this energy-making process occur rather rapidly. This is what enables you to run up the stairs in response to hearing a child cry for help. Think of carbs as “fast fuel.”

The process of turning carbohydrate into fuel is called glycolysis. Now, one of the by-products of glycolysis can be sent through another series of much slower chemical reactions called the Kreb’s Cycle. This particular cycle produces fuel for sustained events. Think distance running. Fat doesn’t enter the equation until it is first broken down through a process called beta-oxidation. So it’s not like if you skip breakfast, your body will use fat for fuel instead. It just doesn’t work that way. (Fitness Faux Pas)

My advice: eat a quality carbohydrate, or small snack that has a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1 carbohydrate to protein, and you’ll fuel your workout, as well as enable the fat-burning process to continue (I’d say “begin,” but we’re always burning fat, as long as we’re consuming sufficient calories, of course.)

So let’s recap:

Do we burn fat exclusively if we skip breakfast and then work out? No.

Do we burn MORE fat if we skip breakfast and then work out
No

Do we NEED breakfast (or some form of food) before a morning workout? YES! Emphatically, YES!! (Food is your friend)

The dedicated souls who exercise because they love it are a rare lot. The rest, well, exercise because it is an important step on the road to weight loss. And we all know that weight loss really means, “fat loss.” Am I right? Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation about the “fat burning zone,” which leads us to believe that exercising at a particular intensity, above a minimum amount of time, is the optimal “fat burning” place. Not so (and that isn’t necessarily a bad thing). And here’s why…

Like it or not, we all burn a higher percentage of fat calories for energy when we’re sitting on our duffs, than cycling like a feign. That is simply they way our metabolisms are designed. We do burn fat when exercising, but you don’t burn a higher percentage of fat exercising for more than 20 minutes, or at a higher intensity, or at a lower intensity really. The difference is pretty insignificant. But (and this is a big one) – if you burn MORE calories (either at rest, or during exercise), the more total fat you’ll burn.  To burn more fat, burn more calories.

The 3 best fat-burning moves

1.  Exercises that involve the largest muscle groups (glutes and quads), burn more calories. The more muscle mass you have, the more calories you’ll burn at rest, and since you burn a higher percentage of fat in a resting state than during exercise, it makes sense to focus on the large muscle groups first.  Squats, leg presses, leg extensions, lunges, Romanian dead lifts are examples of weight training exercises that target these large muscles.

2.  Interval training burns more calories  than traditional, steady-state endurance training (if duration is the same for both). During exercise, you burn both carbohydrates and fat, but you burn more carbs than fat for fuel. However, the more total calories you burn, the more fat calories you’ll burn.  Here’s a simple example of interval training:  add intervals of 3-5 minutes that are at a higher intensity, then spend roughly equal that time recovering, then repeat. Thirty- to forty minutes is sufficient. Shorter intervals of even higher intensity are fine too – just check with your doctor if you have any pre-existing health conditions.

3. Running and cross-country skiing: these activities burn more calories than most other cardiovascular workouts. Again, the more calories you burn, the more fat calories you’ll burn. The ratio is roughly 60% carbohydrates to 40% fat utilized as fuel during cardiovascular exercise. For example, if you cycled for 30 minutes and burned 200 calories doing so, only 80 of those calories would come from fat. However, if you ran at a 7 mph pace instead, you’d burn roughly 400 calories (depending on your height/weight), and 160 of those would be fat calories!

The exact number you will burn depends on many factors, but you get the idea. To burn more “fat” calories, burn more total calories!