Benefits of Losing Weight

I write posts about weight loss because so many people want to lose weight. Mostly because they want to look better and feel better. Do you know that only about 10% of dieters lose weight and keep it off. As a senior, I want to tell you that until you’re over 50 your don’t realize how that extra weight affects you. 

I lost most of my body fat after 50, but for a lot of people, that’s almost too late. Today I have knee pain because I waited too long to lose weight. The damage was done. I had one operation on my left knee, but the truth about any joint surgery is that you never totally get rid of the pain. Oh, sure after the surgery you’ll feel great but as time goes by you start to feel the pain again. And after any joint damage, you always end up with Arthritis. 

If I would have exercised  and watched my diet more and lost the weight before I damaged my joints, maybe this wouldn't have happened. For most of us, gaining weight is no biggy. "Everyone gains weight when they get older, don’t they?”  No, the truth is that as you get older, life gets more complicated. We have less time and we spend less time taking care of ourselves. Hence, the older you get the more you go to the doctor. We are causing our own health problems. 

The key approach? Eat better. "Poor-quality foods, like trans fats, cause inflammation -- and aging is basically a chronic inflammatory state," says Timothy Harlan, MD. 

And because of our busy lifestyle, we have less time to stay active. If you already have the body fat you need to change what you eat. That’s for sure, but you also need to add more activity to your daily schedule. Okay, I know we all don’t have time for the gym, but that’s not really necessary. Walking can provide the extra activity you need. I grew up with my parents and grandparents. During the 1940’s and 1950’s life was different. People didn’t have a lot of money and most city people lived in apartments. If you wanted to own your own home or your parents didn’t have enough money to live alone, then families would go together and buy a home. 

The sandwich generation is nothing new. Families have had to do this for several generations. Anyway getting to the point, my grandparents never really watched TV. Oh sure, at night they would sit in front of the TV with the rest of us, but they usually would fall asleep. What I do remember is that after dinner my grandparents would take a walk, they walked for about an hour and then usually when to bed. 

So what I’m getting at is that they were healthier people then my parents and my parents were probably healthier than people in my generation. Why might you ask? When we were all living under the same roof our diets were all about the same. We all ate the same food, some ate more than others, but the food was all nutritious and we were all healthy. My dad was the heaviest, he had more body fat and he was less active. He had an office job, stayed at his desk and stayed on the phone most of the day. I would say it was probably his diet and his love of Golf that helped keep him healthy, in those days you walked the Golf Course.

Today life is much different. The average family eats out three or four times a day. Restaurant food will put weight on you. Most low price restaurant food has little nutrition and is basically comfort food that adds weight almost immediately. Plus the fact we are not as active as past generations, so it’s a combination of the food we eat today and the lack of exercise which is producing a generation of people with serious health problems. 

You can do something to break the cycle you're in, by doing things today to take better care of yourself. To eat better, more quality food and to get more exercise even if that means walking the dog. 

Why Do We Have Fat?

Good question. Some body fat is necessary; we need it to cushion the organs in our body. Also, our body burns good fats as fuel to create energy.  Approximately  30% of all the calories burned every day to create energy come from fat that you eat or stored fat that you body keeps in reserve.

So why is fat bad? you might ask. There is good fat and bad fat, I'll explain. Your body will try and process all the food and drink you consume, but some things that we eat can't be processed; it has no value to the body, so it's stored in fat cells. When your body processes food it separates it into food it can use and the waste it can't use, but if your body can't process something or you over eat and the body hasn't the time to process it, then it gets sent to fat storage cells before the body can process it.

Our ancestors needed this system of fat storage because Man  never knew when he would find food again. Because of the active lifestyle of our ancestors, always doing physical work, always walking about, there was never any thought about Man storing too much fat. Man was not designed to deal with excess body fat. Man was designed to store fat whenever possible for the purpose of survival. And yes we were given brains to deal with our evolution because over time we would evolve. But in spite of the brains we were given, we haven't done a very good job of maintaining our bodies. The body has no mechanism  to control our weight. We have no way of knowing that we are eating too much.

Our activity level is much lower than our grandparents even. Today we do most of our work with our mind's. Yes, we do small things to keep us active, but the average office worker is only on their foot about 4 hours a day.  So we do have to be more active all day long whenever possible. But that's not our only problem; American are in the habit of eating whatever and whenever they want. We have food available 24/7 and on average we consume twice the calories we should.

Her lies the problem. To stay healthy and keep a healthy weight you have to burn the calories you eat. Simply right? Not really. If man had a fresh food diet and only fresh food like vegetables, fruits and lean meat and some whole grain like brown rice and there was no other food; than Man wouldn't have a weight problem. As long as you were moderately active you couldn't eat enough to gain weight. But today we eat all types of food that give us no nutrition; the body can't process this type food and stores it as fat. We consume too much fatty foods that overload the Liver, so if the Liver can't process all the fat  it passes through into the blood stream and clog up the arteries.

To be healthy and stay healthy you have to stick to a fresh food diet. Look up "The Mediterranean diet" and look for the food pyramid that shows all the choices. If you eat healthy you will lose body fat over time. By walking more, and I recommend the 10,000 step a day program for beginners that don't exercise regularly,  you can lose the weight quicker. But losing weight does take time. Don't get discouraged, stick to the program and don't cheat. Cheat days only ruin all the good that you've done.

The Atkins Diet is an alternative. It's a little more restrictive, but it works. Check out both those, they are the best one I know.

The Diet

This is part three of my story. I hope this helps you.

When I was looking for a diet I learned how many different diets there was. It was mind-numbing. I was looking through dozens of different diet plans almost every day. I think most of them wouldn't have worked for me; like the cabbage soup diet. I thought, after all the research I did, I would  create my own diet. At first, I thought I would just cut back. Cut out the ice cream, snacks at night, beer and pizza. And I did lose some weight, but only a few pounds. I was still eating the wrong way. I'm ashamed to same it was a few years before I finally got serious about my weight. I guess it was my doctor and my wife that convinced me that I would be on a cholesterol medication.

At first, I thought I would just cut back. Cut out the ice cream, snacks at night, beer and pizza. And I did lose some weight, but only a few pounds. I was still eating the wrong way. I'm ashamed to same it was a few years before I finally got serious about my weight. I guess it was my doctor and my wife that convinced me that I would be on a cholesterol medication.

My cholesterol was about 180 so I was getting close to the top of the range. Now I know some of you probably don't think that's high, but as you age a high number is more dangerous. So I have to really get radical. I started to eat like a rabbit with a small amount of meat 3 times a week. No processed foods like bacon and just in case you haven't heard, chicken is on the list of processed foods because of all the chemicals the manufacturers pump into poultry to avoid Salmonella poisoning.

I learned through trial and error that I had to cut out dairy. So at the end what worked for me was vegetables, some fruits, and fish. I did eat poultry about twice a week. That was before Chicken became a processed food. Later I found the Mediterranean diet. When you do a search on the internet for The

Mediterranean diet you'll find a long story of the Mediterranean people and the food they ate and how healthy they were. Cancer was almost non-existent. You'll also find a food pyramid that shows what to eat and how often to eat the different choices.

If you follow that diet you don't have to count calories, just follow the food choices, drink mostly water and do the walking. The more you walk the faster you will lose those inches.

The Plan

You need to make a plan when you have a serious amount of weight to lose. I found, after months of research, that I had several bad habits I had to break. I didn't really eat anything before lunch. If I had anything it might be a pastry and coffee. I was eating fast food like fried chicken or burgers for lunch and in the afternoon snacking on candy bars or an energy drink. At night, I would eat a regular meal and later start snacking until bed.

After I had to buy bigger pants, I decided to make some changes and try to lose that belly fat. Losing belly fat is different from doing exercises to strengthen your core. This is a common mistake that everyone makes and me included. I was doing crunches twice a day, leg lifts, and anything else I heard about, but nothing was helping me lose the belly fat. Months went by and I tried everything I could think of until I read a post about belly fat.

Here is what I had to do. Losing belly fat is just part of losing body fat in general. So I was walking until I learned you have to speed walk in intervals, very fast for a short time and than slower for a short time and than keep doing that for more than 30 minutes. The idea is to increase your heart beats. If you want to burn fat you have to exercise at an elevated heart rate. If you have a doctor, you should talk to him about exercising and what would be a good heart rate for you. Everyone will be different because of your age and physical condition. Interval speed walking is what I found to be the best for losing body fat. The more walking you do the more fat you will lose and the quicker you'll drop the weight.

But that's only part of the plan. I had to change my diet. I had to start eating fresh and making my own food. I found out that if I was going to become a healthier person, I had to learn how to eat the right foods. If I tried to avoid this part, I would only have temporary weight loss.

I decided to try the Mediterranean diet, it's really a different way to eat.

If you follow the pyramid you will be eating all fresh foods, some foods every day, some weekly, some monthly. When you follow this type of diet you don't have to count calories, just don't cheat. Except for that one glass of wine everyday you should never drink any calories. I will take the body a couple weeks to adjust to the diet but after that you will begin losing weight.

Why can't I Lose Weight?

It's a common problem. Most diets and weight loss plans are designed to give you quick results, but after a couple of weeks you stop losing weight.

What worked for me was to use my method. I did the research, read the newsletters and looked for the good websites and made my own decisions. I found that there are no short-cuts. Forget about diet pills, surgery, starvation diets, and expensive gym equipment. It doesn't cost money to lose weight. It's about your food and activity level.

Some of us only want to lose 10 or 20 pounds and for those people, I would tell you to exercise. It good that you noticed the weight gain early and you want to nip it in the bud and that's great. So the answer for you is to do strength training. What you need is to lose body fat and you do that by strength training or running and changing your diet. It should only take a couple of months, you have little to lose. Get started as soon as possible before it gets worse.

For those like me, that had to lose more than 50 pounds, You'll have to do some planning. You will need to come to the realization that this will take work on your part. I'm not just talking about physical work, There will be some homework involved. No everyone loses weight the same way so I can tell you how I did it, but that doesn't mean it will work for you. I can give you some encouragement, everyone can get healthier and slimmer and be more active and, in general, be a happier person with more energy.

You start by making a plan. If you haven't done this before, look on the internet for some ideas. The plan is important, "how will you lose this weight". As you research this you'll find that it's not about your weight, it's about body fat. If you're going to be healthy, you have to get rid of the body fat. Don't obsess over the scale waiting for the number to go down. It's not about the number, it's about the inches around your waist. Lose 2 or 3 inches around your waist and you'll feel great.

Tomorrow I'll write more about the Plan. Be thinking about your plan. It has to be a diet plan and an exercise plan.

Ask Questions Before You Start Exercising

Good post by HealthDay and this author.

Beginners who want to start an exercise program read all this hype about weight loss; buy what I'm selling or use the machine for an hour a day and you to can lose 20 pounds a month. Don't believe all the hype; remember they are trying to make money off of you. 

If you don't do the right exercise for you, you won't lose weight. And if you're doing too much that can cause different problems. If you don't have a doctor to talk with, try a physical therapist. You want to talk with someone who has no financial gain either way.

Anyone who is starting to exercise for the first time in a long time and has 20 pounds or more to lose needs to talk to a doctor first. Strenuous training can injure your heart and that would be permanent. Read the post below and be prepared when you see a doctor.

So you're ready to get fit. Now what? Start by discussing some important issues with your doctor.

The American Council on Exercise advises that you discuss:

• How active do you want to be and how vigorously do you want to exercise?
• Have you been diagnosed with a heart condition?
• Have you fallen or lost your balance at least twice within the last year?
• Do you ever have chest pain during exercise or have irregular or slow heartbeat at rest?
• Do you take any medication for a heart condition or blood pressure problems?
• Do you have pain during exercise or problems with your bones or joints that are affected by exercise?
• Do you have wounds on your feet that don't heal?
• Have you had unexplained weight loss in the last six months?

-- Diana Kohnle

There are different ways to exercise and some ways are good for weight loss and others are good for your heart. Cardio is great for the heart and blood pressure but it doesn't burn much fat.

If you really want to lose the extra flab you can get help, I write 4 blogs and I’ve written two E-books. Read some of my other blog posts.

Gettingtoahealthyweight.wordpress.com

idropped40pounds.wordpress.com

E-books are the easiest and cheapest way to learn about any subject without groping through hundreds of websites looking for the material you want.

My first e-book is “HowBadDoYouWantToLoseWeight” and it sells for $2.99 on most online bookstores like Amazon.com, BN.com, iBook, Kobo.com, Scribd.com, and Gardner books in the U.K.

My second e-book is available in the same stores. And on smashwords.com.  Just type in the search line “getting to a healthy weight”.

The Governments New Dietary Guidelines

I had to look this up on the internet after I saw a reporter on Fox Network Morning Show talking about this brief two sentence report that's usually two pages. 

Jan. 7, 2016 -- Watch your sugar, use caution with the salt shaker, and limit those saturated fats.

That's the advice from the updated U.S. nutritional guidelines, released Thursday by the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. The guidelines are published every 5 years and aim to reflect the latest science-based evidence about what we eat.

 Wow, I wonder how much taxpayer money was spent generating this one sentence report. All I get out of that report is not to eat processed foods. After all, if you take those three things out of processed foods there wouldn't be much left. Processed foods are loaded with salt, it's not the salt shaker that gives you high blood pressure, it the processed foods and restaurant food. I have to believe they will revise that report pretty quick after they start getting a lot of hate mail.

"Diet is one of the most powerful tools we have to take control of our own health," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell told reporters at a briefing Thursday. "There are many ways to stay healthy, but nutrition will always be at the foundation of good health."

While some groups like the American Medical Association praise and support the guidelines, critics say the recommendations don't go far enough -- and they've accused the government of playing politics with Americans' health.

"It really is a betrayal of science to politics," says David Katz, MD, founding director of the Yale Prevention Research Center, a federally funded program that studies how changes to lifestyle can prevent disease. "Public health, which means the lives of real people, is being thrown under the political bus."

Some of the biggest controversies centered on what wasn't in the guidelines -- a recommendation to eat less red and processed meat. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a panel of independent experts, called eating large amounts of red and processed meat "detrimental."

The guidance does recommend we eat lean meats and poultry, and it notes that eating less meat, including processed meat and processed poultry, has been linked to a lower risk of heart disease. But it doesn't offer specific instructions or limits around red and processed meats. Choices can include processed meats and processed poultry, as long as eating patterns stay within the limits for sodium, saturated fats, added sugar, and calories recommended by the new guidelines.

"The science on the link between cancer and diet is extensive," says Richard Wender, MD, chief cancer control officer for the American Cancer Society. "By omitting specific diet recommendations, such as eating less red and processed meat, these guidelines miss a critical and significant opportunity to reduce suffering and death from cancer."

The Center for Science in the Public Interest says in a statement that after the advisory committee made that recommendation, "the scientific report was attacked by the meat industry and its allies in Congress."

But the CSPI says the recommendation in the guidelines to eat less meat indicates the Agriculture and Health & Human Services departments "partially resisted the political pressure."

The National Cattlemen's Beef Association praised the guidelines, though.

"Lean beef is a wholesome, nutrient-rich food that helps us get back to the basics of healthy eating, providing many essential nutrients such as zinc, iron, protein, and B vitamins, with fewer calories than many plant-based sources of protein," says Richard Thorpe, identified as a physician and Texas cattle producer, in a statement issued by the association.

At Thursday's news briefing, officials from the agencies defended the meat guideline as it stands, saying the recommendations reflect the best evidence, although men and teen boys still eat too much meat, poultry, and eggs.

Katz doesn't agree. In a social media post, he calls the guidelines "a national embarrassment."

"This is a sad day for nutrition policy in America," he writes. "It is a sad day for public health. It is a day of shame."

Compared to the advisory committee's report, Katz says, the guidelines "represent a disgraceful replacement of specific guidance with the vaguest possible language.

"A term that recurs often, clearly intended to say something while saying next to nothing, is 'nutrient dense foods," he writes. "That replaces reference to specific foods that populate the original document. It might mean broccoli ... I guess it might even mean pepperoni. We can't tell, and that is clearly by design."