What can I do if I want to lose 15 pounds before summer comes?
Friday, February 27th, 2009
I am 5'1" and just turned 12 in January of '09. I weigh 120 pounds. Is that normal? And how can I lose around 10-15 pounds before summer is here?
Please, I need some answers fast so I can get to work!
Most dieters are sprinters, not marathoners. For short bursts they can cut calories and drop pounds. Then the weight creeps back — sometimes leaving the dieter heavier at the finish than at the start. That's why many doctors now advocate a different strategy for weight loss. The key: small, consistent changes that add up to big results over time.
How small are these changes? You be the judge: If every day you can cut about 75 calories through diet and burn about 75 calories through exercise, you'll drop between 10 and 15 pounds in a year. It's practically losing weight in your sleep.
"I call it the tortoise approach," says George L. Blackburn, M.D., an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and an authority on obesity. "If fast weight loss has failed you, why not consider this?" Here's his advice on how to win at losing.
Good Housekeeping: Why is this plan better than other diets we've seen?
Dr. Blackburn: Fad diets — any program that promises you'll lose more than a pound per week — don't work. Why? Because there's a word for existing on 1,200 calories a day: starvation. I don't ask my patients to starve. I do ask them to cut calories — but only 75 a day, not 750 or 1,000. Seventy-five is achievable and sustainable. Do that every day, and you'll lose weight.
What's the catch — a lot of exercise?
Exercising 30 minutes a day four days a week is great, but most people can't make that kind of commitment. Instead, ask yourself this: Can I spend just 15 minutes a day to improve my health and my looks? You don't need equipment or a gym membership — just 15 minutes of simple physical activity, such as exercising the dog or dancing to MTV videos. (The average video is three minutes long, so dance through five.) There's room in anyone's schedule for that.
How much weight can a woman lose by making those two changes?
In 25 years of medical practice and research, I've seen about 3,000 women, and the results have been consistent: On this plan, they lost 15 pounds in a year. That may not sound huge, but in terms of your health, it's dramatic. You lower your risk of heart disease, diabetes, even cancers of the breast and colon.
What's the first step?
You can't cut 75 calories unless you know how much you eat. So write down everything you put in your mouth, and how much of it, every day for three weeks. Then use a source, such as The Complete Book of Food Counts by Corinne T. Netzer, to figure out the calorie count for each day. Average those numbers — that's your baseline. Now you're ready to start subtracting.
But what if I don't eat the same number of calories each day?
Over the course of a week, your eating will balance out. That surprises people, but research shows your body naturally gravitates toward this baseline. If that's not the case, and your weekly counts fluctuate by thousands of calories, then getting your roller-coaster eating under control is the more immediate issue.
Suppose I eat 2,500 to 3,000 calories per day. Will cutting 75 really make a difference?
Yes. You will lose about a pound a month whether you're subtracting 75 from 1,500 calories a day or from 3,000. But if you have a lot of weight to lose, and you want to speed up sensibly, simply double the numbers: Subtract 150 calories per day from your baseline, burn 150 more with exercise, and you'll lose 30 pounds in a year.
What's an easy way to cut 75 calories?
There are many ways, because 75 isn't very many — just three quarters of a tablespoon of fat or half a can of Coke Classic will do it. Plus, you don't have to cut all 75 at one meal. Cut 50 at lunch, 25 at dinner. Start by eliminating hidden calories, such as the few bites of cake that tempted you at the office birthday party.
I hate to exercise. How can I work off those 75 calories?
Walk 5,000 steps every day, and you can burn the calories. Most women, even devoted nonexercisers, take about 2,500 steps during a regular day, so you're halfway there. To work in more steps, invest $10 in a pedometer, available at discount stores, and move at every opportunity. Pace the sidelines during the kids' soccer games, or do extra laps around the supermarket aisles. Rev up other activities: When you vacuum, get hard-core and move the sofa and beds, and clean underneath. Of course, if you can manage a 15-minute walk, so much the better.
How can I increase my chances of succeeding with this approach?
Make it a game. Every morning ask yourself, Where am I going to trim my 75 calories today? From breakfast, from a snack, from my glass of wine at dinner? After that, relax. You know where you're going to cut, so you won't obsess.
