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In addition, strength training will help preserve existing muscle mass, which sometimes is lost during weight loss.  Maintaining an overall calorie deficit forces your body to use body fat for energy and the higher intensity and longer workouts (cardio and strength) use more energy. Note that neither form of exercise actually burns much fat during the exercise itself.  It’s the total amount of energy expended that determines how much fat you will burn. Your nutrition coach will assist you in developing an exercise plan or review your current plan and make recommendations accordingly.

In general, Nutrition for You recommends burning no more than 400 calories average per day for females and no more than 500 calories average per day for males. Nutrition for You does not recommend losing weight while training for competitions such as marathons, Ironman, and cycling events. If you are doing these types of events, fueling right and increasing your performance should be a priority. Nutrition for You coaches will help you design a sports nutrition plan that includes meals before, during and  after exercise.

You might wonder, once the weight is off, how do I maintain my hard earned achievement? The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a website dedicated to answering this very question. They have a large registry of people who have lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off for a long period of time. The average weight loss is 60 pounds, maintained for an average of 5 to 7 years. These registered people then participate in ongoing research, which surveys their habits, successes and difficulties. This helps us to get a better understanding of the most common factors in weight loss maintenance.

1. Follow a Low-Fat Diet

It takes work to keep those hard-earned pounds off. Even though 42% of National Weight Control Registry members believe it is easier to maintain weight loss than lose weight, you still need to be careful of what you eat. It is important to continue eating a low-fat diet, even after the pounds are gone.

What do we mean by low-fat? About 25% of your calories should come from fat. An example of this is if you eat 2,500 calories per day then 625 of your calories should be from fat. This is equal to about 70g of fat per day (there are 9 calories per gram of fat). However, one thing to remember is the type of fat you eat will play a major role in your health. Most of your fats should be heart-healthy fats, such as olive oil, canola oil, salmon, flaxseeds, avocado and nuts. Continue to limit saturated fats, such as fatty meat cuts, dairy fat and tropical oils. You can tell if a fat is saturated or not by its state at room temperature. If a fat is solid (like lard) at room temperature, then it is a saturated fat. If it is a liquid (like olive oil) at room temperature, then it is a healthy fat.

Good fats are an essential part of any healthy diet, just be careful not to over do it, because they can easily lead to weight gain.

2. Record Keep

A recent study by Kaiser Permanente reported that keeping a food diary, on average, doubled the weight loss as compared to those that did not record keep. Record keeping is so important that it’s one of our key Success Tracker tools available to all of our members. For weight loss, we recommend practicing daily food record keeping. If you don’t food record keep for a day or two, don’t worry about backlogging. Just pick-up again from where you are. It is important not to let a bad day (or week!) throw you off completely. Start fresh from where you are and do not stress about past choices. Even if you are not proud of the food you are recording, just keep going.

Record keeping isn’t just for those losing weight. It is also important for those that are doing weight maintenance and weight gain. Food record keeping helps to keep you on track and makes you aware of your eating habits and choices. When on weight maintenance you do not need to food record keep everyday, but it is helpful to check in every once and a while, just to see how many calories you are consuming and to ensure you are eating from all of the food groups to ensure adequate nutrition. We recommend checking in for a total of one week every month.

3. Weigh yourself frequently

75% of the National Weight Control Registry members weigh themselves at least once a week. Whether practicing weight loss or maintenance, we recommend weighing yourself weekly. Weight can fluctuate dramatically from day to day, often 1-2 pounds or more. One day you might weigh yourself and be down 2 pounds only to find that you are back up 3 pounds the next and this can be very disheartening. If you weigh yourself once per week, you will get a much more accurate reading of how much weight you have lost or maintained.

If you are on weight maintenance and find that you have gained a few pounds, take this as a warning sign that you need to reassess what you have been eating. This is a good time to start food and exercise record keeping again to learn what is causing your weight gain. Once you see how those extra desserts or missed days at the gym are adding up you will be able to make healthy changes to stop the unwanted weight gain.

4. Eat Breakfast Daily

One of the most important behaviors in weight maintenance is to eat breakfast daily.  We know – you are sick of hearing us harp about breakfast!  But, 78% of the National Weight Control Registry members who have lost weight and maintained it eat breakfast everyday!  Besides exercise, it is the most common practice among the “losers.”  The proof is in the pudding (or high fiber cereal)!  Breakfast gives your metabolism a daily kick-start plus it helps control your appetite throughout the rest of the day. Breakfast skippers normally tend to over eat at lunch and/or get the incredible “sweet tooth” at around 3-4:00 pm.   If you skip breakfast you are beginning the day in a deficit that your body naturally wants to make up.  This leads to greater calorie consumption throughout the day and when hunger strikes, your defenses fall making it difficult to choose a healthy lunch over a hamburger and fries.  Nutrition for You recommends eating breakfast within one hour of waking and eating a meal high in fiber.  The higher the fiber the better you can regulate glucose and control your appetite.  A good high fiber breakfast should have at least 15g of fiber.  You can achieve this by choosing breakfast cereals with 5g of fiber or more per serving and adding flaxseed meal and berries.   We’ve said it before, and we will say it again, breakfast is the most important meal of the day – so don’t leave home without it!

5. Exercise

One of the most important factors in weight maintenance is exercise.  90% of the National Weight Control Registry members participate in 60-75 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week (on average).  Over half of these people walk.  For weight loss, we recommend doing at least 30 minutes of some kind of cardio activity 4-5 times per week (brisk walking is great!) and doing strength training for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week (to maintain muscle mass).  Exercise is a very important component of weight loss and maintenance.  If you can work your way up to 60 minutes per day then that is excellent.  If not, just do the best you can.  Plus it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Even exercising in 10-minute increments 3 or more  times per day does the trick.  Be realistic about how much exercise you can do in a day.  Don’t make unattainable goals since you will only end up feeling bad about it.  If you don’t currently exercise, start off walking 15 minutes 5 times a week and slowly work your way up.  Exercise is not only a vital part of healthy weight loss and maintenance but it helps maintain bone density, enhances immunity, lowers risk of some cancers and type 2 diabetes, increases lung and circulation function, lowers incidence of anxiety and depression, enhances self-image and quality of life.  So, just do it!  We know you can.

References

Gorman, Kim.  “Strategies to Consider in the Maintenance of Intentional Weight Loss.”  Weight Management Newsletter 5.4 (2008): 1-5

National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/

We continue our five part series where we talk about the five biggest conclusions of the National Weight Control Registry’s research.

5 Proven Behaviors for Long Term Weight Management:

1. Follow a low-fat diet
2. Record keep
3. Monitor weight frequently
4. Eat breakfast daily
5. Exercise

Exercise

One of the most important factors in weight maintenance is exercise.  90% of the National Weight Control Registry members participate in 60-75 minutes of moderate physical activity most days of the week (on average).  Over half of these people walk.  For weight loss, we recommend doing at least 30 minutes of some kind of cardio activity 4-5 times per week (brisk walking is great!) and doing strength training for 20 minutes 2-3 times per week (to maintain muscle mass).  Exercise is a very important component of weight loss and maintenance.  If you can work your way up to 60 minutes per day then that is excellent.  If not, just do the best you can.  Plus it doesn’t have to happen all at once.  Even exercising in 10-minute increments 3 or more  times per day does the trick.  Be realistic about how much exercise you can do in a day.  Don’t make unattainable goals since you will only end up feeling bad about it.  If you don’t currently exercise, start off walking 15 minutes 5 times a week and slowly work your way up.  Exercise is not only a vital part of healthy weight loss and maintenance but it helps maintain bone density, enhances immunity, lowers risk of some cancers and type 2 diabetes, increases lung and circulation function, lowers incidence of anxiety and depression, enhances self-image and quality of life.  So, just do it!  We know you can.

References

Gorman, Kim.  “Strategies to Consider in the Maintenance of Intentional Weight Loss.”  Weight Management Newsletter 5.4 (2008): 1-5

National Weight Control Registry: http://www.nwcr.ws/

Sumo wrestling is an ancient Japanese sport; where the heavier you are the better! They stare each other in the eyes and slap their feet and enormous thighs, trying to break their opponent’s courage. One of the heaviest sumo wrestlers, or rikishi in Japanese, was Hawaiian born Konisiki. He weighed 630 at his peak. So, how do sumo wrestlers get so big?

Sumo Wrestlers’ Tricks for Getting Big

• Don’t eat breakfast. Sumo wrestlers never eat breakfast. This is a great way to slow your metabolism way down and will definitely ensure over eating later in the day.
• Exercise on an empty stomach. When you exercise without proper fueling, your metabolism will conserve every ounce of energy you have left to get you through the activity. So you end up burning far less calories then you would have had you eaten prior to exercising.
• Eat only 1 to 2 meals each day. Sumo wrestlers get up early, work out and then don’t eat until late in the day. This way they will be starving and will eat anything they can grab and in enormous amounts. This ensures a great calorie surplus and maximum weight gain. When you eat a large amount of calories in one sitting, the body will use up what it can and then fill your extra energy reserves for later. When your storage gets full, everything left over is stored directly as fat.
• Drink alcohol. Sumo wrestlers drink large amounts of alcohol with their meals (their favorite is beer). For a sumo wrestler, the bigger the belly the better!
• Eat out. Many studies have found that people eating in a restaurant will eat 40% more food and 30% more fat then they would if they were at home. Sumo wrestlers like to distract each other while eating to make sure they don’t notice those “getting full” signals. They also always have someone else cook for them so they don’t pay attention to fat or ingredients.
• Sleep after eating. When they finish their large meals, the wrestlers will get up and take a long nap. Going to sleep on a full stomach forces the body to store most of the calories as fat because it doesn’t have the ability to metabolize large amounts of food while sleeping.

Yikes, I bet a lot of these behaviors sound really familiar! I know they do to me. Getting up early, skipping breakfast, running to the gym, eating a late (large) lunch and an even later (larger) dinner and then heading to bed. This is the busy American life that many people live. When working as many hours as most do, it is easy to eat like a sumo wrestler!

What if you don’t want to look like a sumo wrestler?

• Eat breakfast like a King (or Queen!). Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day! Breakfast gives your metabolism a daily kick-start plus it helps control your appetite throughout the rest of the day. We recommend a high fiber breakfast that has at least 15g of fiber. This can be attained by eating a high fiber cereal (at east 5g of fiber per serving), topped with 2 tbsp ground flaxseed meal and blueberries. Fiber helps keep you satiated and also regulates blood glucose – so no energy crashes!
• Fuel prior to exercising and post exercising. For a pre-workout snack eat 1/2 a banana, a few whole-wheat crackers and 1/2 c of fruit juice (focus on carbohydrates). This will ensure you have a stronger workout and you will actually burn more calories! Then make sure to have a protein and carbohydrate based snack post-workout to refill your energy stores and maintain muscle mass.
• Eat throughout the day. Take time to eat a healthy lunch and don’t forget those late morning and afternoon snacks! We recommend eating every 3 hours (plus or minus 30 minutes). This will keep the hunger-inducing hormone, Ghrelin, at bay, ensuring you will not over eat and will make good choices.
• Limit alcohol. For weight loss, we recommend drinking no more than about 4 servings of alcohol per week. (Reminder: 1 serving of wine is 4 oz or 1/2 c, 1 serving of beer is 12 oz or a pint, and hard alcohol is 1.5 oz.) Alcohol is metabolized like a fat in the body, so think of each drink as eating 2 Fats (plus a Grain and Starch for beers!)
• Limit eating in restaurants. When eating at a restaurant it is much easier to make bad choices and eat too much, plus you cannot control the ingredients. Restaurants use a shocking amount of fatty products to ensure a yummy tasting meal. Don’t trust anything labeled “low fat” or “healthy choice” without doing a little investigating!
• Don’t eat a huge dinner and then head to bed. About 70% of your calories should be consumed during the day and only 30% should be eaten in the evening. For example, if you are following 1700 calories per day, then before your dinner you should consume about 1190 calories evenly spread out throughout the day, and then have about 510 calories for dinner and dessert.

It is easy to fall into bad sumo habits that stay with us for years. If you have difficulty with the above listed tips, then chose 1 or 2 and work on them. When you feel confident, then chose another 1 to 2, and work on those. You don’t have to be perfect all at once, or perfect every moment. It takes time to break habits, but you can definitely do it! Be nice to yourself and take baby steps. Many bad habits that people have were acquired over many years and they will not disappear over night. Just make small attainable adjustments and before you know it, those bad habits (and the weight) will be in the past!

Resources:
http://www.ada.com
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11138566

My current weight is actually the same weight as my weight when the WLC ended.  I was successful in losing five more pounds. I’m currently on a ‘maintenance’ phase.  A key aspect of the guided WLC is to record everything you eat.  I would say that it’s a success that for a month now, I haven’t done any record keeping and I’ve been able to maintain my weight. To have learned a nutritional lifestyle I can just follow by myself is really truly amazing.

Read other success stories.

Ed Chaltry
Ken Mattsson
Christopher Ollendorf

The next success story can be yours!  Join the New Year’s Weight Loss Challenge today!

His approach to coaching involves being honest, open-minded and empathetic at all times. He believes in scientific-evidence-based nutrition that is safe and free of gimmicks. This genuine philosophy of teaching healthy and appropriate lifestyle changes is the main reason why he chose to work with Nutrition for You.

In his spare time, he enjoys cooking, playing and watching sports, listening to live music, and traveling.

Richard lives in Foster City, California.

Shannon received a Bachelors of Science in Dietetics from San Francisco State University in 2008. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Public Health with an emphasis in Nutrition in preparation to become a Registered Dietitian. Her graduate research focuses on dietary intervention to reduce metabolic syndrome risk factors and improve the lipid profile in adults diagnosed with Type II Diabetes.

Outside of the classroom, Shannon works part-time as a nutrition educator. She administers multiple workshops for adults, children and teenagers.  Her guided workshops address the multi-faceted issues of healthy living strategies for optimal wellness in any life stage. Workshops focus on healthy food selection and preparation and how to apply healthy dietary habits into our busy lives. Children and teen workshops highlight the health benefits of a diet plentiful in fruits and vegetables and unprocessed foods.

Shannon is committed to improving the quality of life for her clients. She believes that building a relationship with her clients is imperative to helping them reach their goals. She understands the difficulties and obstacles of losing weight and weight management and her strengths as a coach include motivational guidance for behavioral modification with these issues. Her biggest joy in her work is to be part of her clients’ progress throughout their winning journey with Nutrition for You.

During her undergraduate work, Shannon played soccer and ran cross-country and track and field at the collegiate level. She enjoys running, cooking new recipes and playing with her dog, Elvis.

Shannon lives in California.

12 cups cauliflower florets, about 2 heads
1-1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp chopped fresh tarragon
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup (1 ounce) grated fresh parmesan cheese
2 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the cauliflower in a large roasting pan. Drizzle with oil and toss well to coat. Bake at 450 degrees F for 20 minutes or until tender and browned, stirring every 5 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley, thyme, tarragon, and garlic. Bake for 5 more minutes.

Combine cauliflower mixture, cheese, and remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Toss well.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: 1/2 cup)

Allowances: 1 allowance of non-starchy vegetable; 1/2 allowance of fat

Calories 85 (35% from fat); Fat 3.5g (sat 0.8g, mono 2.1g);
Protein 5.2g; Carb 12.1g; Fiber 5.4g; Chol 2mg; Iron 1.1mg; Sodium 251mg; Calcium 83mg.

Her personal journey has led to many positive changes in both her life and the lives of those around her. These changes are as small as her Grandma now making perogies with whole wheat flour or as monumental as increasing her own self-confidence and becoming happy and comfortable with her body image. She feels now that the greatest reward in her work is to be able to help others succeed and feel good about themselves.

Narissa’s personal approach to overall health and nutrition is “balance, moderation and variety”. She feels that change should be taken in small steps, should always be fun, and should never leave you feeling restricted or deprived.  In her personal time, she likes to cook, play puzzles and video games; go dancing, swimming and camping; and most importantly, spend quality time with friends and family.

Narissa is on her way to becoming a Registered Dietitian and is currently a Dietetic Intern completing her Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Alberta.  She has accumulated six years of experience in the area of Food and Nutrition and now joins Nutrition for You after completing an internship placement with Manuel Villacorta at MV Nutrition.

Narissa lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.