Improve Your Health
Being healthy is a treasure. Wealth is useless if you are too sick to enjoy it. People want to be in control of their destiny. This explains the huge amount of interest in books and articles that tell us what we can do to improve our health by losing weight.
Unfortunately accidents happen. You never know when a meteorite will crash through your roof ending an otherwise ideal life. Since we are not totally in control we should not sweat it if we stray from our diet or skip the daily exercise to take our child to the park on a whim. In fact taking a child to the park is very good exercise! Reducing stress is one thing we can do to improve our health.
Eliminating risky behavior will reduce health threats. Common sense tells us we should wait for the light to turn green and look both ways before we cross the street. Everybody knows smoking tobacco greatly increases the chance of various cancers. Once we eliminate lead paint from our house and stock up on condoms we can focus our attention on our diets.
The Engineer's Diet
The Engineer's Diet: eat all the ice cream you want! The energy your body uses to warm up the ice cream is greater than what is contained in the desert. It takes 1 calorie to heat 1 gram 1 degree. Since ice cream is frozen and your body is about 98 degrees and there are lots of grams in an average serving it takes a tremendous number of calories to get the desert to body temp. Hahaha - stop me here before I get carried away and break out more numbers! That is an old joke. In reality eating too much of anything, especially something containing both sugar and fat, is how to gain weight.
There seems to be a constant stream of articles announcing the latest wonder food. "Grapefruits will help you lose weight and protect you against the date rape drug!", "Eat Pomegranates and live to 100!", "Drink red wine, eat red meat and thrive!" After time passes the old wonder food gets denounced by the latest scientific study and we move on to something new. The promise that eating a single wonder food will solve all our problems is very appealing but unlikely to succeed.
In fact the answer to losing weight is really very simple. All you have to do is eat fewer calories than your body burns. It is that easy! I call this the "Engineer's Diet." No you don't eat cold pizza with warm Coke unless you really want to. You just eat less of whatever you like.
The engineering part come in when we apply scientific knowledge to design a solution to the problem of losing weight. Don't worry we will help with the numbers. First we figure out how much we need to lose. Then we develop a plan. Finally the fun part, we implement the plan (which involves one of my favorite things: eating. :)
Calculate Your Target Weight
Our target is to get into the Normal weight range. The numbers below are guidelines set by the United States National Institute of Health. If you have large bones, a reasonably thin waist but are slightly overweight don't sweat it, as long as you are getting exercise you are fine! If your BMI is over 30 then it is likely you can improve your health by getting more exercise and losing weight. How? Why, the Engineer's Diet is how I dropped 35 pounds and it can work for you too.
Let's calculate our BMI (Body Mass Index.) We want to be in the Normal Weight range.
- Underweight: < 18.5
- Normal weight: 18.5 - 24.9
- Overweight: 25 - 29.9
- Obesity: BMI of 30 or greater
Fill out the form above and press Calculate BMI to see your target.
If your BMI is less than 18.5 then eat more! Lucky you! If you are overweight read on...
Calculate Your Basel Metabolic Rate
Your Basel Metabolism is the amount of energy you use on a daily basis. We use the Harris-Benedict equation to approximate how many calories you are consuming. If you filled out the form above we know your height and weight so we only need to learn your age and gender to estimate your BMR. Don't worry, this information is stored in cookies on your computer and never leaves your computer. It never ventures over the Internet. We, nor anybody who doesn't have access to your computer, will ever see what you entered.
The table below shows how many calories you need to consume on a daily basis to maintain your current weight.
| Calories burned with little exercise | |
| Light exercise 1 - 3 times weekly | |
| Moderate exercise 3 - 5 times weekly | |
| Heavy exercise 6 - 7 times weekly |
Develop a Plan
If you play with the forms above you will discover that increasing the amount of exercise you get increases how many calories you burn. If your weight is currently stable all you have to do is increase your activity level without eating more and you will lose weight.
If you really experimented with the forms you may have noticed that we need less food as we age. Many of use have experienced first hand slowly gaining weight as we age. We tend to become more sedentary and eat the same. All of a sudden we are 35 and 20 lbs. overweight!
Everybody knows if you eat less you should lose weight. That concept is what people think of when they hear the word "diet." The problem is that people try various "diets" with more or less success. Later on they are no longer on the diet and they quickly slip back to their weight before they gave up meat, ate meat exclusively or whatever current fad they tried.
If you have a particular event you want to lose weight for, and it is rapidly approaching, you can exercise like crazy and eat next to nothing. I've seen loads of people do this so they can look thin for their wedding photos. Then for the rest of their lives they will break out the photo album and say: "gee we were so thin in those days!" In reality they were only thin on that day.
Seriously you need to eat a minimum amount of food to be healthy. When drastically reducing your food intake you must be very careful to maintain a balanced diet. Losing weight is not healthy if you end up with scurvy or some other diet related problem. Most responsible commentators will suggest you speak with your doctor before attempting any crash diet. I do not consider crash diets healthy, do not suggest you do it and will not discuss that option further.
To improve your health and lose weight you will need to make permanent lifestyle changes. Since you will live with these changes you better like them! The changes I suggest fall into two categories: diet and exercise - big surprise huh?
Exercise
Lets start with increasing exercise. Even small changes help, it all adds up. Pumping iron will not work if you don't like pumping iron. Don't even bother thinking of joining a lacrosse team unless you already play.
If you play tennis or golf that is great! Make an effort to work in an extra game when you can. If you walk then add in an extra walk after lunch. Just do more of what you enjoy.
I just love to walk. I do all the little silly suggestions I find in "Reader's Digest" such as taking the stairs rather than an elevator and parking at the far end of the lot rather than fighting for the space closest to the entrance. These small changes add up and do help. Still for optimal health you need to find an activity you like, or better yet, love to do.
For me I spend 5 minutes a day stretching and doing basic upper body exercises like push ups and sit ups. Then I try to walk 1/2 hour daily. I do miss some days but not many. My neighborhood is very hilly so that makes my walks more effective than a slow walk on flatter terrain. Starting slow is fine but you must keep it up!
Diet
We are looking for permanent changes here. Ideally we will not only eat fewer calories but we will enjoy eating more! That sounds like a contradiction but is possible if you substitute high calorie food with lower calorie alternatives.
Some changes were easy for me to make. Actually now that I reflect on it, they weren't all that easy. I mean I sure did enjoy waking up in the middle of the night, making my way to the kitchen and eating ice cream from the container with a large spoon. However middle of the night ice cream really wasn't all that hard to give up.
Just increasing my exercise and cutting out the really obvious stuff enabled me to shed 10 pounds quickly. It didn't seem like much of a change. I felt better after just two months. A month or two after that I hadn't lost any more. I seemed stuck. I needed to figure out what changes I could make to my diet. The engineer inside me knew I didn't know enough. I bought:
I kept a list of everything I ate on a daily basis and figured out how many calories I was consuming. It was pretty darn close to my metabolic rate so no wonder I was stuck. But now I was armed with information!
Let me back up here. I wasn't worried about my looks or weight. My doctor told me I would need to take a statin drug because my cholesterol level was 350! I asked her if I my arteries were so clogged I couldn't even try the diet and exercise routine. She said if I really thought I could do it then try it and come back in a year. Well is was good she gave me a whole year. We were looking for a permanent lifestyle change and not a crash, temporary, change.
With my new book I analyzed what I was eating. I learned that fat has twice the calories as protein and carbohydrates in an ounce for ounce comparison. Cholesterol is a fat and I was trying to reduce that so reducing fat was a good target. It also seemed neat that I could eat 2 ounces of spaghetti for every 1 ounce of butter. The pasta sounded more filling!
Around this time an old friend broke his back. He just bent over, heard a crack and his back was broken! With my handy Calorie King I analyzed my food and found I wasn't getting enough calcium. Man o man I didn't want a broken back so I figured I better up my calcium intake. While I was at it I also checked and discovered I ate very little fiber and loads of salt.
Breakfast
I started by eating cereal for breakfast. Before this point I usually skipped breakfast and when I did eat it I would have eggs and bacon or pancakes with maple syrup and butter. When shopping I found that Fiber One had more than 1/3 of my recommended fiber in one serving! I tried it but didn't like it. Raisin Bran also had loads of fiber and tasted great. I found Kashi cereals to be very good. These cereals were spiffed up with banana slices, berries or other fruit if those things were in the house. I allowed myself to eat eggs and bacon or pancakes with real maple syrup and butter once a week. So I found enough variety.
Total advertises it is better than Kashi because it has 100% recommended vitamins. However it doesn't have much fiber. Kashi has many kinds of grains, lots of protein, tons of fiber as well as some vitamins. It is better to get your vitamins from natural ingredients than from chemicals. The Total commercial shows a bowl of Kashi with a handful of different pills. This represents the vitamins supposedly missing. Anybody who has shopped for vitamins knows you can get one small pill that has all the vitamins that Total has plus more. Added vitamins are often synthesized or refined and are usually not natural. Thanks, but no thanks, I prefer to get my vitamins from food.
The protein and fiber in the cereal helps one feel full. There is protein in milk too. The calcium in milk is also helps satisfy that need. When I started I drank whole milk. I tried skim milk and it tasted like water so I went right back to whole. Later on I tried 2%. It was different but when mixed in cereal it was fine. After using that for months I was able to drink it from a glass and enjoyed it not noticing the missing fat. Eventually I was able to move to 1% milk. The lesson here is that it is easier to make gradual changes over time. That is important because we are looking to make permanent changes to our lifestyle. Now I find whole milk too rich to be enjoyed.
Elevenses
I was in the habit of eating something in mid-morning. If you miss breakfast you often need a snack well before lunch. Even with a substantial breakfast people can feel the need for a snack. In times past, when much work was very physical, people had regular second breakfast or elevenses. With discipline, and maybe with the help of a cup of coffee or tea, most people can skip these snacks. If you must eat something have an apple, orange or other piece of fruit rather than a doughnut, bagel, small cakes or other pastry. If an apple and coffee don't do the trick try an apple and a glass of milk. You don't have to get full because lunch is coming soon! All you need is to eat enough so you can function without discomfort.
Lunch
Many nutritionists say lunch should be your biggest meal. My mom says the same thing. She lives with a community that farms. If you do heavy work all day long maybe lunch should be your biggest meal. Most families have members who go off to work. I say it is great if you can eat a meal with your family. For most of us that meal is the evening meal.
If your main meal is in the evening than you can go lighter for lunch. It is cheaper and healthier to bring food to work compared to eating out. A nice sandwich with a piece of fruit, water and maybe some chips or candy makes a good lunch. It is easy to cut back on lunch meats. Just use fewer slices. Cut back slowly. While cutting back on meat load on the lettuce, tomatoes or other veggies. Tomatoes make for a soggy sandwich so they can be brought separately. If you must go out look for vegetarian meals.
Afternoon Tea
The afternoon snack should be treated like the mid-morning one. Skip it if at all possible. If not fruit is the way to go. Dried fruit always works and allows for easy storage.
Dinner
Dinner means the big, main, meal of the day. I'm assuming that meal is the evening meal. It sure is nice to spend some quality time with all family members at the table. Take your time. Eat what you want. This is the one meal where I let myself go.
Taking time is important for me. Sure, the slow food movement is cool and all, but my reasons are practical. I don't feel full until 15 minutes or so after I finish eating. So if I eat until I feel full I've eaten too much. Eating slowly bridges the gap between the last bite and the feeling of fullness.
Dinner must include all food groups to be a complete meal. I like my salad first. In other cultures and countries salad may be last or in the middle. That is fine with me! Important food groups include carbs, protein (meat for us omnivores), lots of veggies and desert. Perhaps the desert is fresh fruit or maybe fruit on ice cream. Maybe fruit is part of the salad or an appetizer before dinner. In any case fresh cherries on vanilla ice cream is devine!
Late Night Snack
Cut this one out. It is easy to skip the midnight refrigerator raids. Just have a glass of water and go back to bed. If you are out dancing until 3 that is another story. We used to go to a greasy spoon for "Cali Cheeseburgers" which were pretty satisfying but had way less class than hitting Chinatown for a meal. Don't worry about an after club trip to the dinner as long as you have been dancing all night long! Remember the BMR calculator above; you can burn off tons of calories by dancing!
Variety
Variety is important for many reasons. If you eat a balanced diet you eat enough of the major food groups by definition. If satisfy each group with a variety of foods you can meet other needs. Different foods have different benefits. Mushrooms are a fungus. I'm not sure if they are considered fruit or vegetable. While many consider mushrooms to have little nutritional value I disagree. Many have loads of fiber and some different vitamins. They also have needed minerals. Eating nothing but wheat isn't as good as eating a mix of grains. Eating refined wheat is not as good as eating whole wheat.
It seems funny to me that people eat refined wheat then often add wheat germ back to their food. I guess that works if that is how you like it but it just seems easier to eat whole wheat. Skins often contain a lot of beneficial ingredients. There are lots of vitamins and fiber in potato skins. Fruit skins also contain various nutrients.
Eat less processed meat like hot dogs, salami and sausage. Eat less meat all together and vary the meat you eat to include more fish - many Americans don't eat much fish. Poultry is also an inexpensive and delicious way to vary the meat you do eat.
Supplements
If you eat a variety of foods daily including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, fungus and a little poultry, fish, pork, beef or other meat you can save on supplements. If you also walk daily, so get some sun, you may not even need the most basic multi vitamin. My grandma lived to be 98 years old. She took a tablespoon of cod liver oil daily all her life. In tribute to her I take one gel cap of cod liver oil daily. I can't stand the liquid! If you eat fish and other foods containing omega 3 fatty acids it probably isn't necessary, but I take extra for sentimental reasons. My grandma also got good exercise up until the very end - she either went for a swim, walk or bike ride daily. She also kept a vegetable garden and ate fresh veggies.
Most people I've watched don't get enough calcium or fiber in their diets. I certainly didn't. If you are not able to change your diet to include more low fat milk and fiber you may benefit from these supplements. Better to adjust your diet if possible.
Success
You don't have to spend money to lose weight. In fact you might save money! Grain, veggies and fruit can be cheaper than meat. To lose weight you must want to lose weight and be willing to change. Losing weight is a permanent lifestyle change. It works best when you make small changes that you can embrace.
If you need support try forming a group with a friend. If you need guidelines buy a diet book. Most any one will work. They all try to motivate and guide you to do the two things I suggest here: eat fewer calories and exercise more. Reduce input, increase output.
Remember this is a permanent lifestyle change. You will lose weight and keep it off. These changes will make you healthier from day one. Make small changes over and keep it up. Don't stress and obsess if you mess up once in a while as long as the long term trend is in the right direction.
Good luck!
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