Tips for making major progress through small shifts
by Hallie Levine, AARP, August 18, 2020
En español | Over 75 percent of adults 55
and older are either overweight or obese, according to the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. But losing weight at this age, after decades of
engraved habits, can be daunting. Thankfully, studies suggest that making
small, simple changes — rather than overhauling your entire eating and exercise
patterns — can reap big payoffs.
When researchers at the University of Colorado Denver instructed
people to shave 100 calories a day from their diets, for example, most ended up
getting rid of 300. “Losing weight and keeping it off takes some pretty big
changes, but small steps are the way to get going,” says study coauthor James
Hill, the chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences at the University of
Alabama at Birmingham.
Oftentimes, he explains, “people do something dramatic that
cannot be maintained. But small steps get you going in the right direction.”
Even better, losing just 5 percent of your body weight — 10 pounds for a
200-pound person — significantly lowers the risk of health conditions such as
type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease, according to a study published
in Cell Metabolism.
Here are eight baby steps to take today.
Add an extra
500 steps
While 10,000 steps a day has become a common fitness goal to
shoot for, that number can be daunting to many. A study
published last year in JAMA suggests that many older adults can reap
significant health benefits with less than half that amount.
"Rather than downloading a pedometer app and obsessing
about getting steps in, just tell yourself you're going to add about 500 steps,
or roughly a quarter mile, to your daily activity each week,” suggests Pamela
Peeke, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Maryland
and author of The Hunger Fix.
That's as easy as getting up from your desk at lunchtime and
walking around the block. Next week, add another block. And the following week,
add a third. Within a month, you'll have added an additional 1,000 steps to
your daily routine.
Leave a few
bites on your plate
Research shows that about 92 percent of adults eat everything on
their plates. While no one's advocating food waste, rethinking the Clean Plate
Club can have benefits. “Make a conscious choice to leave a few bites of food
on your plate,” Hill says. While you're at it, serve yourself off a smaller
plate. Doing so can cut about 280 calories each day, according to a study in
the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.
Eat intuitively
Women who report being more mindful are 16 percent less likely
to be overweight and almost 30 percent less likely to be obese than their
less-zen peers, according to a study published in the medical journal PLOS One.
One easy way to do this is to savor the first bite of every meal, suggests
Susan Albers, a psychologist at the Cleveland Clinic and author of Hanger
Management: Master Your Hunger and Improve Your Mood, Mind, and Relationships.
"That first bite is the most flavorful,” she says. If you
really take time to savor your food and focus on its color, smell and
temperature, and how it feels in your mouth, you'll not only enjoy it more, but
you'll eat less because you will feel more satisfied.
Ditch the
sugary sodas
The average U.S. adult consumes about 6 percent of their total
caloric intake from sugar-sweetened beverages, according to a
report from the National Center on Health Statistics. That translates into
roughly 179 kilocalories a day for men and 113 for women. “If you did nothing
else but cut that out every day, you'd lose around a pound a month,” Peeke
says. A 2018 review published in the journal Obesity Facts showed
a strong link between sugary drinks and obesity — and found that substituting
them with water in adults did promote weight loss.
Try replacing your soft drinks with infused water: Simply drop
fruit like berries, cherries or peaches into your water. (For best results, use
frozen fruit, since the flavor will intensify as the fruits thaw.) If you
really crave a carbonated beverage, opt for sparkling water, choosing a brand
sweetened with fruit or natural stevia, Peeke advises.
Keep a food
journal
Just writing down all the meals and snacks you've eaten —
including those handfuls of goodies you grab here and there — can help you
automatically cut calories by holding yourself accountable, says Lesley Lutes,
a psychologist and obesity specialist at the University of British Columbia.
People who faithfully keep an online food journal lose more weight than those
who use it more sporadically, according to a study published last year in the
medical journal Obesity.
Do basic body-weight
exercises
Simple moves like squats and push-ups are
an easy way to build metabolism-boosting muscle in minutes at home. “It's easy,
cheap and accessible, and doesn't require a gym,” Peeke says. If you're just
starting, try moves like squats, wall push-ups, toe stands, step-ups, side hip
raises, pelvic tilts, sit-ups and floor back extensions.
Eat one less
serving of processed food each day
A study published last year in the journal Cell
Metabolism found eating an ultraprocessed diet versus a whole-food
one led to weight gain in as little as two weeks. (The ultraprocessed group
gained 2 pounds, while the whole-foods group lost 2.)
One reason may simply be that processed foods are easier to
overeat (subjects ate the processed foods faster than the whole ones), so
people end up consuming more, says Libby Mills, a registered dietitian and
spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Processed foods also
tend to contain less-filling fiber. Start with cutting out one serving a day
and gradually continue cutting back over time.
Eat within a
12-hour window
Intermittent fasting, a way of eating in which
you alternate between periods of unrestricted eating and periods in which you
sharply limit calories, is all the rage. But consuming all your calories in an
eight-hour window or fasting two days a week is often too difficult for most
folks.
But you can get many of the same benefits by simply limiting
your eating to a 12-hour window during the day. “Your body is most sensitive to
insulin — a hormone that moves glucose from food into muscle cells — during the
day, and most resistant to it at night,” Peeke explains. Research shows that
when you eat late in the evening, for example, you're not only more likely to
gain weight but also to raise insulin and cholesterol levels.
Also of Interest
·
Are you ready to get moving?
·
Why motivation is key to weight loss
·
What should your diet be at 50+?
https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2020/easy-weight-loss-steps.html?intcmp=HEA-HL-FEED
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