By Richard Malik, ND
As published in the Lakeville Journal, Millerton News, & Winsted Journal
25 January 2007

Americans purchase millions of copies of books on dieting and weight loss - not to mention money and time spent on dieting support groups and other programs. One would think that if all the advice available were effective then the Americans would be slim - unfortunately, the opposite is true. Approximately 70% of all American adults are overweight, including 21% of the adult population who are clinically obese.

My goal for this month’s column is to give you the truth about weight loss without any spin - just the facts and a simple approach that works. Also, I want you to learn that you don’t ever have to be hungry to loose weight - ever!

Whether we are loosing or gaining weight is a simple mathematical problem that is similar to balancing a checkbook. If we consume more calories than we burn, we will gain weight This is like having more money (fat) in the bank (hips, stomach, etc.). Conversely, if we burn more calories than we consume we will loose weight. It’s pretty simple.

1. burn more calories
2. consume less calories
3. do both

The third option is usually the most effective and the most healthy.

For most people, the easiest and most cost-effective way of burning more calories is to exercise. The most recent USDA dietary guidelines recommend exercising for 60 to 90 minutes five days a week for healthy weight loss. This means increasing your heart rate and breathing rate through walking, biking, swimming, hiking, and other types of cardiovascular exercise.

Each person can find an exercise program that works for them. Remember that you can reduce the amount of time spent exercising by increasing the intensity of exercise or you can decrease the intensity by increasing the duration. Whatever you do, it is important to have a program that works for your body and for your schedule; obviously, if you create a program that does not work for you, you won’t be able to stick with it.

You may think that I am crazy when I say that you can lose weight without going hungry, but really it is very simple. The most effective and beneficial approach to decreasing dietary calorie intake is to improve the quality of food consumed. High quality foods include vegetables, fruits, whole grains, lean meats, and healthy fish. Eating these foods automatically creates a diet that is filling and abundant in healthy nutrients. Eat as much of these foods as you like.

Foods like butter, cheese, sugar, soda, oil, white flour, and lard are chock full of calories and have relatively little positive impact on nutrition or feelings of fullness. Preparing high quality foods in oil or with other high calorie/nutrient poor foods undermines their benefit for weight loss; eat as little of these foods as possible

Healthy weight loss occurs at a rate of about 1-2 lbs per week, for most people. That means it could take 3 months to loose 12 pounds. This may seem like a slow process, but exercise and a healthy diet have many benefits: decreasing the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s and other diseases. Not to mention how great you will feel after eating healthy foods and exercising regularly.

Keep in mind that eating well and exercising should be life-long goals and the most important thing is to make some improvement now, no matter how small it may seem. The secret to healthy weight loss is steady improvement.

Some people have had success with weight loss using low carbohydrate diets. Research shows that these diets are no more effective than other diets and they may increase the risk of disease if followed for long periods.

Some people do need medical advice in order to correct metabolic disturbances, improve their body’s ability to burn fat, get sugar cravings under control, improve digestion, and address physical complaints that limit exercise or activity. However, what I have outlined above are the basics and fundamental truths of healthy weight loss.