2 Golden Habits for Healthy Weight Loss

Weight loss is a challenge that many people face.

The pace of life combined with ease of access to food is a dangerous combination. Less time at home means less time to make nutrient dense meals. Additionally, technology and all of it’s many blessings also bring challenges. Most adults spend long hours sitting for occupations, which limits energy expenditure (Hill et al. 2003; Levine & Miller, 2007).

Why do I need to lose weight?

Ogden et al. (2006) reports that approximately 66.3% of adults over the age of 18 in America are overweight or obese (BMI 25-29.9 & ≥30 respectively). Obesity has been linked to increasing risk for developing the following conditions:

• Some cancers
• Diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease
• Economic burdens (Gortmaker et al. 1993; Mokdad et al. 2003; Must et al. 1993; DHHS, 2000)

On the flip side, decreasing weight and body fat percentage yields these sweet benefits:

• Lower blood pressure
• Decrease risk for CVD (Lalonde et al. 2002; Ridker et al. 1997)

The CDC (2014) reports that while CVD and cancer are among the top five leading causes of deaths, yet up to 40% of these deaths could be preventable with simple lifestyle changes for some people.

It’s clear that as a nation we all need to do better and become better. So what are the steps we can take to improve our physical health?

How can I lose body weight?

The first step in losing weight is to prevent weight gain. Moderate PA of 150-250 minutes per week (1200-2300 kcal per week) can help keep your weight stable within 3% of your current weight (Donnelly et al. 2009).

Next, keep in mind that even a 2-3% loss of body weight can bring big benefits to disease management (Ditschuneit, 2003; Fletcher, 2000).

Scientific evidence shows these two habits help promote body fat loss more than others: spend more time exercising, and combine exercise with modest energy restrictions.

How much time is needed? The best part about this is that there is a dose response relationship between exercise and weight loss. The more time you spend working out, the more likely you are to lose weight. Check out the following statistics:

• <150 minutes per week = minimal weight loss
• ≥150 minutes per week = 2-3 kg
• ≥225-420 minutes per week = 5-7.5 kg

Finally, decreasing what you eat by 500 kcal per day can help increase the amount of weight you may potentially lose. Curioni and Lourenco (2005) compared 6 different RCT and found that those who combined energy restriction with PA lost on average 20% more weight than those who just exercised, and they kept up to 20% more weight off after 1 year of losing the initial weight.

So in summary, two things you can do today to lose weight: spend more time exercising, and find ways to moderately decrease the number of calories you consume.

SOURCES

1. CDC. (2014). Up to 40 percent of annual deaths from each of five leading US causes are preventable. CDC. Retrieved September 08, 2020, from https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2014/p0501-preventable-deaths.html.
2. Curioni, C. C., & Lourenco, P. M. (2005). Long-term weight loss after diet and exercise: a systematic review. International journal of obesity, 29(10), 1168-1174.
3. Ditschuneit, H. H., Flechtner-Mors, M., Johnson, T. D., & Adler, G. (1999). Metabolic and weight-loss effects of a long-term dietary intervention in obese patients. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 69(2), 198-204.
4. Flechtner‐Mors, M., Ditschuneit, H. H., Johnson, T. D., Suchard, M. A., & Adler, G. (2000). Metabolic and weight loss effects of long‐term dietary intervention in obese patients: four‐year results. Obesity Research, 8(5), 399-402.
5. Hill, J. O., Wyatt, H. R., Reed, G. W., & Peters, J. C. (2003). Obesity and the environment: where do we go from here?. Science, 299(5608), 853-855.
6. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion.
7. Gortmaker, S. L., Must, A., Perrin, J. M., Sobol, A. M., & Dietz, W. H. (1993). Social and economic consequences of overweight in adolescence and young adulthood. New England journal of medicine, 329(14), 1008-1012.
8. Lalonde L, Gray-Donald K, Lowensteyn I, et al. Comparing the benefits of diet and exercise in the treatment of dyslipidemia. Prev Med. 2002;35:16–24.
9. Mokdad, A. H., Ford, E. S., Bowman, B. A., Dietz, W. H., Vinicor, F., Bales, V. S., & Marks, J. S. (2003). Prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and obesity-related health risk factors, 2001. Jama, 289(1), 76-79.
10. Must, A., Spadano, J., Coakley, E. H., Field, A. E., Colditz, G., & Dietz, W. H. (1999). The disease burden associated with overweight and obesity. Jama, 282(16), 1523-1529.
11. Ogden, C. L., Carroll, M. D., Curtin, L. R., McDowell, M. A., Tabak, C. J., & Flegal, K. M. (2006). Prevalence of overweight and obesity in the United States, 1999-2004. Jama, 295(13), 1549-1555.
12. Ridker, P. M., Cushman, M., Stampfer, M. J., Tracy, R. P., & Hennekens, C. H. (1997). Inflammation, aspirin, and the risk of cardiovascular disease in apparently healthy men. New England journal of medicine, 336(14), 973-979.
13. United States Department of Health & Human Services. (1990). Healthy People 2000: National Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Objectives (DHHS publication no. PHS 91‐50212).