RODALE NEWS, EMMAUS, PA—In order to manage weight, people should vow to make a “lifelong commitment to healthful lifestyle behaviors,” according to the American Dietetic Association. The ADA’s new position paper on weight management was published in its journal this month and was endorsed by the American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM recently released its exercise and weight loss guidelines, too.
THE DETAILS: ADA sifted through its research library to revamp its stance on weight management, and all the things that go along with it: portion control, how often you eat, meal replacements, and physical activity.
Here are some of the key points:
1. If obese people cut between 500 to 1,000 calories a day from their diet, they should lose between 1 to 2 pounds a week.
2. The first things to cut out? Trans and saturated fats.
3. People are suffering from portion distortion; that’s not hard to believe, since the size of our plates and bowls have increased, making us feel like we can eat more.
4. Eat throughout the day by breaking your calories up into four to five meals/snacks a day. And don’t forget breakfast!
WHAT IT MEANS: It’s science: If you want to lose weight, you need to burn off more calories than you consume. Where we go wrong, says the ADA, is in overestimating our time spent exercising and underestimating how much we’re eating (too bad it’s not the other way around). By making smarter eating decisions every day, your “diet” will become a lifestyle. Make sure you getting plenty of fruits and vegetables. As a whole, Americans score dreadfully low in that category.
Here are some tips to get you started.
• Cut it out. Here are three easy ways to cut 100 calories out of a meal:
1. Scramble 4 egg whites instead of 2 whole eggs.
2. Ditch a sugar-saturated soda or beverage for an unsweetened iced tea.
3. Substitute nonfat Greek yogurt for a serving of sour cream in a recipe.
• Get moving. For weight loss, ACSM recommends 250 minutes of moderate physical activity a week. ACSM researchers found people have less hassle if they do their daily exercise all at once, rather than breaking it up during the day. But either way is beneficial. To start, try walking instead of driving whenever you can.
• Control those portions! There are all sorts of reasons why most of us have no real sense of how many calories we put on our plates, and down our gullets.