The No.1 fat fighter is exercise. Being active obviously burns calories—200 or more an hour during brisk walking, for instance. But exercise also revs① up the metabolic rate, not only during the activity itself but for hours afterward.
What’s more, exercising helps maintain bone strength, enhances heart and lung function, improves skin tone and helps the body absorb nutrients no matter how old you are when you begin exercising.
Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise program. Then, whichever activity you choose, start slowly—say ten minutes a day—and over the next six to eight weeks, build up to at least 30 minutes three to four times a week. If you experience chest discomfort, dizziness, nausea② or excessive breathlessness, stop at once and call your doctor. For maximum benefits as you get fitter, first increase the workout duration, and later consider up grading the intensity.
If you get so enthusiastic about exercise that you want to work out every day, choose a second sport for alternate③ days that develops different muscles. Walk one day, to stress the lower legs; swim the next, to develop the upper body and shoulders.
As we grow older, our weight problem becomes double edged. On the one hand, we need fewer calories and find it incredibly easy to hoard any excess. On the other, our bodies can become less efficient at processing foods and absorbing their nutrients. Consequently, a 45-year old person could eat the same amount of food as one 20 years younger, yet put on more weight and be less well nourished④.
The solution: a nutrient dense diet. Most of us should be eating less fat (no more than 30 percent of calorie intake), less protein (10 to 15 percent) and more complex carbohydrates⑤ (45 to 60 percent).
Because permanent dieting is hardly fun, many people prefer a crash diet. This can be not only harmful to health but also self-defeating. After just a day or two on a crash diet, the body decides that famine has struck and defends itself by lowering basal metabolism—precisely what you don’t want. Even worse, much of the weight you lose on a crash diet represents water and lean tissue, along with fat.
The more quickly you drop weight, the more quickly the pounds are apt to return. Repeated crash dieting can even make future dieting less effective.
To avoid such pitfalls, don’t try to lose more than one or two pounds a week. In planning your diet, consider these tips:
1. Figure out how many calories you need each day to maintain your current weight, using this easy method developed by clinical psychologists Michael and Kathryn: multiply your current weight by 13 (if you’re very inactive), 14 (slightly inactive), 15 (moderately active), 16 (very active) or 17 (strenuously active). Next, subtract 500 calories from that figure to get the number of calories you’ll need each day to lose one pound a week. If you want to lose an additional pound, add more exercise—don’t cut more calories. Never go on a diet of fewer than 1300 calories a day, however. That seldom results in permanent weight loss and would almost certainly fail to provide the nutrients and energy a dieter needs.
