12 Jul Making Real Gains in Weight Loss After a Heavy Year Pt. 1
Weight loss has never been a cut and dried topic, and many of us are circling back around to find, once again, a “better” way to shed some pounds. But what approach is both realistic and effective? How do we sort through the overwhelming amount of information out there on the topic? Here’s a look at our past, current, and future thinking on weight loss and some of the best tips for moving forward.
Where We’ve Come From
In the history of weight loss science, the idea of “calories in, calories out” has long been king. Eat less, move more—that’s the combination we’ve been told creates the caloric deficit that ultimately leads to taking weight off. If you want to get specific about those numbers, look up “calculating your Basil Metabolic Rate” or, easier yet, head to https://www.calculator.net/calorie-calculator.html to find out what your ballpark caloric intake per day should be depending on whether you want to lose, gain or maintain. The majority of weight loss plans have traditionally focused on cutting calories and a heap of products, from Aspartame to low-fat substitutes grew up around the idea that if we conquer the calorie, we’ll conquered the weight.
Where We Are Today
The power of the calorie still weighs large (no pun intended) in any discussion. But there’s also fairly wide-spread acceptance that the quality of the calorie can’t be dismissed. A hundred calories of Skittles versus a hundred calories of kale, offer the body dramatically different things nutritionally. And we know that food quality can influence weight, just as sleep, stress levels, thyroid, and a host of other factors do.
Researchers in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health showed that quality is in fact very important in determining what we should eat to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. In a study of over 120,000 healthy women and men spanning 20 years, researchers determined that weight gain was most strongly associated with the intake of potato chips, potatoes, sugar-sweetened beverages, and both processed and unprocessed red meats. The researchers concluded that consumption of processed foods higher in starches, refined grains, fats, and sugars can increase weight gain. Foods shown to be associated with weight loss were vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, and yogurt. The study did not dismiss the importance of caloric quantity, but merely concluded that calories are one piece of the puzzle.
And things remain puzzling. The number of diets, from low-carb and high-fat to intermittent fasting to everything in between is mind-boggling. No one has a clear answer to the question, “What’s the easiest way to lose weight?” because there is no one answer—although many things appear to be helpful for many people.
The Future: You, Helping You
Like so many things in the modern world—the dizzying choices, the novel plans calling out to be tried through any number of gimmicks, the expert endorsements—Individuals remain largely on their own in their weight loss journey. There are obvious disadvantages to this, but also: Who is better situated to know your quirks and tastes? Who knows your weaknesses and also the vast personal talents you might dispatch in your own self-interests?
As weight loss intersects with self-knowledge, self-care, self-compassion, and well, the SELF, the best answers are found. It’s cliché to say we’re all different, and yet the indisputable results of research on how people successfully lose weight clearly support the saying. If we can identify how we’re different, what we need in any eating plan, leverage individual strengths, know where we’re likely to face our biggest challenges and head them off, all the while treating ourselves as gently as we might a dear friend, then a bright future lies before us.
Easier said than done. However, the growing emphasis of mindfulness in all elements of health but especially weight loss, continues to offer new mental and psychological tools for success. As the options increase, so does the likelihood of discovering new helpful strategies. And, a hopeful finding among those trying to lose weight, is that as we continue to try we are more likely to succeed. This is an important heartening piece: our attempts, even if they ultimately “fail” do prepare us for a better chance in the future. In that way, they’re not failures at all.