TLDR: Know yourself
I’m a little late for the New Year’s Resolution folks, but I wanted to put down everything I’ve learned in my 2+ year journey of losing over 100lbs (and 20+ year journey of losing and gaining the same weight). I am not a registered dietician, but I am a scientist, so I’m somewhat qualified to dissect studies and evaluate data. Most of this Is largely available info and I’m not stating anything new, and all of this is highly qualified (may, might, should, could) because the most important thing to remember is that you are an individual, and what works for one may not work for all. There is a lot of great info on this sub about beginning tips, things to keep in mind (e.g. water retention if you start working out). I’m not going to dive into that since I think it’s been stated perfectly well already.
First rule: The more you focus on weight loss, the more likely you’ll panic and derail yourself. Weight loss is not an action. It is the end result of certain habits.
I can lose 5lbs today if I want. I just won’t eat and dehydrate myself. This is of course a terrible decision for long term weight loss. You probably know you need to eat right and exercise, but if it were that simple, no one would be overweight unless by choice. There’s going to be some flaws in your daily routines that make you gain weight or prevent you from losing weight. Identifying what those things are is probably pretty easy. You either don’t work out, or eat too many meals of convenience (fast food, unhealthy work cafeteria food, quick meals like frozen/processed food), or both. You probably know what is wrong but don’t know how to change things.
Tip: don’t focus on what you’re doing wrong. Focus on any discipline.
My issue was anxiety. Most people with generalized anxiety disorder will self-medicate with either drugs, alcohol, or food. I’ve developed a lifelong pattern of eating when I worry, regardless of if I am hungry. We could probably expand this out to anyone with emotional eating patterns, or eating out of boredom. My solution wasn’t to just tell myself, “don’t eat when you’re worried.” That’s worthless advice. Treating my anxiety can help, but I still have a bad habit to break. I decided to pick up a certain discipline. It can be almost anything that takes time and dedication, but I learned calligraphy. It’s a skill that shows best when you don’t rush things. You have to slow your mind down a bit and focus. You can learn the basics remarkably fast and gain a sense of accomplishment. All of these things helped me reduce anxiety, but more importantly get some control of my unconscious motives. Calligraphy became my nightly ritual when I was most likely to snap and start binge eating. I would suggest anything from learning a new language on duolingo or wherever, to learning a musical instrument, to taking an online continuing education course in something that interests you. Whatever you think would be fun but challenging. Learn the fundamentals of any discipline and you’ll see how it can translate to everything else. Don’t attack diet and exercise the way you would attack learning French. Slow and steady, with consistent, even if short, repetition. Immerse yourself but don’t worry about daily progress. Reflect on the long term. If you were upset that after a year, you could only speak French on a 3rd grade level, instead realize that it took a 3rd grader the first 8 years of their life to get there.
Second Rule: Exercise should not be a component of weight loss. It should be done for its own sake. The health benefits extend to almost every corner of your body.
The important thing here is that you shouldn’t be torturing yourself with exercise so that you can grow your calorie budget. You should really consider divorcing exercise from anything concerning weight loss. If you only work out to lose weight, you’ll fall into the trap of thinking, “I need to work out.” You should never feel like working out is a chore. There is basically no part of your life that won’t be improved through exercise. We all probably know the benefits for heart health. The more you exercise, generally speaking, the more improvement you’ll see in your cardiovascular fitness. It’s been recommended to workout at least 150 minutes a week (21-22 minutes a day), but recent evidence suggests ideally you can triple that number to 450, or about 64 minutes a day. Going from 0 to 150 minutes of exercise a week decreases your risk of death by any cause by up to 31%, and 450 minutes decreases it by 39%. Basically, exercise is your life’s plot armor. Go for a morning or evening walk each day and gain +30 health.
We can unpack the reasons why, from improved heart health, lowered insulin resistance, improved muscle tone, etc. The huge thing though that a lot of people miss is that exercise is a critical component to brain health. People who exercise regularly are at a much lower risk of dementia (potentially up to 31%). You can get bonus points here if you have a workout partner, as increasing your social interactions will also help stave off cognitive decline. It’s important to note that cognitive decline is a symptom of lifestyle habits that start decades in advance. If you’re in your 20s or 30s, you probably don’t think much about dementia, but evidence suggests if you make changes to your lifestyle now, it can dramatically lower your risk of dementia later in life. Side note: if you want a relatively easy pop-science book to read on brain health that dovetails with the goals of this sub, Sanjay Gupta’s Building a Better Brain is easily digestible and pretty heavy on the science.
Tip: Know yourself. Can you see yourself strapping on running shoes for the first time in years, going for a mile jog, then waking up the next morning, hating your life and never running again? Then don’t do that! The effects of exercise are apparent no matter how hard you work out. If you never move, just going for a 15-20 minute walk is plenty. Going on three 10 minute walks is pretty much as good as one 30 minute walk. Lifting weights for 15 minutes is better than lifting weights for 0 minutes. My biggest advice here is that you shouldn’t invest in expensive equipment or a gym membership until you know your routine is set enough to use it. Make sure you can get yourself to go on a walk or short jog every day for a few weeks before you jump into something that costs money. I’ve actually hit a point where I love working out so much that I get a bit frustrated if something derails me. Three years ago, I couldn’t even fathom that thought.
Third Rule: Take every study about diets with a hefty grain of salt
This one is pretty simple. It’s incredibly hard to run randomized, controlled studies on diet and nutrition. The simple reason is that it’s unethical to deprive a group of people of something important. You can’t just eliminate vitamin b12 from someone’s diet and watch what happens to them. Instead, you have to piece it together and observe for instance what happens when someone goes vegan. This leads to all sorts of noise in the data. Another big component of diet and nutrition studies is that you’re largely reliant on self-reported data. A crazy phenomenon here is that people will just flat out lie, or they have faulty memories. Something else to keep in mind is that because of these limiting factors, a lot of studies are run on model organisms (e.g. mice). While these can give us some understanding of the complex interactions of nutrients on the body, they’re not perfect. That’s not to say every study is worthless. It’s just important to note that if a study says, “fish oil is good for you,” they’re probably talking about eating fish, not taking a fish oil capsule. There are so many nuances here that unethical companies can exploit the noise and promote products that either do nothing for you or have a negative effect on your health, but they can cite “studies” that show otherwise.
Tip: Not all diets are about weight loss. It’s important to seek actual medical advice if you have a serious nutritional deficiency, food allergy, etc. There are also generalized things, like the DASH diet, that are more about a concept than individualized meal plans. DASH for instance is about lowering sodium intake to lower blood pressure. Studies tend to focus on that element of it, but with most diets, doctors will promote it as an aspect of a healthy lifestyle and not a magic cure for hypertension.
Fourth Rule: As a result of rule three, never lock into a specific “diet”, and generally avoid any diet that restricts entire food groups.
The biggest exception here is if you are a vegetarian or vegan for moral/ethical reasons, or have a serious food allergy. Outside of this or similar reasons, there’s not a lot of evidence to show that restricting large portions of food types from your diet is beneficial. By this I mean, the difference between low-carb, high-fat diets and low-fat high-carb diets is individualized and largely inconsequential. Some people do better on one, some on the other. Some people swear by Keto, while some swear by Whole30, etc. There’s no one “right” diet, but you really have to know yourself again here. Can you really go all day without eating carbs? Can you go all day without eating any fruit because it has sugar in it? If a diet is asking you to do these things, think about how you feel. Don’t listen to some other person’s testimonials. If you know you can handle a diet like this, you could give it a try, but if you’re not 100% sure, then realize that you will probably yo-yo. It’s also never wrong to give up on a style of diet if it’s not doing anything for you.
There are some general principles that may be more universally applicable. The “Mediterranean” diet incorporates most of these (which is also basically DASH). High intake of veggies, some fruit, nuts, seeds, moderate intake of fish, poultry and oils and some dairy products, and low consumption of red meats. I personally love this approach, but the benefits of the diet itself may be a bit overstated. People in the Mediterranean live a far different lifestyle than most people. It’s hard to tease out exactly what is diet and what is “lifestyle” related when studies are conducted (Rule 3).
General Tips: I like to stack good behaviors on good behaviors. I “reward” myself for a good morning jog with a healthy breakfast. I like to workout outside whenever the weather is nice so I can get some sun. If I’m just going for a walk, I like to work in a bit of contemplation. This is not exactly meditating, but it has a similar effect for me. I absolutely cannot deal with “cheat days/meals”. If I eat one bad thing, it snowballs. As a result, almost all of the food in my house has to be prepared. I only keep dried whole grains and pulses in the pantry. I buy everything in bulk so it’s cheaper. I don’t keep a ton of fresh veggies in the house on purpose because I’m generally healthier when I go to the store frequently and pick out meals based on what looks good. I don’t have a weight loss target, but I have several workout targets. I build my running endurance by keeping the thought of doing a triathlon this summer. I try to add as many life-value-added activities as possible into my routine, such as reading, calligraphy, and continuing ed courses. However, I do not beat myself up over being “productive”. I do these things because they add richness to my life, not because they will benefit me financially.
General pitfalls: Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that what works for another person will work for you. Take suggestions to heart, but don’t force yourself into someone else’s routines. Don’t worry about your end goal, and how you’ll feel once you get there. Think about how you feel now, knowing that you’re taking control of your life. Think about what you really want from life. You’ll more often than not find that your end goal is about vanity more than anything. This is ok to some extent, but you’ll come to appreciate the little things more if you consider life satisfaction. I love the feeling of jogging up my stairs when I bring my dog in from a walk. It may not be much, but a few years ago I would literally use an elevator to go up one floor because I didn’t like being winded and sweaty from a flight of stairs. Don’t be ashamed of anything that requires help. If you are scared of the gym, scared of cooking, scared of loneliness, well just realize that you’re further along than you know. Just by being in this sub, by thinking about what you want, you’re two steps ahead of most people. You can do this and it’s so much more fulfilling that you realize.
Some sources:
GAD and substance abuse: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/1107248
Amount of exercise: https://www.heart.org/en/news/2019/02/22/for-the-best-health-does-the-intensity-of-your-workout-matter
Exercise and brain health: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/why-exercise-protects-your-brains-health-and-what-kind-is-best/
Model organisms and nutrition research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22707260/
Low/high fat/carbs: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-study-compares-low-fat-plant-based-diet-low-carb-animal-based-diet
Mediterranean diet: https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/mediterranean-diet/art-20047801
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