weight loss show

How Long Does it Take to Lose 30 lbs in Weight?

2010-03-08T14:52:00.007Z

Many dieters ask the question "How long does it take to lose 30 lbs if I go to the gym often and stick to a really healthy diet?"

With those critical diet and exercise habits set up, dieters often think their weight will drop like a stone thanks to all that hard work and get dejected at their lack of progress when their weight loss inevitably plateaus out.

When you reach this crossroads (as almost all slimmers do) where you are asking yourself this exact question, it is time for you to review whether or not you actually like the choices you have made or you have done these things simply because you felt you had to rather than you wanted to, as you are much more likely to carry on with those habits long after you have successfully shed the unwanted pounds. This is what will help you to keep the weight off in the future and be confident in the strength of your achievements.

Assuming you do enjoy what you are doing, then you might want to look at one or two surveys of those who have gone before you for an idea as to how long it actually takes to lose a significant amount of weight and not rely on extreme claims made on behalf of some products touted on the internet, which may not be representative of typical results:

A survey was carried out on willing Jenny Craig weight loss program subscribers (this is a very costly program so you would think that followers would be keen to drop the pounds) which showed that most fall by the wayside.

Within 4 weeks 27% dropped out, losing on average just 1.1% of their body weight.

After 13 weeks, 58% had dropped out, losing on average 8.3% of their body weight.

After 26 weeks, 78% had dropped out, losing on average 12.6% of their body weight.

After 52 weeks, 93.4% had dropped out losing on average 15.6% of their body weight.

Those who kept on going until weeks 40 to 52, typically lost an average of around 12% of their initial body weight.

These are genuine results not what is suggested on the web as hypothetically what you should be achieving.

So say for example you weigh 210lbs and want to lose 30lbs ... this is 14.3% of your starting weight (30/210 x 100), which indicates that you might need to persevere for anywhere between 26 to 52 weeks if you can copy the successful weight loss of those Jenny Craig slimmers.

A study of 157 Slimming World members indicated that a weight loss of 33lbs could be achieved over 11.1 months. That would be equivalent to just 0.69lbs per week when taken as an average result. Your 30lbs might take you around 10 months, or 43-44 weeks if Slimming World results are anything to go by.

The internet is littered with weight loss rubbish and marketing hype. That stuff about calories in and calories out is correct but flawed, it assumes that food label data is absolutely precise .. which it is not ... they are mathematical averages from repeated tests, can vary by a significant margin and will change due to season, growing locality, cooking time etc etc. A helpful guide yes, but that is really all they are ... a guide.

My own weight loss program resulted in slower progress than both of the examples quoted above. In about 13 months I went from 180lbs to around 150-155 pounds during 2002/03. I still watch my weight today long after my successful slimming campaign. Yes that may be slow, but after failing with those usual overmarketed products we have all tried and failed with, I decided to make up my own strategy and that inevitably took time to come to fruition. Now I know enough about weight management to make my weight a breeze to take care of.

In this crazy 24/7 world we live in today where we appear to be able to get anything we want and get it now, most of us are impatient and crave that perfect body right now, but those surveys of some of the most popular weight loss programs suggests that those who achieve weight loss over an extended timeframe, develop the habits of success rather better than crash dieters, who may lose weight much quicker to begin with, but often fail to sustain their early successes and ultimately end up heavier than they were at the start.

This brings us to the underlying triumph of any program of weight management, which only really surfaces after the excess weight has been lost, when we find out if we have discovered the secrets to successfully staying lighter for life. The secret lies in the pleasure we get out of those choices we made in our diet and exercise routines at the beginning of all of this, as any successful changes will most likely become lifestyle changes for the better for good rather than temporary patches to get over the finish line.

Whether you are just ready to begin a weight loss program or have already started, I hope you can use the information given here to work out how long it may take you to achieve your goals and I wish you good luck with your efforts.

Of course if you want to learn the successful slimming secrets I use every day, without having to study for yourself then pop along to my website now.

To Your Success and Thanks for Reading,

Ian B

Sources
Jenny Craig Study
Slimming World Study
My Own Weight Loss

Walking to Lose Weight

2009-07-10T15:31:00.007+01:00

In this article we will consider the recent upsurge in the average weight of the individual and the advantages of using walking for weight loss in our daily efforts to combat the problem.

The obesity epidemic has taken less than 30 years to spread out of the Developed World across the planet. Even middle and low-income countries are now suffering the ill effects of the spread.

For many decades leading up to the mushrooming problem we now face, the obesity problem appeared to affect very few.

Indeed, if we go back to the early Victorian era, 90% or more of the world’s population lived and worked in agriculture, and, like our even more distant ancestors, walked to work, were physically active at work, and then walked home at the end of the day.

They were constantly on the go, if at a more modest walking pace than today ... and for other different reasons.

Collecting and carrying water, food preparation, and clothes washing were all physically intensive, and walking was required for socialization.

We may have lost those specific needs to walk, but our bodies evolved to walk, so doesn’t it make sense to do exactly that?

We can use walking to lose weight as well as for improved health benefits. However, one problem facing many wannabe slimmers, is that we are still suffering the hangover of the constant bombardment of messages insisting that short bursts of high intensity, sweaty activity down the gym are the only way.

The argument still rages about whether sweaty aerobic exercise is more beneficial than intense effort anaerobic strength training.

During this time, the message conveyed by the exercise lobby was “more is better.” And even the US surgeon general’s report summarized the view that more exercise of greater intensity promises more health of greater duration.

But a growing body of evidence shows that this is clearly not the case.

A recent article by Nemoto and co-workers reported that walking in middle-aged and older people results in the same health benefits that are similar to those provided by a workout down the gym.

Whether the outcome measurement is blood pressure, as in the Nemoto article, joint problems, mental health, diabetes and other metabolic disorders, or cardiovascular disease, collectively, the data suggests that walking improves health.

So what are we to make of the growing body of evidence relating the health benefits of simply walking in light of pressure from the exercise movement showing the benefits of high-intensity, high level exertion?

Well there are five key points that are important.

Firstly, walking is far more accessible to many more people than expensive high-intensity exercise down the gym, in terms of tolerance as well as cost.

Secondly, evidence shows that a great deal of low-intensity activity can have as many health and physiological benefits as high intensity exercise.

Thirdly, individuals who are able to undertake and sustain high-duration, high-intensity exercise are, by definition, fitter than the population who rarely exercises; so for example, a marathon runner is inevitably fitter than those of us who only occasionally stroll in the park.

Fourthly, walking exposes participants to few activity-associated injuries,whereas nearly all high-intensity athletes experience sports-associated injuries.

And finally, any amount of walking, at any pace in any place, burns calories and as such has the potential, long term, for use in weight management.

There are of course many other benefits to walking to lose weight which have not necessarily been scientifically proven, but are blindingly obvious to anybody who has ever stretched their legs.

The pleasurable and therapeutic, psychological and social dimensions of walking, the stress relief; whilst all these effects are self-evident, they have only recently begun to be studied.

To read more about walking for weight loss and many more interesting topics feel free to visit us at slimmersecrets.com

Take care until next time,

Resources for this article:

Levine JA, Exercise: a walk in the park? Mayo Clin Proc. 2007 Jul;82(7):797-8.

Nemoto K, Gen-no H, Masuki S, et al. Effects of high-intensity interval walking training on physical fitness and blood pressure in middle-aged and older people. Mayo Clin Proc. 2007 Jul;82(7):803-11.

Additional Note about the Fat Burning Benefits of Breakfast

2009-05-17T17:24:00.005+01:00

After my posting regarding the non existent news item about a Which? Report criticizing breakfast cereals (see posting 30 Apr 09), I thought I would delve a little deeper, only to find a recent report out in The Journal of Nutrition which highlighted the fat burning power of a low GI breakfast over a high GI breakfast (see footnote about Glycemic Index or GI).

A team of researchers at the University of Nottingham studied the effects of breakfasts containing low-glycemic index or a high-glycemic index foods on fat burning power whilst at rest and walking exercise in non-dieting, healthy, sedentary women.

The breakfasts provided were muesli with milk and canned fruit with a little apple juice (low GI) or cornflakes and milk, with white bread and jam and a carbonated fizzy drink (high GI). The breakfasts provided either 3.5g fiber (low GI) or 1.5g fiber (high GI).

After walking 3 hours later (for 60 minutes) the women were found to burn twice as much fat per hour after the low GI breakfast compared to the high GI breakfast.

In addition, after eating an identical lunch, on the days where the women ate the low-GI breakfast they also reported feeling fuller than on days where they had previously eaten the high GI breakfast.

These are early findings, from a small study, but they highlight the point that the favored breakfast of cereal and fruit reported by successful weight maintainers who are members of the weight registry, reported in my previous post, has scientific merit as well as ‘statistical’ merit from the members of the registry.

Footnote: The Glycemic Index is a measure of how much a food stuff makes the blood sugar levels rise after consumption.

Foods that are broken down rapidly releasing glucose into the bloodstraem have a high GI, those that are digested more slowly and release glucose into the bloodstream gradually, have a low GI.

The higher the rise the in blood sugar the more problematic the food is for diabetics who have difficulty with glucose metabolism.

The concept has been applied to modern diets in general, which tend to be high in refined carbohydrates and create rapid spikes in blood sugar levels compared to unprocessed foods (this is a general brief summary).
The graph below helps to see the picture in a more visual manner.

Hope this helps in your quest for a slimmer you,

Take care,

Breakfast Cereals in the News Again

2009-04-30T16:36:00.012+01:00

I watched with dismay a report on BBC Breakfast about the 'worrying' sugar levels in many of our breakfast cereals.

The news item was reporting on a new study by Which? magazine, which investigated the 'alarming' levels of sugar and salt in 100 cereals found on the shelves of British supermarkets (You can read more about the report here).

In a nutshell only 8% of the cereals qualified for a Food Standards Agency "green light" for low levels of sugar, but 31 out the 100 cereals examined containing more than four teaspoons of sugar per recommended serving.

So that means 69% were probably okay, if not spectacularly low in sugar. Not really newsworthy that is it?

The proportion of cereals high in salt was just 8%, down from 20% in a similar survey in 2006. So 92% weren't high in salt.

It depends how you present this stuff, doesn't it?

The presenters on BBC News grilled the particularly ineffective 'expert' from some cereal manufacturers association, or some body like that.

Comments like 'there's as much sugar in a helping of this cereal that you would find in a bowl of ice cream'.

So what?!

How much fat is there in a bowl of cereal compared to a bowl of ice cream? How much protein is there in a bowl of cereal compared to a bowl of ice cream?

Only when you compare all of the macronutrients in a product can you make a real judgement on something.

The problem I have with the way this news item was reported is:

firstly, that they did not specify what cereals are based upon. They are a grain product. Grains are little storage pods of starch ... which is a carbohydrate (or a sugar) and so a product based on carbohydrate is bound to be high in ... carbohydrate! and

secondly, our society is in danger of demonizing food of almost any kind. The calorie really is getting hammered these days.

So go to work on a bowl of cereal if you dare was the overall impression the breakfast team managed to create. Well done folks! You have just succeeded in sending half the UK population out to work on a bowl of guilt in the morning.

In reality for those with a weight issue (and lets face it that is around two thirds of us in the Western hemisphere these days), starting the day with no breakfast is not a smart move.

Many wannabe slimmers deliberately starve themselves by skipping meals in a mistaken attempt to lose weight or to try to keep it off.

However, if they really want to be slim, then perhaps they would be better following the example of successful slimmers.

Research into a register of successful maintainers, who have lost a minimum of 30lbs (or 13.6Kg if you prefer) and kept it off for at least a year, has shown that 78% eat breakfast everyday, typically of cereal and fruit. Hmmm?!

So if we are worried about the obesity epidemic and want to improve what and how people eat (including our kids), then perhaps we should look at what the successful few who manage to keep winning the war with their weight actually do and not just label cereals as high in this or that to grab the promo headlines for our new report.

Incidentally, if you want to read more about how successful maintainers keep the weight off, then you can find more info at Slimmer Secrets here.

That's all for now,

Take care and enjoy your food,

Dr Ian Bracken ridge

What Type of Cook are You?

2009-04-23T15:05:00.000+01:00

There has been a lot of online chatter about an article penned by Tara Parker-Pope which appeared recently in the NY Times. The article focussed upon what type of cook we all are and the health implications of the outcome of the answer to that question.

According to the article, apparently in this time of economic hardship staying in is the new going out. So more and more people are putting that time at home to good advantage by preparing more meals from scratch in an effort to make ends meet.

But is your cooking better for you than what you would have chosen previously?

Well research conducted by Cornell University might help to give us a clue.

A team of investigators questioned the cooking habits of 770 family cooks and found that five distinct types of cook emerged.

“Giving” cooks (22 percent) are eager cooks and excel at preparing homemade treats and comfort food.

“Methodical” cooks (18 percent) follow the recipes for better or worse and so their cooking is clearly shaped by the cookery book they employ.

“Competitive” cooks (13 percent) want to create the best dish ever and don’t care about the consequences on health.

“Healthy” cooks (20 percent) focus less on taste and regularly use fresh ingredients and serve fish.

“Innovative” cooks (19 percent) tend to produce healthier meals by trying out innovative ingredients, cookery techniques and cuisines.

So what does the type of cook you are have to do with your weight?

Well, according to the survey, “giving cooks” tend to be the least healthy cooks, whilst “innovative” cooks tend to be the best in terms of the balance between taste and freshness.

Does this help us out in our slimming ventures?

Well there is a survey at the NY Times which can help you to determine which type of cook you are.

But much as I enjoyed reading the article and the underlying research I can’t help thinking that they miss a couple of points which are essential for successful slimming.

Point 1: This research is largely based upon the impact the “nutritional gatekeeper” has on the household in terms of their food choices, both in the home and out and about in the world.

These gatekeepers apparently influence about 72% of our food choices. I do not believe we need 28% of freedom of choice to get fat. I think a fraction of that freedom is all that is needed for many to put on weight.

Point 2: This is a static review of how people are at this moment in time. It’s a snapshot and not a video, if you like.

When I got fat, for want of a better way to put it, I was largely a “giving” eater, and not a “giving” cook. In fact I rarely cooked – I just made lousy choices: something to slam in the oven while I got ready to go out and drink too much. My food choices were largely poor. The repeated excessive drinking choice was clearly poor. My lifestyle was lousy. It didn’t matter what I did or did not cook.

Point 3: There is no indication in this research about whether they believe leopards can change their spots.

For my own part I had to – at least in my own mind.

As I have already stated I was a comfort eater and drinker which loosely translated into this research, as a single householder, makes me a “giving” cook.

But this is definately not how I cook now. And not how I lost weight. I became ... slowly admittedly ... a “healthy” cook ... much of the time. Which leads me onto the fourth point ...

Point 4: I believe most people are not just one category of cook all of the time.

I am a mix of these.

Nowadays, much of the time I am a “healthy” cook. I eat loads and loads of fruit and veggies ... between 5 and 10 portions per day. But when I started losing weight I was no where near this range – it took me years to get to this point and there were lots of other strategies I had to put in place along the way to allow me to make that long term transition.

However, I am only a “healthy” cook most of the time – the rest of the time I am largely a “giving” type, but not a giving type of cook, rather I am a “giving” eater. Finding the balance between the two allows me to still enjoy some of my old habits occasionally. It allows me to enjoy eating out with friends. I eat and drink to my heart’s content and I believe that is vitally important to the success of any long term venture ... to still be able to eat and drink in a way I enjoy.

Point 5: Following on from point 4 above, why can’t a “giving” cook create a “healthy” starter or dessert to go with a comfort main course, or for that matter, why can’t a “giving” main even be cooked with “healthy” options as accompaniments.

Point 6: I do not like categorizing people in this way. I think to stick people in boxes because of how they live their lives at this moment in time doesn’t define a persons capabilities – it does the opposite – it limits them to the category they have been dumped into ... just like being overweight or obese, or tall or short.

To be fair to the original article and the NY Times piece, the focus of the article is on healthy cooking, not necessarily on weight, but with ever expanding waistlines due to our Western lifestyle eating habits, the link is an obvious one.

Hope you find this interesting. If so please feel free to comment either here or drop me a line at my healthy weight loss site.

Until next time ... take care,

Dr Ian Bracken ridge

Calories, Protein, Fat, Carbs and Weight Loss ... or the Lack of It!

2009-03-26T10:58:00.000Z

A recent study was reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, which apparently ended the argument about the differences in levels of success between popular diet plans. In actual fact this is one of many studies reporting on the limited success of 'dieting for weight loss' plans.

This study followed 811 overweight subjects who were randomly split into four groups assigned to follow a reduced calorie diet. Each of the four diet plans cut around 750 calories from the normal diet. The targeted percentages of energy derived from protein, carbs and fats in the four diets were:

The diets were made up to allow the research team to compare low fat versus high fat and average protein versus high protein and the comparison of highest and lowest carb content. All participants were offered individual and group counselling instructions for the two years of the study.

This is what they found:

· After 6 months, participants assigned to each diet had lost an average of 13 pounds (6 kg), which represented 7% of their initial weight.
· After 12 months, all groups, on average, slowly regained body weight.
· After the two years was complete, each group had lost – and regained – roughly the same amount of weight, regardless of the group.
· 645 participants (80%), completed the two year trial (that is very high), with an average weight loss of 8.8 pounds (4Kg).
· Despite the modest overall losses, 14 to 15% of the participants had a reduction of at least 10% of their initial body weight.
· 31 to 37% of the participants had lost at least 5% of their initial body weight.
· Just 2 to 4% had lost 44 pounds (20Kg) or more.
· Only 185 of the participants (23%) continued to lose weight from 6 months to 2 years.
· By 2 years, in those assigned to a diet with 20% fat and those assigned to a diet with 40% fat the average weight loss was the same (7.3 pounds, 3.3 kg for both groups).
· At the end of the two years, weight loss remained similar in those who were assigned to a low protein diet (15%) vs those assigned to a high protein diet (25%) (6.6 pounds and 8 pounds or 3.0 and 3.6 kg, respectively).
· After two years, those assigned to a diet with 65% carbohydrates and those assigned to a diet with 35% carbohydrates had losses of 6.4 pounds and 7.5 pounds or 2.9 and 3.4 kg, respectively.
· Diminished adherence occurred between 6 months and 2 years in the trial, with some of the participants reverting partly to their old eating habits.
· Satiety, hunger, satisfaction with the diet, and attendance at group sessions were similar for all diets.
· The diets generally improved lipid-related risk factors and fasting insulin levels.

So the worthy points of discussion are:

The diets were much the same in pure weight loss terms. The weight loss profile over time was much the same for each group.

Dr Frank Sacks, lead researcher said:

“The effect of any particular diet group is minuscule, but the effect of individual behavior is humongous. We had some people losing 50 pounds and some people gaining five pounds. That’s what we don’t have a clue about. I think in the future, researchers should focus less on the actual diet but on finding what is really the biggest governor of success in these individuals.”

The key factor in Sacks’ opinion was that researchers need to find what it is that governs success in individual cases. He confessed that as an expert in the field of obesity research he did not 'have a clue’ about the factors governing success.

That is where Slimmer Secrets have an unquestionable edge.

Having studied success strategies in individuals and NOT diets and all the surrounding hullabaloo associated with them, Slimmer Secrets can teach you the principles of success, not how to be really strict with yourself and attempt to stick to a rigid eating plan. Simplicity rules.

Thanks for reading,

Take Care

My successful weight loss and weight maintenance

2009-03-24T12:54:00.003Z

Thank you for visiting my blog - I do appreciate your time.

I thought I should give you an overview of my situation with regard to my experiences with weight loss and a little background about who I am.

My name is Ian Bracken ridge and I started writing about my experiences back in late 2008 in an effort to help those looking for ways to improve their own weight loss success. In short, I was a failed dieter, but eventually became a successful slimmer and moved on to become a successful maintainer for the last five years.

Having gained weight from around 1999, by living a typical British male life style of too many takeaways and TV dinners, too much boozing with the boys, little activity and a stressful occupation, I decided that it was time to address the increasing weight trouble in 2001.

A pitiful effort at dieting with the low carb diet approach combined with the shopping channel gym equipment (too embarrassed to go to the gym!) and the now apparently compulsory diet pills and left me disillusioned and frustrated at my failings.

I hadn't been accustomed to failure up to this point.

My background as a researcher in academia, followed by a career in the pharma industry had given me the requisite experience in interpreting scientific literature and so I decided to begin exploring for myself how to go about winning in this now problematic game.

I studied the primary literature and followed the ongoing battle of the day between the low carb vs low calorie diets which was raging in the media, although I recognized there was something lacking in all of this debate.

I tried the gym equipment, as I had trained with weights back in my late teens and early twenties, but I just couldn't find the motivation to hang in with this approach.

I finally began to discover successful strategies I could apply around late 2002 and chose to carry on learning while my weight dropped from roughly the 180lb mark down to around the 150lb (~80Kg to 68.5Kg).

I recognized at this time how serious a matter weight maintenance was to those who had slimmed down. I had read about the issue and had witnessed the troubles in other people with my own eyes, but I had never had to face up to this problem before.

Fortunately and I confess rather by chance, I had carried out strategies in a manner that allowed me to beat the yo-yo weight problem that overcomes so many dieters.

At this point, after my success, I stopped reading the primary literature and turned my attention to subjects elsewhere.

After a couple of years of taking on the challenging threat of weight yoyo-ing, I started to realise that the methods that had worked so successfully for me could be useful to other wannabee slimmers, and so I came back to look at the area only to discover the web weight loss arena utterly awash with marketing trash and what I can only describe as a raging community littering the bulletin boards with rather bitter postings!

[If you are trying to slim down nowadays you have my deepest sympathy. Browsing the internet, trying to separate the wheat from the huge amount of chaff, the tripe and the acrimonious ravings from the decent and real help is just about impossible].

I admit freely that at this time I did consider this as an opportunity.

I decided that my accomplishments could serve the community well, so I had to put together a web site to offer my knowledge and more significantly, my experience of weight loss and maintenance.

It's that experience that became the basis for what you are reading today.

I came across some quite amazing facts. The medical community may publically still push slimming down by dieting as a necessary evil if you like, but if you study their ‘trade magazines’, you will discover that there's little belief in weight loss plans (see for example: here ... this is a report penned by medics for medics, not actually for the likes of us, quote: 'When defined as sustained weight loss over a 5-year follow-up period, the success of even the best medical weight-loss programs is next to nil'). Even the medical community have no faith!

Admittedly, I'm a failed dieter too. I agree that dieting does not work typically, but remedying your own diet does work. I can show you how to do this and a lot more too.

The strategies I have developed are all founded on my own success. You'll discover this for yourself as you learn what I have learned. Study what I have studied over the years. Put into practice the techniques I put in place in 2002 and still use now.

The best thing from your position is that you'll be able to short-cut this process, if you choose to learn my techniques.

Nevertheless, that choice is completely your own.

Once more, thank you - for taking the time to read this. Your patience in reading my biog/blog will serve you well in your future success.

I hope you'll stay with me and acquire the strategies of success practised by so many successful slimmers, either following me here or at Slimmer Secrets, although no matter what you do, I wish you Good Luck in your weight loss effort.

I hope this has been of some use to you,

Best Wishes,

Watching Your Weight

2009-03-12T15:04:00.001Z

For anybody with a weight problem, watching your weight is, I believe, the most critical element to success.

Last weekend I was out on both Friday night and Saturday. Nothing special in that ... no there isn’t ... but what is important to me, is that I know the impact a heavy weekend has on my weight.

How do I know?

Because I monitor my weight in a very regular way. And here is what it looks like for that weekend (wt in Kg's):

The snippet from my weight log tells you what exactly caused the spike. A heavy weekend with the boys. A lot to eat ... in fact ... all we could eat, along with several beers on Friday night, followed by a few more on Saturday night down the local with a couple of mates.

There is absolutely nothing special in this ... people do this every weekend ... but that is exactly my point. You can still get slim and stay slim living in the real world.

The secret is pretty much learning about what you can get away with. Yes I am careful the majority of the time. I take good care of myself.

Could I do better?

Of course I could. I could treat my body like a temple, not assault it with a massive Chinese meal and too much to drink in a weekend, work out at 6 in the morning, before a small bowl of muesli with a drop of skimmed milk, but then I would have little enjoyment with friends (note:- confession, I do actually like muesli, but I think you get the point).

Life is about the balance between what you have to put up with and what you can get away with.

Note what happened to my weight after that heavy weekend. After I put on that 1.5Kg, 3.3lbs in a weekend, it melted away and I ended up back down at my normal weight. I knew it would do this.

How did I know ... I have been watching my weight do this type of thing for years. Around seven years now. I know I can ‘get away with’ enjoying a weekend like this because of the care I take the rest of the time.

I give my body a chance to recover from this sort of weekend. I do this far less than I used to, but I still do enjoy it occasionally.

The critical factor is watching my weight. I learnt what I could do, how I could live and what I needed to do to be able to enjoy weekends like this without guilt and without creating another weight mountain to climb.

Your body gives you the clues ... you just have to look for them and then pay attention to them by reacting accordingly.

I may have lost weight years ago now and maintained for around five years but I still have a weight problem. I have to be prepared to accept that I may have a problem for life. More on that next time.

If you want to know more about how I manage my weight, or watch my weight, just sign up to follow my postings and visit me at http://www.slimmersecrets.com/. I have a lot of experience now about weight loss and maintenance – I may be able to help you too.

Feel free to drop me line anytime. Until next time take care of yourself ... and don’t forget to enjoy yourself too!

Ian

Obesity not individuals’ fault

2009-03-04T16:01:00.000Z

I was reading an article today on the BBC’s website entitled “Obesity not individuals’ fault”.

It summarised a report stating that individuals can no longer be held responsible for obesity and claimed that government must act to prevent the nation “sleepwalking” into an obesity epidemic.

The authors (a bunch of 250 experts and academics) admitted proof that any anti-obesity policy worked "was scant" (this is true anywhere; I think most medics don’t believe diet and exercise works).

Following on from this they report that obesity was an inevitable consequence of a society in which energy-dense and cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and sedentary work were rife.

Dr Susan Jebb of the Medical Research Council said that in this environment, it was surprising that anyone was able to remain slim, and so the notion of obesity simply being a product of personal over-indulgence had to be abandoned for good.

"The stress has been on the individual choosing a healthier lifestyle, but that simply isn't enough" she said.

Now in that quote Susan Jebb is absolutely spot on. We all know that the “healthier” approach to diet and exercise is not successful. Adherence to program’s of this type is incredibly low. Modern terms such as the “eat less move more” and the “be more active” as a euphemism for “exercise” are largely just spin.

But Dr Jebb went on to comment that the planning of our towns had to be improved to encourage more physical activity (there’s that word again), mothers should be breastfeeding to slow down infant weight gain, but the report stopped short of actually making ANY recommendations.

So in other words these 250 experts just got together and complained ... it took 250 of them to compile a report that states the bleeding obvious. They are (as far as I am aware) all experts, but could not make one concrete recommendation.

So what are you supposed to do if the experts won’t make any recommendations?

Well, lets go back to that article and the title “Obesity not individuals’ fault”.

The title has two key points. We live in a blame culture. We are looking for someone to blame. Someone or something to point the accusing finger at. The first point I make is “fault” in that title.

Why do we need to look for blame? As a society we live with our heads’ in the past looking for someone to blame. It might make us feel better, but it is not an effective solution is it? It doesn’t solve the problem. The obese are still obese and the overweight are still overweight.

So if it doesn’t solve the problem, what does it do?

Well the obese and the overweight often feel that they must be to blame, end up (wrongly) feeling guilty, consequently eat more to improve their short term morale and ultimately compound their problems.

The second point I want to make in this post is that it may not be individuals’ fault, but what good is that? Again no solutions.

The simple fact of the matter is that it is the individuals responsibility for how they act upon that knowledge. Well we may not be responsible for putting on the weight, but we are responsible for how we react.

We as a society, and this I believe is typical of many cultures around the world, live with our heads in the past and look for who’s to blame. We would be better to get our heads together and look for solutions to solve the problems, not just state the bleeding obvious.

The experts view was that the government needed to act. But if the government tells you what to do ... yet again ... doesn’t it make you feel like “here we go again ... nanny state”? It certainly makes me feel that way.

The better course of action for me was to accept that I had got too big and then start to look at ways in which I could help myself. I did take responsibility for my own actions and as far as I can see, it ultimately is down to us as individuals to act to solve our own issues ... to lose that weight if that is what we want.

If we look back to that article, Dr Susan Jebb commented that in this environment (in our society in which energy-dense and cheap foods, labour-saving devices, motorised transport and sedentary work were rife), it was surprising that anyone was able to remain slim.

Well the solutions lie in those factors ... we as individuals have to look at ways in which we can improve our actions within this environment. This is the world we live in. The experts want to change it. It won’t change ... and even if it does, it will take so long that we will all be dead and buried by then anyway. In reality, it will probably only get worse over time rather than better.

We aren’t to blame for this, why should we blame, but we can find better solutions to cope with how we deal with this ... our reactions to modern society. The answers lie within our own lives and our habits and actions within this crazy society we live in.

We can make smarter responses to it. We can challenge ourselves in easier ways than bashing our heads off the old diet and exercise routine.

More on what I did to succeed in losing weight and maintaining my trim self for five years now will follow as I get more of the website up and running.

Take a look if you fancy at:

http://www.slimmersecrets.com

In all honesty, there is not a load there at present, but I promise my aim is to help as much as possible. I may not be one of those experts, but I won’t keep quiet.

‘Til next time, take care,

Ian

Did You Enjoy Valentine’s Day?

2009-02-16T14:57:00.000Z

I certainly hope so.

Makes you realise how quickly time flies. We’re already in the middle of February ... so I thought this would be a good time to review.

Review what exactly?

Well one important date in the calendar reminds me of another just past ... New Year ... and those dreaded resolutions. Did you make any ... perhaps to lose 5 or 10 or 20 or more pounds and whatever happened to that resolution? – I guess you forgot about it!

What if you didn’t make any resolutions – what if you think they are folly?

What does that tell you about yourself, your beliefs, your dreams and your outlook?

These are important points that I want to address in this post, but first ... what exactly is a New Years resolution?

A goal, a wish, a dream, a decision?

And what’s more ... how long does it take to forget about them and slip back into the old ways?

These are incredibly important points.

Why?

Because they give you a vital clue to how to improve your weight loss success.

What is a resolution ... a goal, a wish, a dream, a decision ... probably all four to some degree.

The dream for many wannabe slimmers, I guess, is the vision of their ideal self. How they would love to be.

The wish ... the desire to be ... what they are not. 'I wish I was thin' ... might sum it up.

The decision ... the willingness to have a go. ‘I’m going to do it’ does reflect the true outlook of a resolution.

The goal ... the object of all the effort ... the target weight.

Unfortunately, so few ever get there.

So what about those who think resolutions are folly or not worth bothering with?

Perhaps a sad reflection of an unhappy viewpoint on life. A cynical outlook brought about by an inability to succeed with past resolutions.

Better not to dream, better not to set goals ... than to fail.

Does it always have to be this way?

Nope.

The failure to set resolutions, or succeed with past goals reflects one small issue ... we’ll come back to that in a tick.

So how long does it take to forget about them?

We need to cover this point before we can resolve that nagging small issue.

The answer to this, I guess, leads us to the point of issue.

We are all different and the length of time it takes us to forget those resolutions varies with that difference in our personalities. And therein lies the key to a successful resolution.

They say (who exactly they are I’ll never know) ‘time is a great healer’ because it helps us to forget. But we don’t want to forget ... we want to succeed!

We need to make that goal achievable for us as individual’s before time takes over and we forget.

So if you have a dream to lose weight, then you have to be able to lose the desired goal amount before you forget and consequently ... fail.

It doesn’t matter that the goal weight may be a fraction of your ultimate target weight, the resolution goal has to act as a carrot ... not a burden.

Too easy and you will not drive forward towards it ... too difficult and failure is imminent and the cynicism swells a little larger like a growing tumour.

The problem as I see it, is that most people cannot set reasonable goals. They are wildly optimistic and consequently unachievable.

So how do you proceed?

Well by not setting a goal ... at least not at first anyway.

Get up one morning ... doesn’t have to be Monday morning, do your normal toilet duties and then weight yourself. Make a note of it just to be sure.

Why this way?

Because you will always be the lightest you can be and it starts a new habit.

Lets say you ‘forget’ your old resolutions in ... two weeks. So you weigh yourself in the same way in two weeks time. If you can only last a week ... then weigh yourself in a weeks time.

Do whatever you can to lose weight, that you can live with. Don’t starve yourself and don’t flog yourself.

Whatever weight loss you have achieved in that time frame becomes your goal weight loss for the next two weeks, or week or however long you set. You have just proven you can do it. If you want to succeed, just repeat it.

So go ahead ... dangle that carrot!

Until next time,

Cheerio

Ian

PS There is an even simpler way to proceed with weight loss goals. I never even set any weight loss goals in my weight loss campaign.

It is similar to the above ... perhaps just a slight extension if you like. More on this in the future.

More weight loss tips can be found at: http://www.slimmersecrets.com/

Good Luck with your weight loss.

Why Most DIETS Do NOT Work

2009-02-03T11:27:00.000Z

It’s the worst kept secret in the slimming world – diets almost never work!

The people who sell you dieting products are some of the most highly trained sales people in the world. They use powerful influencing techniques to get you to part with your cash to buy into their diet plans, weight loss pills and exercise equipment just because everyone else seems to be buying into that approach too.

Well guess what…. Most of your fellow wannabe slimmers can't make those strategies work either.

But they know so little about successful slimming, most of them don’t even know it doesn’t work, they just think that they have failed again.

Why don’t they realise?

Because they break the first golden rule of slimming. They don’t realise they need to test and measure their efforts correctly.

Fortunately, you’re smart enough to know that from now on, every effort that you make on your slimming campaign needs to be measured.

You need to know precisely what you are getting involved in, what response you expect and how well those strategies and techniques work for you.

The only way to be sure your strategy is working for you is to measure it correctly.

Then you’ll know if your dieting or your entire slimming strategy worked or not.

And there is an important distinction here: slimming and dieting are not the same thing, even though many within the industry and slimming wannabes use the terms loosely and interchange them regularly.

Dieting is one string to the slimmers bow. Slimming is your complete package – everything you use to get slim.

One of the key features that leads to slimming success is to use more than a one dimensional approach.

Many dieters sadly think that they need to radically change their diets because experts preach to them that they need to do so. Consequently they make massive radical changes to their diet to eat healthily hoping that when they get their diet under control that they will start to “do more exercise”.

But this approach does not take into account the dieters state of mind when they adopt radical changes to their diet ... cravings, feelings of deprivation and depression regularly follow ... definately not a healthy outcome and often this approach results in the exact opposite ... out of control eating and drinking.

Dieting never takes into account the most important point of all ... you the person ... and not you the dieting subject.

Almost all diets or eating plans are designed with universal simplicity in mind – ie they can be broadly applied to the general population.

But this simplicity never takes your life into consideration .. it cannot by design... so they cannot take into account how you live your life.

That is why this approach almost never works.