An estimated 45 million Americans will be on a weight loss diet this year. According to the Centers for Disease Control, from 2000 through 2018, US obesity prevalence increased from 31 to 42 percent. That is more than 2 billion overweight adults and 600 million categorized as obese.
The number of children under the age of 5 that were overweight or obese is more than 42 million. The good news, however, is obesity is preventable. In terms of a percentage, 38 percent were men and 40 percent were women. The worldwide prevalence of obesity has more than doubled over the past 34 years. But again, the good news is that obesity is preventable. So, what are the best ways to prevent it?
A Shift in Body Composition
An initial goal for weight loss is changing body composition, which means building more lean muscle tissue and reducing body fat. A long-term goal for men might be 80 percent lean muscle and 20 percent body fat, eventually shifting towards 85 percent lean muscle and 15 percent body fat. For women, a long-term goal, with exercise and nutritional modification of course, might be 70 percent lean and 30 percent body fat. Eventually, those numbers might shift towards 77 percent lean muscle and 23 percent body fat.
To reach your goals, you must regulate your exercise and diet. Here are a few steps you can follow to help reach your goals.
1. Remove the “empty” calories from you diet
This means do not drink your calories. The average American consumes between 400-550 calories a day from soda, sports drinks, etc. You could lose a pound a week just by cutting back on this and yes, it means alcohol too. A study in the journal Obesity found that people who drink diet soda were more likely to have a higher percentage of body fat around their mid-section.
Subjects who reported not drinking diet soda gained an average of 0.8 inches in their waist circumference over the 9-year period compared to 1.83 inches for occasional diet soda drinkers and more than 3 inches for people who drank diet soda every day, according to a study recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. An easy way to decrease your calories and break your diet soda routine is to simply drink more water. Your goal is to drink water first thing in the morning to help speed up your metabolism and then again with your meals. Try a glass of water or green tea with lemon in the evening after dinner.
2. Add strength training to your exercise routine
This is critical for both lean muscle development and maintenance. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat (it takes 3x more calories per pound to maintain) and requires a third less space on your body. Strength training goal: 2-3 times a week.
3. Decrease your added sugar
Are you aware of how much added sugar you’re eating on a daily basis? If you’re drinking 1-2 medium size Cokes or other soft drinks – you’re probably already over your limit….and we have not even looked at your meals/snacks yet. If you cut your added-sugar to less than 150 calories a day (38 grams) for men and 100 calories a day (25 grams) for women, you’ll experience weight loss.
4. Increase your NEAT, EPOC and TEF
NEAT
Let’s first define these terms and keep in mind they are important. Non-exercise activity thermogenesis or NEAT according to researcher James Levine, MD, PhD, is “the energy expended for everything we do that is not sleeping, eating or sports-like exercise. It ranges from the energy expended walking to work, typing, performing yard work, undertaking agricultural tasks and fidgeting.”
EPOC
Excess post oxygen consumption or EPOC (some call it “after-burn”) is defined by Len Kravitz, PhD, as the period of time when the “body is restoring itself to its pre-exercise state, and thus is consuming oxygen at an elevated rate. This means that energy is also being expended at an elevated rate.” This occurs at a higher rate as the intensity of exercise increases and is seen following both a cardio and strength session. A very challenging strength session or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) is ideal for elevated EPOC which means your body continues to burn calories long after the bout of exercise is completed.
TEF
The thermic effect of food or TEF is defined by Reed and Hill as an “increase in metabolic rate after ingestion of a meal.” One of the many benefits of eating more high quality protein, is protein offers a higher thermic effect compared to carbohydrate and fat. Eating smaller meals more often – compared to a few big meals throughout the day – may now make better sense to you. Your body utilizes 10 percent of its daily energy, in the form of calories, towards TEF. For example, if you consume 2,500 calories over the course of the day, about 10 percent, or about 250 calories, is expended on digesting, absorbing, metabolizing and eliminating that food.
Hopefully these tips will help with your weight loss goals, and if not, remember that individuals who let “creeping obesity” set in, eventually, have other long-term health issues to deal with, such as:
- High Blood Pressure
- Diabetes
- High Cholesterol
- Heart Disease
- Various forms of Cancer
- Ulcers
- Gallstones
- Skin Infections
- Back Pain
- Increased Stress levels
- Poor Quality of Life
Use Jefit App
Jefit, a top rated app for 2022 by PC Magazine, Forbes Health and others comes equipped with a customizable workout planner and training log. Take advantage of Jefit’s exercise database for your strength workouts. Visit our members-only Facebook group. Connect with like-minded people, share tips, and advice to help get closer to reaching your fitness goals. Try one of the new interval-based workouts and add it to your weekly training schedule. Stay strong with Jefit as you live your fitness lifestyle.
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