I have an excellent guest article to share with you today written by the highly respected fat loss expert, Tom Venuto. I’ve shared one or two of his articles previously as well as a review of his highly regarded fat loss book. This new article is as good or better than the others! In it he shares the latest research from a survey of individuals who have not only been successful in losing weight but who have succeeded in maintaining the loss.

Tom discusses research results from a study published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity. This study confirms what we had learned from the National Weight Control Registry.

Tom talks about the difference in lifestyle and behaviors of those who are successful with weight loss maintenance compared with those who regain weight. The concepts gained from this study are so important! If you understand why they matter and put them into practice you will not only move ahead more quickly with your weight loss efforts but you will also be well-prepared to maintain that loss.

I plan on spending more time on topics related to fat loss, body weight, and body fat in future blog posts. However, I will continue to post sample low calorie diet menus and low calorie foods along with other weight loss tips!

Next week (or sooner) I have a surprise for you. I hope to give you the opportunity to use a new tool (no cost) that will help you to quickly and easily access some of the websites I have found to be very helpful. My hope is that it will give you additional support and save you time with monitoring and assessing your weight loss efforts!

Till next time, watch those calories and eat healthy!

Listen to Maintainers, Not to Losers: 5 secrets to keeping the weight off for good

By Tom Venuto, NSCA-CPT, CSCS
www.BurnTheFat.com

I have very little interest these days in all the media-hyped stories of dramatic, rapid losses of body weight. “Big losers” don’t impress me, for numerous reasons. For example, weight is not fat. “Weight” could be composed of mostly lean tissue, or it could be mostly water weight. In fact, I would go a step further and point out that rapid loss of bodyweight correlates very highly with a greater chance of relapse, weight re-gain and long term failure.

So what does impress me? What gets my attention?

I pay attention to what the “long term maintainers” have to say - those are the people who have maintained an ideal weight for over a year… preferably even 2-5 years or more.

The difference between losers and maintainers

As I was researching the subject of long term weight maintenance recently, I was surprised at the huge amount of research that’s already been done in this area.

One paper that caught my interest was published by Judy Kruger and colleagues in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, titled,

“Dietary and physical activity behaviors among adults successful at weight loss maintenance.”

This was not an experimental study, but a compilation of data from the “Styles Survey” which was representative of the U.S. population and asked respondants questions about strategies to aid with maintaining an ideal weight.

In this particular survey, only one-third (30.96%) of the respondents said they were successful at keeping their weight off. The researchers wanted to know the difference between the small group that was successful and the majority that were not.

Both groups reduced the amount of food they consumed, they ate smaller portions, more fruits and vegetables, fewer fatty foods and fewer sweetened beverages.

Not really any surprises there, but what we want to know most is not what losers and maintainers have in common, but what the maintainers did that the losers didn’t.

Some major differences emerged between losers and maintainers:

First, a significantly higher proportion of successful maintainers reported exercising 30 minutes or more daily, and they also reported adding other physical activity to their daily schedules (recreation, sports, physical work, etc). In addition, more of the successful maintainers included weight training in their exercise regimens than did the losers.

Reducing sedentary activities (TV watching, etc) was also a significant difference between those who successfully maintained and those who did not.

The next big difference that separated the successful maintainers from the unsuccessful was in their “self-monitoring behaviors” including:

* tracking calories
* tracking body weight
* planning meals
* tracking fat
* measuring the amount of food on their plate

Unfortunately, these types of self-monitoring behaviors, especially weighing and measuring food and counting calories, are among the most avoided and even criticized weight control techniques. Some weight loss “experts” even claim that it’s detrimental to count calories, weigh yourself or measure and weigh your food.

However, these self monitoring behaviors are being identified more and more frequently in the research as part of “the difference that makes the difference.” I agree, and they have always played a major role in my own Burn The Fat program.

A final difference was that people who reported self-perceived “barriers” to their success were 48-76% less likely to be a successful maintainer.

For example, they said they had no time to exercise, they were too tired to exercise or it was too hard to maintain an exercise routine. I interpret this as: the unsuccessful losers were excuse makers!

THE TOP 5 STRATEGIES TO BE A SUCCESSFUL MAINTAINER

So let’s recap and turn these research findings into some practical action steps you can apply today.

1. Increase your total daily activity level, including formal exercise as well as sports, physical work or recreational activity. Exercise improves weight loss, but more importantly, it is critical for weight maintenance.

2. Decrease sedentary recreational activities by cutting back on TV watching, computer games and web surfing. Take up physical recreation such as sports, boating, biking, walking, hiking, gardening, physical hobbies and playing with your kids, if you have them.

3. Include weight training as part of your formal exercise program, throughout the fat loss phase and even more seriously during maintenance.

4. Track and monitor everything! Count calories and nutrients, measure your portion sizes, weigh your food, plan your menus in writing and monitor your body weight and body fat percentage.

5. Avoid excuses and maintain positive beliefs and attitudes towards your environment and what you perceive as “barriers.” For example, say, “I can always make time for what is most important to me” instead of, “I don’t have time to exercise.”

If you’re currently on a fat loss journey, and you want to know how good your odds are for being a successful maintainer, it’s pretty easy to predict using these 5 strategies. If you’re not using all 5 of them yet, then when would be a good time to start today?

There are limitations to survey results such as these, including the fact that they are cross sectional, and therefore cannot prove causality. However, I believe these findings are important and significant.

Not only do they confirm previous similar studies and agree with the findings of other groups of successful maintainers (such as the National Weight Control Registry), I found that these results match precisely what I’ve seen among my most successful “Burn The Fat” clients.

THIS is the type of advice I’d suggest you listen to the most: Advice about how to lose body FAT, not body WEIGHT, and how to maintain an ideal bodyweight and body composition over the long haul, not how to lose weight as fast as possible.

Your friend and coach,

Tom Venuto
Fat Loss Coach
www.BurnTheFat.com

P.S. There was one more “difference that made the difference,” in this study, and this one may surprise you (although it didn’t surprise me). Successful maintainers were LESS likely to take over the counter diet products (pills, etc).

About the Author:

Tom Venuto is a natural bodybuilder, certified personal trainer and freelance fitness writer. Tom is the author of “Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle,” which teaches you how to get lean without drugs or supplements using secrets of the world’s best bodybuilders and fitness models. Learn how to get rid of stubborn fat and increase your metabolism by visiting: www.burnthefat.com

Fat Loss Plan Weight Loss Programs

Recipes aren’t hard to find especially online. However, finding healthy low calorie recipes to support your weight loss efforts is bit more of a challenge.

Do be careful about the sites you frequent for recipes. Lots of sites claim to have healthy recipes but they may be anything but. I hope this list will introduce you to at least one or two healthy and tasty recipe sites you were not aware of till now.

Whether you are looking for recipes that include certain ingredients, are a good source of particular nutrients, or can be prepared and ready to eat in less than 30 minutes, I’ve found sites that will deliver. I hope my recommendations will get you inspired to have fun experimenting with these recipes. Who knew weight loss (and maintenance) could be an adventure?

CDC (Fruits & Veggies: More Matters)

I believe fruits and vegetables should be a cornerstone of a healthy diet. By filling up at least half your plate on a regular basis with fruits and/or vegetables, you may very well have won half the battle in your weight loss efforts. Trust me your body will thank you whether you lose weight or not!

At this government site, the CDC has a wide selection of recipes specifically for fruits and vegetables. From appetizers to beverages, breakfast, desserts, dips/spreads/salsas, entrees, finger food, salads/slaws, side dishes, and soups they have something for everyone. Type in the fruits or vegetables you like best in the search box and the system will pull up a list of recommendations that incorporate your favorites. Or be adventuresome and try something new! Oh yes, you’ll get a complete nutrition breakdown for each recipe as well.

The World’s Healthiest Foods

Eating healthy, cooking healthy, and feeling great. These are the three main categories you will find on the home page of The World’s Healthiest Foods site. To me that’s what it is all about. Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight doesn’t have to be about deprivation. Click on the Cooking Healthy tab and you’ll find an option for 100 quick and easy recipes. Each of the recipes features a tempting photo, preparation and cook time, and a nutrient profile that lets you see at a glance which nutrients are particularly rich in a given dish.

Mayo Clinic

The Mayo Clinic Healthy Recipes Center may not be much to look at but don’t let that stop you! Check out the list of options you have for finding healthy low calorie foods! There are hundreds of choices categorized by appetizers, beverages, bread recipes, desserts, main dishes, salads, sandwiches, sauces, side dishes, and soup recipes.

Included are some recipes I’ll bet you thought you had to give up for good. What do you think of 0 grams of fat and only 114 calories for a serving of crispy potato skins? Mmm…Now that’s something I’d like to try. The nutritional analysis includes the basics (total calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, fiber, and sodium) as well as a few others: saturated fat, monounsaturated fat (nice!), cholesterol, potassium, and calcium. But sadly there is nothing for vitamins and minerals.

A Healthier You

A Healthier You is the recipe site for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You won’t find lots of recipes here but what they do have are healthy and hopefully easy-to-make as the site claims. The “heart healthy” recipes were developed by researchers and nutritionists with the HHS National Institutes of Health. No advanced cooking skills are needed. Included are the time estimates to both prepare and cook each dish.

University of Michigan Cancer Center

Why share a recipe site from a Cancer Center? Why not? Makes sense to me. The recipes provided at this site seem to be easy to prepare and tasty in addition to healthy. The emphasis is on fruits and vegetables like the CDC site. Some of the recipes include a short video demonstration on how to prepare the dish!

Recipe Zaar

Recipe Zaar has more than 277,000 recipes in over 450+ categories. Wow! That’s the good news. What’s not so good is that you have to steer yourself past all of the delicious-looking high calorie and not so healthy choices to reach the best recipes.

There are 25,788 low fat recipes. 13,978 very low carb recipes, and 36,520 vegetarian recipes. You can narrow your search further by picking a category for recipes with 3 or less steps to prepare or ones that call for no more than five ingredients. No matter what kind of recipe you are looking for I would imagine you will have success.

You will need to do some sifting and sorting to come up with the real gems—healthy recipes. Just because something is low fat or low carb or vegetarian doesn’t mean it is necessarily low calorie or nutritious and good for you!

Nubella

At Nubella there are thousands of healthy recipes but you will need to drill down to find the recipes best suited for YOUR health needs. Thankfully there are a variety of ways to search. First click on recipes on the navigation bar of the main page and then choose advanced search from the drop down menu.

This will bring you to an option to search by main ingredient, meal type, courses, or by nutritional need. Included are low fat, low calorie, low cholesterol, low sodium, and sugar free recipes. I need to caution you because many of the recipes are NOT low calorie. However, the site has a nice feature with the recipe lists. The calorie and fat content is included right up front so you can avoid clicking on the recipes that will be out of your calorie range.

Food and Health Communications

This site may not grab you visually but look a little closer. It has a surprising number of healthy low calorie recipes. I’ve tried quite a few in just the past week and I’ve been happy with my selections. I must admit I altered the recipes a bit here and there. Hey, recipes are just a starting point for getting your own creativity going. As long as you think in terms of healthy foods and watch the calorie counts, do modify recipes to suit your tastes and needs! There are lots of simple healthy recipes to explore at Food and Health Communications. Check it out!

This list of healthy recipe sites could be a lot longer but I chose to leave out sites that do not include any nutrition information. I don’t have much time to track down calorie and nutrient content and I suspect you don’t either. I also left off sites that aren’t easy to navigate or for which it is too time consuming to find the low calorie healthy choices. If you know of any sites that are similar or better than the ones I’ve shared here, please let me know. Thanks!

As always, have a great week, watch those calories, and stay healthy!

Maintenance Reviews weight loss