Although there is no such thing as a magic bullet when it comes to weight loss, fruits and vegetables may be as close as you will come to magic. Well…that may be a bit of a stretch but I do encourage you to make this the year you resolve to eat more fruits and vegetables. As a nutritionist this is my single most important tip for weight management AND better health. Having said that, fruits and vegetables can only work their “magic” if you understand why they matter, what to choose, and how you can easily incorporate more servings into your diet.

Isn’t it nice to have something you are encouraged to eat more often rather than hearing “don’t eat this” or “don’t eat that?” When it comes to your health, most experts including the Mayo Clinic, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), dietitians, and nutritionists would encourage you to eat all the fruits and vegetables you might want. However, it is still possible, though not as likely, to eat too much of a good thing when it comes to weight management.

Calories do matter. But don’t let that get you down. If you make the best choices you can eat quite a LOT of certain fruits and vegetables for very few calories. Do take a look at some of my previous articles for some ideas on what you might like best:

Healthy Low Calorie Fruit

Low Calorie Vegetables: 100 Calories or Less

Best Low Calorie, High Fiber, Summer Fruits and Vegetables

Fall Fruits and Vegetables: Low Calorie and High Fiber

Low Calorie, High Fiber Winter Fruits & Veggies

High Fiber Low Calorie Spring Fruits and Vegetables

Do limit your intake of dried fruit, fruit juice, and most fruit smoothies to keep your calorie count down. Also, limit added sugar and sauces made with sugar and/or fat. Here are some other overall guidelines for weight management:

Fruits and Vegetables for Weight Management

•For weight loss, you need to eat fewer calories then what you burn. You have calorie needs for physiological processes (such as breathing and keeping your heart beating), physical activity, and the digestion of food. Eat more than your calorie needs and it goes to fat!

•Recent research suggests that people may not limit what they eat based on calories alone but rather on calories and the VOLUME of food eaten. It seems that the volume or amount of food may influence satiety (the sense of being full) more than calories. It is the sense of fullness that signals most people to stop eating.

•Foods with low energy density (low number of calories by weight) have a greater volume than those that are high energy dense (high calorie foods).

•Both water and fiber increase the volume of foods and reduce energy density. Fresh fruits and vegetables have a high water and fiber content. This means they tend to be low in calories and energy density.

•Fruits and vegetables make good substitutes for foods of high energy density.

(Source: Adapted from “Can eating fruits and vegetables help people to manage their weight?” National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion)

The bottom line is that when you fill up on low calorie fruits and vegetables you can eat more total food for less calories. This, of course, will only work if you substitute or replace some of the high-energy dense foods you normally eat with low energy dense foods.

The added benefit of more fruits and vegetables is that you can improve your health while you manage your weight. Now I’d say that’s a good deal!

Health Benefits of Fruits and Vegetables

•Little in the way of calories or fat and no cholesterol

•Lots of vitamins (such as vitamin A and C), minerals, fiber, and antioxidants

•A diet low in fat, saturated fat, and cholesterol with plenty of fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grain breads and cereals may reduce the risk of diseases of the cardiovascular system (such as heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s) and cancer.

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 2.7 million lives could be saved each year if we ate more fruits and vegetables.

O.K. so maybe you have good intentions of eating more fruits and vegetables but it just doesn’t happen. Is cost an issue? Or how about the need to get organized so that fruits and vegetables can be more easily incorporated into your diet without it taking a lot of time and effort? Maybe you’d like to get inspired with some new recipes. If any of these issues strike a chord with you, I have a few suggestions.

For Part 2 of this article check back in a couple days!

I wish you the very best for a wonderful and happy New Year of 2009!

Health Maintenance weight loss

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

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