Spirituality and Weight-Loss Success

People of faith can take heart in this news: Adding an element of spirituality to your weight-loss program can help you shed the pounds.

Spirituality and Weight Loss: The Connection

Research has shown that faith-based weight-loss programs are more successful for some people than diets that do not have a spirituality component. In fact, a recent study of a 12-week faith-based weight-loss program showed that a majority of overweight participants lost at least 5 percent of their body weight and kept if off through the six-month follow-up period.

Experts say faith-based weight-loss programs work for several reasons:

• People hold their faith leaders in high regard and trust programs that they recommend.
• Providing a weight-loss program at a place where people often gather makes weight-loss education convenient.
• Scriptural messages that advocate weight loss and healthy lifestyles provide an added incentive to succeed.

Spirituality and Weight Loss: Helping the Whole Person

Gail Curtis, assistant professor at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in Winston-Salem, N.C., has worked for many years to help morbidly obese clients lose weight. Her patients always knew about the importance of diet and exercise, she says, but they still struggled to achieve their goals. Often, her clients had areas of personal need in their lives that were not being met by anything other than food.

“What was it that got in the way of them being able to achieve their weight-loss goals in their lives? We looked at it with health being the center of the web and the spokes being your environment — your nutrition, your exercise, your work environment, your spirituality,” explains Curtis. “Programs that have a spirituality component may be trying to fill in that spiritual need and looking at the stress part of the equation.”

There is a lot of truth to this argument, says cardiologist Sunita Dodani, MD, director of the Center for Outcome Research and Education, and associate professor, department of internal medicine, School of Medicine at Kansas University Medical Center in Kansas City.

Spirituality and Weight Loss: Faith-Based Results

Dr. Dodani and colleagues recently tested a faith-based modification of the national diabetes prevention program called Fit Body and Soul. Each week’s educational program was paired with scripture that supported the health message, explains Dodani.

The team recruited 35 overweight adults to participate in the study. At the end of 12 weeks, 46 percent had lost 5 percent of their body weight and 26 percent had lost 7 percent.

“A woman who lost 40 pounds told me that she had always had a hard time understanding why it was important for her to try to lose weight, but when she learned that Jesus said it was important to have a healthy body so you can help other people, that made the difference for her,” Dodani says.

An earlier 12-week study of 52 African-American women in Chicago compared weight-loss results from a secular, culturally sensitive weight-loss program with one that incorporated Christian faith and found that women in the faith-based program lost two pounds more than their peers.

Spirituality and Weight Loss: Future Research

Currently there is minimal research on the success of faith-based weight-loss programs, especially for those not linked to a specific religion and spiritual belief. Dodani is planning a larger, five-year study to test Fit Body and Soul in 10 churches. She will soon be developing a version of the program oriented toward children, and hopes to develop a similar program that will reach Southeast Asians through Hindu temples.

Simply praying for the weight to drop off won't work, but incorporating spirituality into your weight-loss program may yield results.

Smart Snacks for Weight Loss

Snacks have earned a bad reputation in recent years with the growing acknowledgment of a link between mindless snacking and excess weight. But this doesn’t mean snacks are the enemy of calorie counting; in fact, if you are strategic, snacks can help you lose weight or maintain a healthy weight.

Calorie Counting: Curbing Hunger With Snacks

Whether you have a lot of weight to lose or just a little, scheduling snacks is helpful when hunger strikes. Of course, your snack calories have to be included in your overall calorie plan. If you were to eat an additional 100 calories per day as a snack, that could add up to one pound over the course of a month.

On the other hand, strategic snacking that is included within your daily calorie counting helps control hunger and keeps you on track with your weight-loss goals, says Gail Curtis, assistant professor, at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in Winston-Salem, N.C. Curtis is the former director of the university weight-management program for people with a BMI of 27 and higher and continues to work with people who are trying to lose 100 or more pounds.

Here are many options for making snacks a satisfying and nutritionally smart part of counting calories; for variety, try a different idea each day:

• Prepare snacks for when you’re on the run. “If you travel a lot or are on the go, we talk about having ‘car foods’ — good 100-calorie snacks in your car, because if you get hungry and have something healthy available, you’re going to eat it,” says Curtis. You can buy 100-calorie snack packs to keep on hand or save money by making your own. For example, 100 calories equals about 2 tablespoons of hummus and 14 baby carrots, one medium apple, or three wheat crackers with peanut butter.
• Squelch hunger with protein-rich snacks. “When snacking, one thing that is helpful is to include a little bit of protein,” says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at the Houston Northwest Medical Center in Houston, Texas. “Cheese and crackers, string cheese, apple and peanut butter — the protein will take some of the edge off the hunger pain.”
• Use snack portions to satisfy a food urge. Depending on what you are craving, Banes recommends picking from among these yummy snacks:
• Low-calorie yogurt or frozen yogurt
• Sugar-free pudding with a graham cracker to dip
• Hummus and pita bread or veggies to dip
• A handful of pretzels
• A small square of dark chocolate
• Pick “water-based” snacks to give you more volume. The biggest bang for your calorie buck are foods with high water content because they will fill you up with fewer calories — fruits, vegetables, and soups are all filling, low-calorie options.
• Try snacks that boost your fiber intake. Dietitian Donna L. Weihofen, RD, MS, a nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinics in Madison, recommends high-fiber snack bars. “You have to read labels because some are really high in calories and fat," cautions Weihofen. She suggests whipping up your own high-fiber homemade bar cookies for snacks if possible.
• Use vending machine savvy. If you find yourself caught without snacks when unexpectedly working late, for example, you may come face-to-face with a vending machine. There are still good options for snacking in these circumstances. Says Banes, “Look for pretzels, cheese, or peanut butter and crackers. One of these would be a better option than the M&Ms or the Kit Kat.” Failing that, look for snacks that have more air, such as cheese puffs or popcorn. According to one study, people who eat snacks with more air in them end up eating about 20 percent fewer calories.

How to Lose Those Last 10 Pounds

Ten pounds is a magic number for many people. If you have a lot to lose, 10 pounds motivates you to keep counting calories and forge ahead. And at the end of a diet, 10 pounds is the golden path to the finish line.

There’s no big secret to losing 10 pounds, say experts. Success depends ultimately on burning more calories than you eat. It is possible to lose weight just by cutting down on calories or just by exercising, but the most effective and healthy way to lose weight is to do both.

How to Lose 10 Pounds

Here is a multi-step plan to help you reach your goal:

Step 1: Record what you eat. A detailed food journal is a great tool when you’re counting calories, but can be so much more. As you diet, look for patterns that show you ways to improve your plan. Review your journal for:

• Times when you crave food; make sure you have healthy, low-calorie snacks to reach for.
• Opportunities to replace fat — steam-cook food with water instead of in oil, try mustard on a sandwich instead of mayonnaise, and drizzle fat-free dressing on your salad.
• Serving sizes that are too large; scale back.
• High-calorie drinks, including soda, sweet tea, sweetened or flavored milks, sweetened coffees, alcohol, and juices; replace with water, low-fat milk, or sugar-free drinks.
• High-calorie additions to low-calorie foods — skip the cheese and nuts on salads and the butter on potatoes, for example.

Step 2: Pick a calorie-counting goal. “Definitely having a realistic weight goal makes good sense,” says dietitian Jenna Anding PhD, RD, department of nutrition and food science at the Texas A&M System at College Station. “Eliminating 500 calories a day can help promote a one-pound-per-week weight loss. Increasing physical activity can also help promote weight loss.”

Here’s what you need to know about counting calories:

• Aim to lose up to two pounds a week, or 1 percent of your total body weight if you are over 200 pounds.
• You can lose 10 pounds in less than 10 weeks if you cut out or burn more than 500 calories daily. The best way is to do both — cut down on calories and increase the amount you burn through exercise.
• Don’t eat less than 1,200 calories a day. Your body will detect a "starvation" state and will revert to storing calories instead of burning them.
• Use our online tool to help you count calories.

Step 3: Eat filling, low-calorie foods. Replacing high-calorie foods with lower-calorie, large-volume foods will keep you full longer:

• Increase the vegetables on your plate. “By changing your food so that you still like it but lowering the calorie density, you can trick yourself into feeling full on fewer calories,” explains Barbara Rolls, PhD, professor of nutritional sciences at Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Penn. Foods with a lot of water in them, such as vegetables, fruits, and soups, can help you lose weight (at least 2 pounds more per year than people who just follow a low-fat diet), says Rolls.
• Increase your use of veggies in mixed dishes like casseroles or stew.
• Start with soup. Starting your meal with a soup of less than 200 calories can reduce your calorie intake from the main course by 20 percent.
• Start with fruit. Eating a raw apple before a meal keeps you feeling full longer, and will cut down on your calorie consumption by about 15 percent.
• Get enough lean protein throughout the day.

Step 4: Exercise. The people most successful at losing weight and keeping it off find ways to exercise almost every day. You can burn 100 to 200 calories daily with 30 to 45 minutes of brisk walking, and you can break up that time into segments throughout the day if that’s easier for you.

You can lose 10 pounds at any time with dedicated effort, though it may feel easier at the beginning of a diet when you are more focused and energized. Your body also senses that you’ve lost weight and has a natural tendency to gain it back. By developing good nutritional and exercise habits early on, you’re more likely to lose those last 10 pounds and keep them off.

Real Men and Weight Loss

Men and women know they have different diet preferences. But when it comes to weight loss, finding a diet that works for men may seem more challenging than it actually is. Just because men tend to eat more meat and starches while women are more likely to eat more fruit doesn’t mean there cannot be a meeting of the minds.

Weight Loss for Men: Nutritional Requirements

While all adults are encouraged to eat more healthily and lose weight, diets for men differ from those for women in part because men can eat more calories and protein than women. A man’s diet allows 400 to 600 more calories per day than women who have comparable physical activity habits. Daily calorie requirements for men 31 to 50 years old are: 2,200 calories if sedentary, 2,400 to 2,600 if moderately active, and 2,800 to 3,000 calories if active.

Since protein requirements are based on body weight (you need about 0.36 grams per pound), the inclusion of more protein in a man’s diet “is because men tend to be larger than women,” explains dietitian Naomi Reyes, RD, of the Temple University Center for Obesity Research in Philadelphia. But, she adds, “We get plenty of protein here in the United States.”

Weight Loss for Men: What’s the Best Diet

Accepted wisdom is that since men like to eat a lot of meat, they should be on a low-carb diet. This is not necessarily the case — men do just as well with diets that emphasize eating a lot of low-fat, low-calorie foods, says Barbara Rolls, PhD, director of the Laboratory for the Study of Human Ingestive Behavior at Pennsylvania State University in University Park.

“We have done some clinical trials in men and women and they performed similarly — men like ‘Volumetrics’ (a diet plan that focuses on increasing the amount of low-calorie veggies in a diet) because they can eat so much food. I think men are particularly fearful of eating tiny portions,” explains Rolls. National recommendations state that men should eat about two cups of fruit and three cups of vegetables a day.

Recent research has shown that reducing calories is the key to weight loss, regardless of the type of diet you choose (low-carb, low-fat or Mediterranean). This is true for women and men. The key is finding healthy lifestyle changes a man will stick with so that he can succeed and keep the weight off.

Reyes says dieting may be easier for men than women once they decide to commit. “As far as the research goes there is not a lot that differentiates between men and women as far as success, but anecdotally I think that men have less of an emotional attachment to food. Women may feel more deprived if they have to cut out whole types of foods,” she explains.

Weight Loss for Men: Getting Your Man to Eat Better

Nagging won’t work, but providing your man with a tasty meal could do the trick, says dietitian Donna L. Weihofen, RD, MS, nutritionist at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics in Madison.

“My husband is now totally converted,” Weihofen says. “He is eating salmon so much more than red meat now. I mixed black beans with hamburger and he liked it better because it’s moister. I think if we are just a little bit more experimental with our food, and do it regularly, they will like healthy eating more.”

To introduce new low-calorie vegetables into your spouse’s diet, Rolls suggests choosing younger vegetables, which are less bitter, and adding a little bit of cheese or other flavoring to make vegetables tastier. Add more veggies overall by increasing the proportion of vegetables in mixed dishes such as soups, stews, and casseroles.

The upshot is that the differences between men and women in the weight-loss arena may be more perception than reality. Start cooking up some tasty low-fat, low-calorie meals and soon you may enjoy losing weight together

Filling Food to Speed Weight Loss

It's the dieter's worst enemy — that gnawing hunger when you're trying to eat less and lose weight.

But fighting off those feelings of hunger could be as simple as a walk to the nearest soup and salad bar for lunch. Here's how you can make food choices that will keep you feeling full and help prevent the hunger pangs that lead to diet-busting snacks or binges.

Food Strategies For Losing Weight

If you want to feel full all day on less food, focus on these eating strategies:

• Get enough lean protein and fiber. A study of 22 men who changed the amount of protein in their diets for 18-day periods showed that those who ate the least protein were the most likely to report being hungry. "Protein is the number one thing to help you feel full," says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at Houston Northwest Medical Center. "The second thing is fiber."
• Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Researchers tracked the weight-loss success of 71 obese women between 20 and 60 years of age on a low-fat diet. Half of the women were also told to increase their fruit and vegetable intake. At the end of one year, both groups of women had lost weight, but the women who ate the most fruits and veggies reported the greatest weight loss and were less likely to say they felt hungry on any given day. In fact, when the researchers crunched the data, they found that whether the women reported feeling hungry frequently predicted their ability to lose weight. Other studies have shown that changing your eating habits to focus on these water- and fiber-rich foods will help you maintain weight loss for up to six years.
• Sip soup. Adding two low-calorie soups to your diet every day could stave off hunger pangs and keep you satisfied longer. Choose soups that are broth-based, not cream-based, to reduce the calorie count; also look for soups that are low in sodium. Consider chunky, pureed vegetable soups, as they have been shown to produce the most lasting full feeling. Timing your soup so that you have it before a meal also reduces the amount you eat at that meal by about 20 percent, according to a study of 53 overweight adults.
• Eat whole grains. A serving of whole grains will stick with you longer than a serving of refined wheat bread or any other refined flour product, for that matter. Most refined flour is white and often bleached.
• Pick "airy" snacks. If you must snack and you don't have a piece of fruit or a veggie tray on hand, choose the snack food that has more air in it — think cheese puffs instead of potato chips, rice cakes instead of cookies. You will feel just as full as you would if you ate the same serving size of another snack, but you will consume fewer calories on average.

Another way to fight off hunger is to develop a "low-energy density" eating plan. This means that you can eat a large quantity of foods that do not have a high calorie count. Learning about portion sizes and counting calories is one way to approach this, but you can also try the plate method, which dictates that half your plate be full of veggies, one-quarter dedicated to a starch (preferably whole grain), and one-quarter to a lean protein.

And speaking of plates, it's worth noting that a study of 45 adults demonstrated that the oft-repeated advice to eat on a smaller plate if you want to feel like you have more food in front of you actually has no effect on the amount you eat at a meal (if you are serving yourself) or your feeling of being full.

So, if you prefer, you can go back to eating on your good china — just make sure to emphasize lean proteins, fruits, and veggies.

How Safe Is Quick Weight Loss?

Tempted by the fad diet that promises 15 or even 30 pounds of weight loss in the first month? While it would be lovely if excess weight could safely melt away (ideally before bikini season), quick weight loss is unlikely, and prolonged extreme weight loss is not safe.

Weight Loss: Understanding That First Drop

"We usually recommend about a half a pound to two pounds a week, which is a lot less than what these fad diets promise," says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at the Houston Northwest Medical Center.

Banes acknowledges that some people may experience quick weight loss in the early stages of a new diet, but says it is important to be realistic about what to expect over the long haul. "If you have a lot to lose and you start on a diet and lose more than two pounds a week, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but know it's going to slow down," warns Banes, adding that some of the initial weight loss probably is water weight.

Even Banes' patients who have had lap-band or gastric bypass surgery and lose weight dramatically at first will eventually slow down to what feels like a crawl, but is actually a healthy rate of weight loss. Banes says she would worry about a person's rate of weight loss if they continued to lose five to 10 pounds (or more) a week.

Weight Loss: Safe Strategies, Best Strategies

While not everyone, including Banes, focuses on counting calories, doing the math can help guide you to a safer weight loss. Generally, experts recommend trimming 500 to 1,000 calories from your daily intake by eating less and exercising more.

A pound is the equivalent of 3,500 calories, so if you can cut 500 calories each day for a week, you should lose one pound. Researchers who analyzed data from 1,801 Minnesota dieters over a two-year period found that the more strategies dieters used, the more likely they were to be successful in losing weight at this pace. Strategies that lead to success include:

• Counting calories
• Increasing daily exercise (aim for 150 minutes a week or more)
• Cutting out sweets and snacks
• Reducing fat intake to less than 30 percent
• Increasing fruit and vegetables
• Decreasing portion sizes

The researchers noted that one crucial piece of information lacking from many diet strategies: persistence. Their conclusions support the fact that even though it will take a long time at the pound-per-week pace — longer than many people would like — with a slower approach you are more likely to develop the long-term healthy habits that will help keep the lost weight off.

Weight Loss: When the Rate Becomes Dangerous

If extreme weight loss means you are not getting enough nutrients — the fats, carbohydrates, and proteins needed for your body to function properly — you have entered the territory of unsafe weight loss. You may also be developing an eating disorder focused on your obsession with weight. Some of the warning signs that you may be losing too much weight are:

• Thinning hair
• Frequently becoming sick
• Feeling cold more often than usual
• Having fewer or no menstrual cycles

Disappointing though it may be, the reality is that slow and steady wins the weight-loss race. Take it easy and be patient — you will achieve your goal and, more importantly, maintain it.

Losing Those Last 10 Pounds

If you have been working to lose weight for a long time, you know that almost nothing feels as good as realizing you are within the last 10 pounds of your goal. Yet for many, these pounds seem to be the hardest ones to lose — and keep off.

"The last 10 pounds make surprise exits and grand entrances into my life," says Charlene Gonzales, who chalks some of that up to just being a woman with hormones and cycles. "It doesn't bother me too much, because I know they will go away with a little extra effort."

Losing the Final 10 Pounds

"The closer you get to your goal weight, the more difficult things tend to be," says Emily Banes, RD, clinical dietitian at Houston Northwest Medical Center. "We focus on it a little bit more and we have the belief that it is more difficult to shed the pounds. A lot of times we've been dieting for a while."

Although you may be tempted to throw a little celebration when you arrive at this dieter's milestone, Banes says this is not the time to lie back and snack on bonbons.

"Really scrutinize what you eat — make sure you're not becoming lax on your dietary principles," she advises. This is the moment when stray calories (and pounds!) can sneak back into your diet, so it pays to be detail-oriented. "You have to look at what you eat, but also what you put out. Exercise is key."

Adds Houston-resident Charla Hodges, who lost and kept off those last 10 pounds, "Exercise and water, water, water."

Sticking to the Weight-Loss Program

Here are some tips for staying on track:

Write down what you eat. If you haven't been keeping a food journal to lose weight, this is the perfect time to start. People who write down the details of their diet and exercise habits are twice as successful than those who don't. (Don't forget portions and serving sizes!)

Look for little ways to save calories. Using mustard instead of mayonnaise or sugar-free sweetener instead of a packet of sugar will eventually add up to lost pounds.

Stick to the plate method. Banes advocates the plate method in which one-half of your plate should be vegetables, one-quarter a starch (whole grains preferred), and one-quarter lean protein. If you must go back for a second helping, only take vegetables.

Build exercise into your day. It's great if you can work out for 30 minutes or more, but try adding in more exercise where you can. Park slightly farther away from your destination to get more walking in; take the stairs instead of the elevator.

When you reach your weight-loss goal, you will want to celebrate, but Banes cautions that you must still be careful about how you do that. The last 10 pounds will come off if you work at it, and you will see that goal weight on the scale. But giving up your diet entirely will surely push up those pounds again. You now need to move into a new phase: learning how to maintain the healthy weight you worked so hard to achieve.