So how does exercise relate to weight loss? Well we know that to lose weight you need to take in fewer calories as food than you burn through exercise and other activities. Exercise can help you burn more calories than without it, so weight loss should be helped by increased activity. While that’s true, it’s a bit more complex than that with real implications for losing weight. Before we discuss that we need to better understand some concepts that a discussion of exercise and prevention can best illustrate.

Beyond its effect on weight loss, one of the major benefits of exercise is in prevention. A recent study (1) in women underscores these key relationships. This study built upon the large Nurses’ Health Study. This study looked at data on over 88,000 women ages 39 to 59 from 1980 through 2000. None of these women had heart disease or cancer when the study began. Over the 20 years of the study, the women reported their diet, physical activity level and waist circumference every 2 years. The results found that women who were inactive and obese had nearly 3.5 times the risk of having coronary heart disease than those who were active and lean. The lead researcher, Dr. Frank B. Hu, noted, “A high level of physical activity did not eliminate the risk of coronary heart disease with obesity, and leanness did not counteract the increased coronary heart disease risk associated with inactivity.”

In the next post I’ll talk about some recommendations for exercise in healthy adults.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Footnotes: (1) Circulation. 2006;113:499-506

In an earlier post, Obesity & Health, I included this formula:

Formula For Weight Loss: Calories Out (Activity) > Calories In (Food Eaten)

In earlier posts we talked about the Nutrition side of this equation.  Now we’ll consider the activity part.  It makes sense that increasing your activity level can help you lose weight since you burn more calories.  Incorporating an exercise plan in your daily routine consists of making behavior changes and should be approached in the same way.

• Choose an activity that you’d like to try.  A tool for determining Activity Calories on my website InsightsForHealth.com can help you learn how many calories you can burn with different activities.
• Decide on your exercise goals and when you intend to reach them.  Goals:
  • Time of day you’ll exercise
  • Duration of each exercise session
  • How often you’ll exercise.
  • Identify the date you will begin to exercise.
  • Identify possible obstacles to starting your exercise program and ways to overcome them.
  • If there is any question about the safety of your proposed exercise program due to your age or health status, check with your physician before you begin.

I’ll talk more about your exercise plan in upcoming posts.  They will cover the following topics as you get ready to introduce an exercise program into your routine:

1. Making Your Exercise Plan
2. Benefits of Exercise
3. Recent Recommendations for Healthy Adults
4. Those Older Than 65 Or with Chronic Conditions
5. Risks of Exercise
6. Back to Exercise And Weight Loss
7. Points to Remember About Starting Your Exercise Plan

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Just How Much Is A Serving?

The key to healthy eating is learning the size of a serving for each of the foods you eat and eating the recommended amounts each day. This next table gives you some examples for each Food Group.

So, if you are planning to have 4 servings of fruit today, you can attain that by eating 1.25 cups of dried fruit.  Since a serving of lean meat, poultry or fish is 3 ounces, you should eat no more than 6 ounces a day of any of them if your healthy meal plan is 2000 total calories a day.

 Portion vs. Serving

These terms are often used interchangeably, but I tend to use “portion” to refer to the amount of a Food Group that is served for a specific meal, and serving refers to the amount appropriate for the day.  So, the 6 oz. of meat for the day is the daily serving that can be eaten in one 6 oz. portion at dinner, two 3 oz. portions at lunch and dinner, three 2 oz. portions at breakfast, lunch and dinner or some other combination.  Most of us in the United States do not think in terms of these daily serving sizes or meal portion sizes.  Thanks to our experience eating out, we typically over-estimate what a portion should be.  Taking the time to weigh and measure your food until you can better judge the quantity you’re eating is an important step to eating healthy.

 What do you think?  Tell us about your experiences with portion control.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

The Food Pyramid

Until recently, the National Institute of Health (NIH) had talked about a practical system to help Americans eat healthier which they called the Food Pyramid. They divided foods into six Food Groups and recommended the number of daily servings for each of the Food Groups. The macronutrients we described in previous posts, Carbohydrates, Fats & Proteins, are contained within these Food Groups. The following table was taken from the NIH website. It tells you how many servings of a specific Food Group you should eat per day.  The Food Pyramid approach has been replaced by the MyPlate concept which is explained below.

ChooseMyPlate.gov

Recently the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) replaced the Food Pyramid system with this easier approach to help people more easily focus on these tips for healthy eating:

• Make half your plate fruits and vegetables
• Make at least half your grains whole grains
• Switch to fat-free or low-fat (1%) milk
• Enjoy your food, but eat less
• Avoid over-sized portions
• Drink water instead of sugary drinks

While this is helpful, many people want to know from a nutritional viewpoint how large is a serving of a specific food.  That’s what I’ll cover in the next post.  Check out the Learning Center at www.InsightsForHealth.com for more information.  Meanwhile, please leave any comments for discussion.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

Last time I wrote about Carbohydrates.  Today, I want to share some basic nutritional information about Fats & Proteins.

Fats are made up of glycerol and fatty acids and due to this complexity, take the longest time to release their energy. Since they hold the most energy per gram of any other macronutrient, the body stores most of its excess energy as fat. In addition, fats are important components of the walls of cells and other structures of the body.

Fats are classified by the degree of “saturation” of their chemical bonds. Those likely to raise levels of the bad cholesterol, LDL, are the saturated and trans fats. Therefore, you should try to eat more monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats and avoid trans-fats and saturated fats.

Proteins are made up of chains of amino acids and are literally the building blocks of the body and form the enzymes & hormones that control its chemical reactions. Proteins are found in meat, poultry, fish, meat substitutes, cheese, milk, legumes, nuts and in smaller quantities in starchy foods and vegetables. The body breaks proteins down into their amino acids to reuse them. The body can make most of the amino acids it needs from other substances, but there are some, the essential amino acids, that it must get from food. All the necessary essential amino acids can be obtained from meat protein. However, not all the essential amino acids can be found in plant protein. When a person increases their amount of exercise it is important that they have enough protein to build muscle and prevent its breakdown. Many people ordinarily eat inadequate amounts of protein, so they either need to eat more protein-rich foods or take protein supplements.

In the next post I’ll talk about portion size.  By the way, this information and more can be found at the Learning Center on www.InsightsForHealth.com.  Check it out sometime.  Meanwhile, please leave your comments.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob