I Need Your Help

In designing a weight loss program, building in motivating factors and supportive tools is especially important.  If you are currently struggling with or have ever struggled with your weight, I’d like your opinion.  Please fill out the following brief survey to help prioritize the key drivers that would motivate & help you to adopt healthier nutrition and exercise behaviors that will lead to a healthier weight.

Survey Instructions:  For each of the following 6 potential components of a Weight Loss Program, please rank their importance to you on a scale from 1 to 5 where 1 indicates Least Important & 5 indicates Most Important.

What Do You Need To Lose Weight?

The strongest motivation is internal.  That drive comes from within yourself.  Unless you want to make the necessary changes in your eating and exercise habits, they won’t happen!  But sometimes, despite that strength from within, you need a little push, or pull, from outside of yourself.  You know how it is – you planned to start exercising last Thursday, but something came up so you’ll plan to start it next week or so.  For most of us, it’s all too easy to let things slip.  That’s why external motivation almost always plays a role in a successful weight loss program.

Here are some external sources of motivation that seem to work:

• Identify a support person before you start and share with them your plan and a firm start date. Give them permission to nag you if need be.
• If possible, join others trying to lose weight to encourage each other and track your individual progress.
• If available, consider joining a weight loss competition where you can win prizes based upon your weight loss success.
• Put some “skin in the game.” Some competitions require an entry fee.  You could also buy some new clothes in your target size based upon your goal weight.  You’ll be so proud of yourself when you reach your weight goal and can wear them comfortably!

What are some other sources of motivation that you’ve used?  Share them in a comment.

For Your Health! – Dr. Bob

As with many medical conditions & risk factors, obesity seems to have a genetic basis.  Many individuals look at their family and say that since they come from a family that is “big-boned” or that have “more fat cells” being obese is “normal” for them.  While it may be their genetic tendency, it doesn’t make it any less of a problem from a health standpoint.  Family history is a risk factor for obesity, but it does not make obesity any less a risk factor for diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.   It is important to understand this point.  If you understand the additional risk and are willing to take that risk, by all means, live your life as you please at whatever weight you prefer.  Just don’t be deluded into thinking that with a family history of obesity, you have no additional health risk if you yourself are overweight or obese.

Also consider that if you want to maintain your size, there are other risk factors that you can lower to minimize your health risks.  For example, focus on your activity level to lower your heart disease risk.  Increase your activity to at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week.  Not only that, those 30 minutes don’t have to be done all at once.  As long as you do at least 10 minutes at a session and those sessions total at least 30 minutes, you’ll get the same benefit as if you exercised 30 minutes all at once.  Of course, if you stay overweight or obese, you still have an added risk due to that, but you may be able to lower your overall risk a bit in other ways.  Talk with your doctor about it.  It’s your body & your decision.

What do you think?  Share your thoughts!

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

In the last post I talked about how the percentage of children who are overweight or obese is increasing in the United States and how school furniture now comes in larger sizes.  We also hear stories about an increase in bullying in our schools and overweight children, among other groups of children who are considered different, often experience the pain of being teased and embarrassed.  At a vulnerable time they become the center of unwanted and hateful attention. Meanwhile, health professionals are also concerned about their size, but from the perspective of higher risk to their health.

An important message for everyone, but especially children & teenagers, is to be happy about who you are inside and out.  That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to improve yourself where you see an opportunity, but it’s important to do it for the right reasons.  You should love yourself for who you are and who you will be!  From my perspective, the main reason to try to slim down to a more normal weight and BMI is to lower your health risks.  Our children need to always know we are on their side!

Please share your thoughts.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob

This is wrong.  There are many studies that show that people who have a higher BMI are at risk for serious illnesses.  For instance, the higher the BMI,  the greater the risk of a heart attack.  Most importantly, the reverse is true.  If you decrease your BMI you decrease your risk of stroke and heart attack.   Another study in women shows that women with a BMI over 29 have a 3.3 times greater chance of a fatal or non-fatal heart attack within the next eight years than women with a BMI less than 21.  BMI values between 18.5 and 24.9 are considered normal.  These results were adjusted for age and smoking status, meaning that comparisons were made between women of the same age and smoking status so any differences in heart attack risk could not be attributed to either of those factors. 

Insights For Health Bottom Line: A high BMI increases your health risks for many serious medical conditions, but other factors can also affect those risks.  BMI is a modifiable risk factor – something you can do something about to lower your risks.

Next time we’ll consider the myth that for some people a high BMI is normal.

For Your Health – Dr. Bob