Fit Communications

In the past 18 months I’ve read probably two dozen books related to nutrition and fitness–including library copies of most of the popular diet books. (Why buy them? Most are unscientific attempts to make the reader believe that she holds in her hand the one key to weight loss.)

In any case, in the better books I’ve often come across references to the National Weight Control Registry. Here’s how the NWCR website describes the entity:

One of the most popular myths about weight loss is that everyone who loses weight will eventually gain it back. The National Weight Control Registry is a research study which has exploded this myth and shown that successful weight loss is indeed possible. Developed by Rena Wing, PhD, at Lifespan, Brown University and the University of Pittsburgh, and James Hill, PhD, at the University of Colorado, the National Weight Control Registry has identified more than 4,000 individuals who have lost significant amounts of weight and kept it off for long periods of time.

In practical terms, that means a loss of 30 pounds or more that’s been maintained for at least one year.

The home page offers links to research, success stories, and links to other worthy sites. When I have time, I’ll investigate more thoroughly.

From what I’ve seen, though, the registry’s successful losers are predominantly those who exercised while dieting to lose their avoirdupois and who continue to exercise regularly. Those who do not exercise regularly are rarely able to maintain a lower body weight.

As one of Mary’s maxims puts it, exercise is nonnegotiable.

Much commentary has greeted the fed’s newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans. What intrigues me is the response that the new recommendations for physical activity are “unrealistic.”

Here are the recommendations, taken directly from the executive summary:

Engage in regular physical activity and reduce sedentary activities to promote health, psychological well-being, and a healthy body weight.

To reduce the risk of chronic disease in adulthood: Engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity, above usual activity, at work or home on most days of the week.

For most people, greater health benefits can be obtained by engaging in physical activity of more vigorous intensity or longer duration.

To help manage body weight and prevent gradual, unhealthy body weight gain in adulthood: Engage in approximately 60 minutes of moderate- to vigorous-intensity activity on most days of the week while not exceeding caloric intake requirements.

To sustain weight loss in adulthood: Participate in at least 60 to 90 minutes of daily moderate-intensity physical activity while not exceeding caloric intake requirements. Some people may need to consult with a healthcare provider before participating in this level of activity.

Achieve physical fitness by including cardiovascular conditioning, stretching exercises for flexibility, and resistance exercises or calisthenics for muscle strength and endurance.

Some people are riled up at the idea that managing body weight might take an hour to 90 minutes of physical activity four to six days a week.

I have several responses, first of all that the guidelines weren’t constructed for convenience’ sake. Their point is to explain what it will take to achieve or maintain optimal health. They wouldn’t be worth much if scientists got together, figured out what people wanted to hear, and then fed it back to them.

Certainly some people don’t have 60 to 90 minutes to spare on an average day, particularly people with heavy responsibilities for others–small children, dependents with disabilities, etc.

But if it’s true that the average American spends a couple of hours with television each day, it follows that the average American does have the time. Certainly other factors may get in the way–e.g., unsafe neighborhoods unsuitable for walking, lack of money for gym memberships, and so on.

To me it makes sense to take the recommendations in the spirit in which they were given: they’re recommendations. They’re outlining what we need to do to help make up for all the physical labor we no longer do in the course of our day (plowing, churning butter, scrubbing floors by hand, chopping wood, carrying water, washing dishes, walking to school or to church or to the store).

They’re a challenge. And challenge, to quote our incarcerated cultural icon Martha Stewart, is a good thing.

Did I say last week that the body-pump class didn’t make me sweat or raise my heart rate?

I used a bit more weight today and did indeed sweat and feel an increased heart rate. Used more weight for the upper-body movements that were so easy last week, and the cumulative effect of all those reps, despite the relatively light weights, had the effect of whipping my butt. In a good way.

I think I like this class.

It reveals my weaknesses (not as much leg strength as I thought I had, not as much ab strength), which is a good thing. I doubt any female in the class today could bench as much as I can or do as many pullups, though many were whipping out pushups from the toes at a great rate while I stayed on my knees. All this is good for my humility, and I do love a challenge.

In other news: a regular reader reports a 13.5-pound weight loss after faithfully following the South Beach diet for a couple of months. As diets go, South Beach is sensible, although it gets tarred with the low-carb brush. It’s really not low-carb; instead, it emphasizes healthy carbs such as fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. I can’t find much wrong with that.

Best of all, any healthy food plan such as South Beach can teach 1) portion control and 2) superior food choices, both of which are essential for weight maintenance.

You go, Toni!

It’s my workout partner’s birthday today, so I wanted to post this brief tribute.

I’ve had numerous workout partners in the 20 years (off and on) that I’ve been training. It’s always great to have a buddy, of course, but people’s level of motivation varies.

Of all the workout buddies I’ve had, Anne is the best: the hardest-working, the most diligent at showing up at the gym, the most concerned with proper form, and the most tolerant of my pontifications.

Possessed of a great store of knowledge from her days as an occupational therapist, Anne is nevertheless always receptive to my suggestions (which sometimes sound a lot like nagging). She wants to be the best she can be, and I have tremendous respect for that–and for her.

On a personal level, she’s the best kind of friend a person could have: caring, honest, forgiving, brainy, eager to learn, and a heck of a lot of fun.

So here’s you, Anne. Happy birthday, buddy.

Here’s an Associated Press story published on MSNBC.com:

Cancer now top killer of Americans under 85
For the first time, cancer is killing more Americans under 85 than heart disease, health officials said Wednesday.

A quote from the story:

A third of all cancers are related to smoking, and another third are related to obesity, poor diets, and lack of exercise—all factors that also contribute to heart disease.

Here’s some progress to report toward one of my three-month goals (losing six pounds of fat while maintaining lean body mass [LBM]):

I’m about 40 percent of the way there, although progress has been slow, but my LBM is constant, which means none of the poundage lost has been muscle.

Why such a small poundage goal over a three-month period? Several reasons.

1. Slow, steady weight loss is more likely to be permanent weight loss.

2. The caloric restriction advised by most "sensible" weight-loss plans–a 500-calorie deficit per day–makes me feel as though I’m starving. I already eat a clean diet, so I’m not going to achieve calorie reduction by cutting out soda with sugar, butter on bread, desserts, chips, crackers, and fried foods. I don’t eat any of that stuff anyway.

3. I’d rather burn the calories through exercise.

4. I can afford to be patient, as my health is good and my body-mass index (BMI) below 25. (25 is considered overweight; 30, obese. Caveat: BMI doesn’t distinguish between muscle weight and fat weight, so a lean, densely muscled man or woman might well be over 25.)

That said, I do sometimes get frustrated with the pace of this process and the length of the plateaus.

I read an article not long ago that put things in perspective, though. The author said she had lost weight and although she hadn’t reached her goal, she hadn’t regained any of the weight over a period of a year. That might not seem significant, but the fact is, the vast majority of people who lose weight through dieting begin regaining it almost immediately. Not regaining is a major victory.

Some small steps that I think have helped me get off the latest plateau:

1. Replacing the coffee cream I used to buy (my one dietary vice: coffee with lots of creamy stuff) with a low-fat version. No, it doesn’t taste as good, but indulging my tastebuds was costing me quite a few calories.

2. Replacing a higher-fat protein shake with a non-fat one. That probably saves me 200 calories a day, as I tend to grab a canned protein drink when I need something to eat but don’t have time to cook a chicken breast.

3. Eating more fruits and vegetables. They’re low in calories, and they satisfy.

Enough navel-gazing for now. Let’s see how long it takes to get the next 3.6 pounds off.

From MSNBC.com:

Can you stay thin by sleeping more?
A study published Monday found that people who sleep less tend to be fat, and experts said it’s time find if more sleep will fight obesity.

I’m reading Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World by Greg Critser and loving every minute.

I’ll post a more detailed review when I’ve finished. In the meantime, this book is a compelling rebuttal to the rather puritan notion that the overweight have no one but themselves to blame. Of course, we ultimately control what we eat and how much exercise we get. The problem with the simplistic individual-responsibility theory is that it fails to account for the effect of our environment and the cultural, commercial, and political forces that affect what we eat, where and when we eat it, and why.

The point is not to suggest that we aren’t responsible and should passively accept obesity and ill-health. The point is to uncover the factors that encourage obesity (e.g., lack of PE classes in schools; entrance of high-fat fast foods into school cafeterias; lack of parental time to cook; unsafe neighborhoods that encourage poorer parents to keep their kids inside watching TV rather than playing in the mean streets; agricultural policy that has encouraged the marketing of cheap, starchy snacks; reluctance on the part of health educators to stress the importance of restraint).

I find all of this fascinating. Also enlightening (but less entertaining) is Food Fight: The Inside Story of the Food Industry, America’s Obesity Crisis, and What We Can Do About It by Kelly Brownell. This more scholarly volume presents much of the same information and in addition makes numerous recommendations that could help families, community groups, and government tip the scales (so to speak) in the other direction.

Twice each decade the fed releases updated dietary guidelines for Americans. A lot of science–and unfortunately a lot of politicking–usually goes into this joint effort between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services. But this year’s effort, released Jan. 12, looks pretty good.

Get ready to start packing in the plant food: the new recommendation is nine, count ’em, nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily. That sounds huge but apparently boils down to two cups of fruit (four servings) and two and a half cups of vegetables (five servings) per day.

I haven’t read the entire document but am working my way through now.

If you’re interested, visit the dietary guidelines page, from which you can read the entire document or executive summary or download either document in pdf form.