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Sharing a weight loss/maintenance strategy
By Dr. Zulfikar Bux
It’s the beginning of a new year and we all have goals which we would like to achieve during the year. My personal
Dr Zulfikar Bux
goal is to shed a few pounds that I have accumulated over the past year. It is important that we keep our weight in check, since it is an essential predictor of length of life.
Everyone is different and will therefore lose weight differently. Given the same plan, some persons may be able to lose more weight than others. But having a healthy weight loss/ weight maintenance plan and sticking to it should help you to keep your body in check. I therefore wish to share my personal plan, with the hope that I’ll be able to maintain the discipline to upkeep it and at least someone else can benefit from it.
EAT LIGHTER AS THE DAY PROGRESSES
Our body is prepared in the morning for a hefty meal. Our metabolism is at its highest in the morning and slows down as the day progresses. We should therefore eat to suit our metabolism and our heaviest meal should obviously be in the morning and our dinner should be the lightest. If we eat a heavy and late dinner (which is usually my case because it’s when I have more time) then our body will just store excess food as fat. Our dinner should be at least three hours before bedtime so that we give our body enough time to process and utilize the food that we ate.
EAT SMALLER AMOUNTS MORE OFTEN
Eating three large meals tends to overwhelm our body, and it affects the proper metabolism of foods. This causes surges in blood glucose levels and makes us feel tired and often want to sleep. Having five smaller divided meals will prevent our body from being overwhelmed and improves our metabolism. This ultimately helps with the weight loss and maintenance process.
MINIMIZE THE BAD CARBOHYDRATES
Proteins: your building blocks.
Our body needs carbohydrates for energy. Having too many carbohydrates in a meal; such as a plate full of rice or more roti than curry will let our body convert these excess carbohydrates to fats for storage. Foods rich in carbohydrates such as sweet foods, rice, cake, potato products, ice cream, bread etc. play a role in our diet, but should be kept to a minimum. Carbohydrate foods high in fibre are not readily absorbed and are therefore healthy for us. So using carbohydrate foods such as vegetables, some fruits (banana, orange, apple, dates etc.), whole wheat bread and flour, grains and oats etc., will help to make us feel full, but prevent excess food absorption.
USE MORE PROTEIN RICH FOODS
Foods rich in proteins are healthy for us, since proteins help to maintain our muscle structure and lessen fat storage. Proteins are responsible for the toned and well-formed body physique of fit persons. Therefore it is important to ensure we eat protein-containing foods in our diet. Examples of protein-healthy foods are: eggs, white-meat poultry, yogurt, lean beef, seafood, beans etc. Having these foods among others as part of our meals should help us to maintain muscle structure that is important in having that lean physique.
So far we have focused mostly on what we eat. Next week we will conclude the plan with other factors that are vital in the weight loss/maintenance process. It is important to focus on our diet if we want to maintain a healthy weight. There is a wise proverb which encapsulates this very efficiently; “we are what we eat”.
(Dr Zulfikar Bux is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at the Vanderbilt University and Medical Center and holds the position of Head of the Georgetown Public Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department.)
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