I call it the “nickel and dime” approach to losing weight.
As anyone who has ever looked under their couch cushions for loose coins knows, small change can add up. And when it comes to losing weight, small changes can also make a big difference. In fact slow and steady is the best way to sustain weight loss.
Thing is, many dieters unsuccessfully attempt a major makeover of their eating habits, giving up all pleasurable foods or starving themselves to reduce their calorie intake – and their waistline. Those strategies, however, are generally not ones people are able to stick with for a long time. So more often than not, the diet ends and the weight slowly (or not so slowly) comes back on, and the health benefits gained from weight loss slip away.
My “radical” suggestion is to consider something not at all radical: Making small, simple changes for life. Not only are they the easiest to attempt, they are also often the most successful.
I talked to my patients frequently about this approach in my 30 years of medical practice and even included a number of suggestions in a book I wrote about weight loss. But here, I thought I’d share a “CliffsNotes” version on how to eat what you really like and lose weight, too.
No, this isn’t one of those “sounds too good to be true” meal plans like “the Chocolate Diet” or the “7 Day All You Can Eat Diet.” The guiding principle is eat what you’re eating now, just eat a little bit less of it.
So how does that work? It’s simple math. If you eat 100 fewer calories per day, you’ll keep an extra 10 pounds off your body every year.
Like to eat a sandwich for lunch? If you simply remove one of the slices of bread and squish the sandwich together, you’ll have trimmed 80 calories from your daily diet, and about 8 pounds over the course of a year. I call these pounds “year-pounds.” Divide the calories by 10 and that’s how many pounds you will avoid in one year if you remove those calories from your normal eating plan.
A can of soda containing 140 calories represents 14 year-pounds. Two ounces of chocolate will set you back 28 pounds if you eat them every day for a year.
How else can you make small changes that add up?
- Know your foods. If you read labels, you can save pounds. Calorically, a bagel (without cream cheese, no less) is worse than a donut. No one will argue that a donut is nutritious or healthy, but if you’re only focusing on your weight, a donut is a better choice. And in fact generally if you lose weight you will be healthier regardless. The best is to eat good food, just less of it. But that is too big a step for many people who have failed at weight loss before. So, just start simply with less food, of any kind. Remember that every bite counts. If a food item is literally “to die for”, something you’re not willing to pass up, help yourself – just don’t finish it all. Two bites of a burger left behind on a daily basis saves 20 to 25 pounds in two years.
- Make simple substitutions. If you don’t have your heart set on granola, go with oatmeal. You’ll save yourself 125 calories in a half-cup serving (12.5 pounds per year).
- Do your homework. Reading articles like Prevention magazine’s “100 Ways to Cut 100 Calories” may be helpful.
Our country is currently experiencing an obesity epidemic, which sets people up for high blood pressure, osteoarthritis, type 2 diabetes, coronary artery disease and stroke. If you carry a genetic predisposition to some such conditions, excess weight can increase your risk even further. Being overweight can even increase your risk of developing some cancers.
Skipping the milkshake while still enjoying your daily super-sized fast food meals probably will not transform you into a size 6, but it is a big step in the right direction (26 or so pounds over a year). So remember, when you are reaching for something to eat, small changes really do make a big difference.