With summer right around the corner, who doesn’t want to shed a few of the winter pounds? What would you think of the following 3 tips:
1) Replace 2 meals a day with CNC protein shakes or bars
2) Make sure you are accountable to your dietitian
3) Find more minutes to be active
A medical study published in Obesity highlights one of the most important but often forgotten ways. The study is publishing early data from the Look AHEAD study. This is an 11.5 year study on diabetics being done in this country, with 5,145 enrollees. It is giving us a really great look in to how valuable weight management is in the treatment of type 2 diabetes. An individual with diabetes has a much more difficult time losing weight. So, if they can do it, you can do it!
The study set a goal of helping the diabetics lose weight to see if it improved the control of their diabetes. There are 2 groups – the standard care group, and the intensive lifestyle intervention (ILI) group. This group has weekly sessions for behavior modification, exercise instruction, meal replacements, etc. Because there are so many people enrolled, the study is generating data we have not been able to generate before. This particular study shows data from just the first year.
Check out the following graphs:
What can we learn from all this?
I think there are a few important take-home points that we can use right now to get on track with weight loss! First, the average dieter underestimates the amount of calories consumed by 40-60%. While you may do better than this, on average, it is very hard to estimate our caloric intake. Replacing 1 or 2 meals a day with a high quality fixed calorie meal replacement is a terrific easy way to get the calories down to a level where weight loss becomes possible. Think about it – if we replace 2 meals a day with CNC’s protein supplements (100 calories) or protein bars (around 150 calories), imagine the calorie savings compared to prepared or restaurant meals. The first graph shows pretty clearly how important meal replacement is not only for weight loss but for long term weight control. It is these data that prompted me to establish our online store so that our patients could have easy access to meal replacements for weight loss and long-term weight control. Many of our most successful patients report that their long-term success really involves around a daily routing that includes our foods.
Second, clearly accountability is important. Note in the second graph the improvement in weight loss was directly proportional to attending office visits. It seems that every other week (for the year) was associated with the most weight loss. So, be sure to do your food journal and check in with your registered dietitian!
Third, note the improvement in weight loss with increasing minutes of activity. This is regardless of the activity! Minutes matter most. So, try and find creative ways to get moving this spring!
Pick your weapon and get the pounds off. Pick 2 or 3 weapons and take off even more. Using all 3, it is not unusual to take off 10 pounds or more per month! But, if I was going to try the quickest, easiest, least expensive, I’d start with meal replacements.
Have a great Spring, and start getting ready for summer now!
