Why You Should Never Lose More Than A Pound a Week at Catch a Gideon

January 28th, 2007 by digerati

In my experience the best way to make positive changes in your health is to make them very gradually. I’ve certainly done this, and I’d bet most of you have too: you read about a new diet, or get a new fitness machine, or realize it’s almost time to lay on the beach all summer again…and you immediately make a huge effort to lose weight you’ve been putting on for months.

Problem is it doesn’t work. (Yes, I too can eat apples and yogurt for a week and lose 10 pounds, but I wouldn’t recommend it.) Research indicates that losing more than a half pound of weight per week results in regaining the weight later. The reason is simple, and anyone who runs or does other high calorie burning workouts knows this.

If you run for an hour and burn say 600 calories, but eat exactly the same amount of food you did the day before (when you didn’t run) you will be very hungry later that day or possibly the next. This is your body indicating that you are relying on fat reserves for your energy. Back when we roamed around searching for food all day this was important; it meant we were not eating enough, a potentially fatal condition.

The same problem occurs when you start a new diet or start a exercise regimen at a vigorous level. You are creating a large calorie deficit that your body is telling you to fix, e.g. eat more to make up for the loss. Traditional diets focus on eating fewer calories (the right goal), but I’ve seen few that suggest working your way into it. Instead, dieters will take the meal choices of the diet without thinking much about it. They either don’t get enough food that way, or they cheat themselves by eating more than the suggested portions of the diet meals (essentially eating the same amount as before).

A scant few diets (South Beach is one) gradually acclimate dieters to the new “lifestyle.” These are the diets to look at if you want to go that route. Instead of immediately cutting out carbs, the South Beach people tell you to transition through 3 phases of changing your eating. Thus, the carb count is gradually reduced over a number of weeks so that you don’t suddenly miss it and crash on the 8th day of the diet.

Thankfully, gradual calorie reduction (slash gradual exercise increase) are the easiest way to go. Cutting just 250 calories per day will cause you to lose the desired half pound per week. Those more dedicated can also add 250 calories of exercise and lose a full pound per week. Here are some ideas to help you start out:

Use smaller places; buy them if you have to. In the 1950s the average dinner plate spanned 8 inches. Today most are 10 inches, and many are 11 or 12. The book Mindless Eating covers many tricks like these to trick yourself into eating less. Other suggestions include waiting between courses, giving yourself 80% of what you think you will need to full yourself up (and waiting 20 minutes to get more).
Stop drinking soda. A soda contains hundreds of empty calories. Reduce gradually down to one soda per day, or buy the smaller 8 oz bottles instead. The act of opening another bottle will likely deter you from doing so. Diet sodas are better (calorie wise), but can still cause bone decay and other problems in the long run.
Walk as much as possible. Steven Lamm’s book Hardness Factor discusses gradually upping your number of steps to 10,000 per day (about 5 miles). One easy way is to take the stairs. Start off taking them down if you are not in shape, but anything under 10 floors in walkable. If you are in a large office tower, get off a few floors away and walk the last few (preferably up). Also take walks at lunch, maybe find some good lunch spots a few blocks away instead of next door. A walk around the office for 5 minutes can help increase concentration and reduce stress.