The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

Scientists say the more you sleep the less weight you put on. Now could this be the holy grail for those who want to avoid weight gain while eating junk food and getting no exercise? Sadly not, but it is well worth pursuing.

Research, carried out by Assistant Professor of Medicine Sanjay Patel and others at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, shows that women who slept 5 hours a night were 32 percent more likely to experience major weight gain and 15 percent more likely to become obese compared with women who slept 7 hours a night. Even sleeping 6 hours a night still produced a 12 percent increase in major weight gain and a 6 percent increase in obesity compared with women who slept 7 hours a night.

The study was over 16 years so it had a long timescale, but the trend was there.

What are the reasons. Of course some of us with simple minds would argue that those who slept for shorter periods had longer waking time in which to eat. But we are told that this, and exercise levels, were considered and the research still holds good. So it is more complicated than at first appears.

One answer is the hormones leptin and ghrelin which control how full and hungry you feel. When you do not get enough sleep this decreases leptin levels, which means you feel less satisfied after eating. Ghrelin levels rise and you want more food. Put the two together and you over-eat and gain weight.

Lack of sleep can cause a number of problems as well as weight gain. It can make it difficult for the body to metabolize carbohydrates, causing higher insulin levels and greater body fat storage. Insulin resistance can also occur increasing the risk of diabetes. Then we have possible increases in blood pressure and the risk of heart disease.

Not sleeping can cause more harm than just feeling tired in the morning. But if you have difficulty getting to sleep, rather than just a tendency to stay up too late, it does not help to be told that insomnia is bad for you. You know that already.

You can, of course, get sleeping pills from your doctor - you must decide if extra sleep is worth feeling terrible in the morning. Try setting up a routine. Half an hour’s walk before bedtime is good for your fitness program as well as unwinding after the stress of the day. Have a warm drink and read a book, . Never, ever, have a TV in the bedroom. You could try sleeping alone - okay, not every night, but it might work.

However you achieve it, if you are able to achieve it, 7 hour’s sleep is the best way of staying healthy and avoiding weight gain. You may not lose a pound a night, but it will help keep you slim long term and there are a lot of other benefits as well.

See you soon,

26 July 2010

Photo. Madrussianphotography (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, calorie counting, fattening foods, how to stop snacking, weight gain

Hello Everybody,

When we think of foods that cause weight gain we think of a full English breakfast, or a Big Xtra! with cheese. Eat a few of these and you will certainly get fat. But getting fat is not only the result of eating a lot of unhealthy food. It is also the result of the constant drip of high calorie snacks and light meals every day. You hardly notice what you are eating, but it adds up.

For example your day might be like this.

Breakfast. Coffee and toast. That is fine - always eat breakfast and this is a healthy meal. 308 calories.

Mid Morning. You are in town so you call into the coffee shop for a latte. The butter croissants look good, and you had a small breakfast, so you have one of those as well. 628 calories.

Lunch. You don’t have much time, grab a cheddar and pickle sandwich and a bottle of sparkling water. 538 calories.

Afternoon. Another latte and a healthy muesli bar to eat on the way home. 409 calories.

You have not eaten anything you might have considered particularly fattening. No bars of chocolate, no cream cakes, no pizzas. You have even tried not to eat junk food, but you have consumed 1883 calories and it didn’t seem much at all.

The recommended calorie intake varies with height, weight and sex. As a rough guide an average man needs 2550 calories a day and an average woman 1940 calories a day. Which means that an evening meal of any size can easily result in more calories being consumed than have been expended. Carry on like this long enough and you will get fat.

So let us try again.

Breakfast. Black coffee and toast. Not such a difference, but we now have consumed only 94 calories.

Mid Morning. Black coffee. You would still like a butter croissant? Have one - don’t worry about it. 295 calories.

Lunch. Salmon Nicoise salad and sparkling water. Not too easy to eat running for a bus, but it tastes better than a sandwich. 291 calories.

Afternoon. Black coffee and a banana. 149 calories.

So without doing anything dramatic you have dropped your calorie intake from 1883 calories to 829 calories. That gives room for your evening meal without thinking too much about what you must eat.

None of this is rocket science - but it does help to have some idea of how many calories are in your food. You can do this by reading the small print on labels or carrying out a Google search on foods you don’t know about. Beware of anything labelled as ‘Healthy’, it may have as many calories as other similar products.

Do not turn calorie counting into a way of life, just know what you are eating and then stop worrying about putting on weight.

See you soon,

16 July 2010

Photo. Keepps (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, calorie counting, fattening foods, how to stop snacking, weight gain

Hello Everybody,

Losing thigh fat is one of those targeting problems, like losing belly fat. It is not easy to achieve. Your thighs have big muscles and thigh exercises will tone the muscles but not get rid of the fat. What you need to do is lose weight overall and your thighs will slim down with the rest of you.

You should eat a healthy diet of fresh fruit, vegetables, salads, grains, lean meat and oily fish using whatever recipes you enjoy. You must also take exercise. To tone your thigh muscles a brisk half hour’s walk in the morning and another in the evening every day will soon start to show results. Take whatever opportunity you can find to exercise your legs. At home, or out shopping, climb the stairs. Two steps at a time if you can manage it.

This way you will lose weight and tone your thigh muscles at the same time. But make sure you do not lose weight too fast. Fast weight loss is losing more than two pounds a week. You can do it if you really have to slim quickly for an event. But I would not recommend it as a healthy long term option. As well as possible fatigue, cramps and muscle wastage there is another problem with losing weight fast.

When you lose body weight quickly you will be shrinking. I say body weight rather than fat, as most of what you remove will be water, but you will still be thinner at the end of two or three weeks. The problem is that your skin will not have had time to shrink at the same rate and you will end up looking like a prune. Also without a lifestyle change to healthy food and exercise you will put the weight back on again anyway. So look at fast weight loss as an emergency measure and not as a long term way of keeping slim.

You are still likely to have some loose skin, even if you lose weight slowly, but it has more time to regain elasticity and tighten up as you get slimmer. There are a few things you can do to help it.

Use a moisturizer night and morning.

Give your body a good scrub in the shower.

Drink plenty of water - this will also help your continuing weight loss program.

In time your skin will adapt to your new body shape and all will be well.

Should you do all this and still not lose weight there is only one likely explanation. You are taking in, by eating, more calories than you are burning off, by exercise and normal daily activity. To lose one pound a week you need to have a deficit of five hundred calories each day. An hour’s walking will burn off about two hundred calories, so you need to make sure you keep up the daily exercise, eat less and have a healthy diet as well. Do this and not only will your thighs be slim but your arms, midriff and belly as well.

See you soon,

10 July 2010

Photo. Pipedread FyahBurn! (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: fat thighs, lose thigh weight, slim your legs, slim your thighs, targeted weight loss

Hello Everybody,

The answer is you don’t. Or rather you can, but it is not a good idea. Presumably it is some sort of an emergency.

You have won the lottery.

It is a shot-gun wedding.

You are totally useless at forward planning.

Surely not just for a party.

Whatever it is you can lose the weight and there are plenty of crash diets available to help you do so. But be aware that you will lose mostly water, dehydrate and you will put the weight back on again within weeks. There are a few other problems, such as fatigue, cramps and muscle wastage. But this is an emergency and you really must lose twenty pounds in two weeks. So, no doubt you will try.

Having succeeded and lost some weight you may want to stay that way. After all, you just bought expensive new clothes and it would be a pity if you could not wear them after the event. There are two options. Either go back to eating your old diet and take the new clothes to Oxfam, or look at how to keep your new weight and safely lose some more.

The problem is you have been eating too much, not getting enough exercise, or both.

I am sure you like your food and probably don’t much like exercise. But it is not too difficult to change to a more healthy lifestyle. First of all we must know what we are talking about. We are not talking about living on nuts and spending hours in an expensive sweaty gym with a crowd of chavs displaying their six packs. This is not for you, so don’t worry about it.

The whole principal of gaining and losing weight is quite simple. Calories are like money in a bank account. Put more money in than you spend and it will go up, put less money in than you spend and it will go down. Eat more than you burn off in exercise and your weight will go up, eat less and it will go down. It is possible to lose weight healthily without exercise, but you will have to eat less and you will not get as fit. You lose weight faster if you exercise daily.

So how do you do it? First of all you give up things you probably like a lot. Junk food, cookies, sugars, fats, fizzy drinks. Clear out your fridge - if junk food is there you will eat it. What you should be eating is more fresh fruit, vegetables, lean meat, grains and fish such as mackerel. If that sounds horrible think of your holidays. Maybe you went to France, Italy, or Spain. You may have noticed a lot of people were slim. You will have eaten their food. Did it taste good? Most people say very good. It is also very healthy. That is what you need to eat - the Mediterranean diet. Eat your holiday food and you are on the best long term diet available. There are recipes on the internet in abundance and what other diet includes a daily glass of wine? Try it.

Now for the exercise. Forget the gym. Just take a walk. Start with half an hour a day, walking at a comfortable steady pace. After a couple of weeks try to walk for an hour a day. It can be half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening if that is more convenient. Keep it up and that is all there is to a healthy lifestyle. You will probably lose 1-2 pounds a week. Not exactly a crash diet but this is sustainable.

Then after a few months you will have the joy of hearing the most annoying words a fat person can say to a thin one. ‘Of course you don’t have to worry about your weight.’

See you soon,

4 July 2010

Technorati Tags: best way to lose weight, crash diets, fitness walking program, natural weight loss, slim fast, walking for fitness, walking for weight loss, weight loss