The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

Can you achieve healthy weight loss by eating all you like? Professor Arne Astrup of the University of Copenhagen says you can. According to a European study all you need to do is eat the right food. The study was carried out based on five diets and involved 773 adults of a mean age of 41 years. It was found that the most successful diet, and the one which maintained weight lost, was a high protein low Glycemic Index diet. The Glycemic Index or GI measures the effects of carbohydrates on blood sugar levels. High is bad, low is good.

A low GI regime includes lean meat, poultry, fish, pulses, nuts and eggs. Carbohydrates having a low GI are whole grain bread, porridge (without sugar) and brown rice.

Professor Astrup says. ‘For many years we have been giving people in Europe the wrong advice about how to lose weight and avoid becoming obese. Calorie counting hasn’t worked and may have made the problem worse as it didn’t distinguish between different types of food. The new diet composition is much more effective at helping people maintain a healthy weight. It contains a slightly higher protein content and low GI foods and you can eat as much as you want.’

The research at the University of Copenhagen was funded by the European Commission Clinical Trials and received support from over 100 food companies.

I am not sure that this is a new diet composition. It seems to me that it is very similar to the Mediterranean diet, which a lot of Europeans eat as their national food and others eat as a diet to lose weight and maintain healthy weight loss.

This Menu gives an idea of what the diet is like.

Breakfast. Muesli (without sugar), wholegrain crisp bread with low fat cheese, an orange.

Mid Morning. Vegetable sticks and low fat cheese sticks.

Lunch. Wholegrain rye bread with lean meat or cold chicken; mackerel in tomato sauce and vegetables.

Afternoon. Wholegrain rye bread with low-fat liver pate and cucumber.

Dinner. Stir-fried turkey with vegetables and wholegrain pasta; avocado salad with feta cheese and sugar peas. It is best to drink water or low fat milk with meals.

I would also suggest eating fresh fruit as a snack and drinking a glass of water before each meal

It is good to know that once again a variant of the Mediterranean diet is seen to be one of the best ways to achieve healthy weight loss. I have said before that obsessive calorie counting is not a good thing. But there is no harm in knowing roughly the calories in your food. It will help you make an informed choice about what you eat. Along with all this do not forget to exercise. You can lose weight without exercise, but it is a long process and 30 minutes brisk walking each day will keep you fit, tone your muscles and burn a few of those calories.

This post is based on information in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Daily Mail.

See you soon,

27 November 2010

Photo. Morethantheclash (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: healthy weight loss, healthy weight loss diet, lose weight, mediterranean diet, natural weight loss, weight loss tips

We all want to burn fat and there are a lot of ways of doing it. But what we need are available ways. We do not all live near a gym, and if we do the whole thing can be intimidating. Seeing fit young people exercising with ease can depress unfit older people enough to make them give up exercise completely. Also, of course, gyms cost money - sometimes a lot of money. Swimming needs a swimming pool, or the sea, or a lake. Cycling, not surprisingly, needs a bicycle, tennis needs a partner.

There is one activity you can just go and do and that is walking. Wherever you live - town, country, coast - you can walk. It does burn fat and it makes you fit. Do it alone or, if you prefer, do it with friends. If you do not know anybody to walk with most communities have walking clubs. They could help you find a walking buddy to accompany you on a regular basis. Or, as the great Gordon Gekko said, ‘If you need a friend get a dog’. It certainly adds motivation. But however you do it, try to walk for a minimum of 30 minutes a day, 60 minutes is even better and helps you burn fat faster. All you need is a good pair of boots and a waterproof anorak. If you live in a warm climate you might not even need the anorak.

To burn fat you can vary the speed of walking depending on how many calories you want to lose.

30 minutes walking at 2 mph - 95 calories.

30 minutes walking at 3 mph - 150 calories.

30 minutes walking at 4 mph - 175 calories.

30 minutes jogging - 240 calories.

Just double the figures to estimate fat burnt in 60 minutes.

As you see you will not burn fat in a dramatic fashion. The idea of walking off a Sunday lunch with half an hour’s stroll round the block is over optimistic. But it all helps and walking or jogging is toning muscles as well as burning fat. To lose significant weight you need to burn fat at a rate of 500 calories a day less than you eat to maintain your present weight. You must do that every day for a week to achieve the magic number of 3500 calories which equals 1 pound lost.. A daily hour’s walk at 4 mph would help a lot, an hour’s jog would very nearly do it.

Your hour can be split up into however many shorter periods you like during the day. I would suggest 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. It might be possible to do this to and from work. But however you do it you must exercise every day.

Start slowly, do not expect to walk or jog for 60 minutes immediately. Spend a week walking for 15 minutes a day, the next week 30 minutes a day and work up to an hour. Stop if you are finding it difficult at any level and go back to the previous one for a week, You are trying to burn fat, not damage your health. If you are very overweight, or have a medical condition, speak to you doctor before you start. In most cases he will be delighted with your project, but it is a sensible precaution to take. You will not achieve fast weight loss with walking or jogging, but you will have a good time, maybe meet some nice people and lose weight safely. That is really what it is all about.

See you soon,

25 November 2010

Photo. Cocolima (Flickr)

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Hello Everybody

Healthy weight loss is easy. You just give up junk food, eat a healthy diet and exercise every day. But what if you cannot exercise? You may have a physical condition that prevents you exercising? Perhaps it is this which is causing your weight problem. Just not liking exercise is a motivational problem - which is something else. After all you dislike being stuck in traffic. But you do it to get to work to earn money to go to the beach in summer. You may not like exercise, but you could still do it to lose weight to look good on the beach. That is where the motivation comes in. But you may be highly motivated to lose weight and think you will not be able to do so because you cannot exercise.

Is healthy weight loss possible without exercise? Yes, but it is not easy. We are talking here of long term permanent weight loss. It is possible to lose weight short term without exercise with a fast weight loss diet, but you must be aware that the weight will return when you finish the diet. For healthy weight loss long term you need a lifestyle change involving the food you eat - not a diet.

That is the problem for people who cannot exercise. Even for a weight loss enthusiast losing 1 pound a week is the minimum likely to keep them motivated. You need results to keep on going. To lose 1 pound a week you must eat 500 calories less each day than are needed to maintain your present weight. An hour’s walking at moderate speed will burn half of that, and giving up a butter croissant with your morning coffee will take care of most of the rest. Not too difficult. But if you cannot walk it means giving up something more substantial and that is the hard part.

The other problem is snacking. If you are at home a lot of the time you are likely to get bored and head for the fridge. Quite often. So, given all these difficulties, some say exercise is essential and you just cannot lose weight without it. My view is that you can lose weight, but it is more difficult. The basics are still the same whether you exercise or not and are no different from what I always suggest. Clear the fridge of junk food, and fizzy drinks. Throw away cookies, cakes, chocolate bars and anything else high in sugar. Avoid white foods like white bread, white pasta and white rice. Eat plenty of fresh fruit, salads, vegetables, whole grains, lean meat like chicken or turkey and fish like mackerel. Drink a lot of water - this fills you up and stops you craving food. Eat more meals a day off smaller plates and never, ever, skip breakfast.

That is all you need for healthy weight loss without exercise. It does need motivation and you may think you are throwing away all the food you enjoy, and eating like a rabbit. But Google the Mediterranean diet and take a look at the many recipes available. If you have not tried French and Italian food you will be pleasantly surprised - it tastes good and it helps you lose weight.

There are many reasons why people are unable to exercise and arthritis is one of them. Some have tried everything to relieve the pain without success and have just accepted living an unpleasant and uncomfortable life. I have had good reports of Glucosamine Gell which is just rubbed onto the affected area and is said to relieve the pain and swelling. I have seen it in action with one person and it does seem to work. I have no financial or any other interest in this product. I just suggest that if you do have arthritis give it a try. Even if you are still unable to exercise you can carry on with a healthy weight loss program by diet alone. It just takes patience.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

21 November 2010

Photo. fintag (Flickr)

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Technorati Tags: healthy weight loss, lose weight, natural weight loss, to lose weight, weight loss, weight loss program, weight loss programme

Hello Everybody,

Christmas is a time when we expect to put on weight. The mid winter festival has long encouraged us to store fat to help survive the cold months ahead. A good idea until the arrival of central heating, now we just store fat and wish we hadn’t. Can we do anything to avoid gaining a lot of pounds in two weeks then getting miserable if we cannot lose them fast? We can if we want to. Here are five weight loss tips that will help without totally spoiling the party.

Lose some weight before Christmas. Not long to go now, but you could lose a few pounds in four weeks and it will not be a disaster if you put them back on again during the holiday. All you need to do is cut out junk food, sugars, cookies and fizzy drinks and exercise for thirty minutes a day. That should lose some weight and it all helps.

Drink less alcohol. A lot of alcohol is consumed at Christmas. It contains a lot of calories - a pint of best bitter is nearly 200 calories, a glass of red wine 120 calories. It can add up. Just look at England football supporters to see the effect of a diet of beer and pies. So drink moderately to avoid piling on the pounds.

Drink more water. I am not suggesting you swap a glass of Krug, Clos du Mesnil 1995 for a glass of Perrier. Just drink a large glass of water before a meal and you will eat less.

Eat smaller portions. You will never get served on smaller plates at Christmas, so that is not an option. What you can do is avoid second helpings. People seem desperate to give guests more and more food, but if you can do so without seeming rude try to eat only one plateful. The same applies to puddings and mince pies. Don’t deprive yourself too much, enjoy you meal, just try to avoid excessive eating.

Exercise. The dreaded word. Some people try to spend two weeks without leaving the sofa. They are the ones who put on weight and wonder why. Boxing Day is the traditional time for exercise, but usually it is just a stroll round the block or the local park. If you can manage a brisk walk in the morning you will burn off a few calories and set yourself up for that gentle stroll round the park after lunch. Those who decide to swim in the sea or in lakes on Boxing Day in the Northern Hemisphere are mad and best ignored. But some exercise, if possible on a daily basis, will help reduce any holiday weight gain and is well worth doing.

These weight loss tips should help you keep your weight under control, to some extent, at Christmas. Do not worry if it goes up a few pounds. In January you can lose weight in whatever way you prefer. You may consider a fast weight loss diet, to get into a dress or pair of trousers which fitted just a couple of weeks before. After that you can carry on with the lifestyle you followed before Christmas, safely losing a pound or so a week. Perhaps you will have only put back the pounds you lost before Christmas. If that is the case you did really well. But whatever the outcome, enjoy your Christmas.

See you soon,

17 November 2010

Photo. Astralis (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: fast weight loss, healthy weight loss, weight loss diet, weight loss programs, weight loss tips

Hello Everybody,

A natural weight loss system is the most effective way to lose weight and stay slim. But it does take commitment. Before starting any diet - or in the case of a natural weight loss system a change in lifestyle - you need to ask yourself some questions. Do you really want to lose weight? How important is it to you? Draw a line on a piece of paper and divide it into a scale of ten. One represents not much caring whether you lose weight or stay as you are. Ten represents being desperate to lose weight whatever it takes.

 Where would you say you are on the scale? The higher the better, but anything below five means you are not really committed to weight loss and if you started would probably give up. Now you know where you are you can begin. Or maybe not begin - whichever you decide.

Many people think of a diet as something they do for a fixed period. They give up breakfast, sweets and sugar in their coffee and await results. When the results are minimal they say they just cannot lose weight and go back to eating what they ate before. The more dedicated take pills or go on some fad diet such as colon cleansing - forgetting that before the outbreak of obesity, colons happily cleansed themselves and people stayed slim. Maybe they follow a celebrity diet from a magazine or Sunday newspaper. Whatever it is they do lose some weight. Then they stop the diet and put the weight back on again. They say they have a slow metabolism, or big bones, or obesity is in the genes. They seldom admit, even to themselves, that they are eating too much and not getting enough exercise.

So what to do? It is easy enough to begin a natural weight loss system. We all know what junk food is. It lives in fast food outlets and migrates into the fridge. It is to be found in teenager’s backpacks and in far too many shopping trolleys. It contains fats and sugars and excessive carbohydrates. We can even call white bread, white pasta and white rice junk food it we want to be really rude. There are certainly junk drinks, like fizzy drinks and a lot of energy drinks - all high in sugar, some high in caffeine. Diet drinks do not help your diet. Low fat foods may be low in fats but are often high in things you do not want. Read labels and check calories. Do not become an obsessive calorie counter, that way madness lies, but be aware of what you are eating.

It is over simplification to say eliminate the bad and what is left is good, but that is not far from the truth. Having given up on the junk we just need to eat a more healthy diet, based on fresh fruit, vegetables, whole grains and lean meat and fish. I have recommended the Mediterranean diet many times and still do. It is good for you, tastes like you are on holiday and has many variations. Try it; information is easily available on the internet. That is the sort of food you should eat. Not as a diet but as a lifestyle choice.

Many overweight people do not like exercise. It may be part of the reason they are overweight, but that does not solve the problem. It is possible to lose weight by diet alone, if exercise is difficult due to illness or accident rather than inertia But I do not recommend it. You will have to eat less and your muscles need use to maintain their strength. Even a 30 minute walk around the block each day will help to tone muscles and burn off calories. If you need motivation get a dog. Or walk somebody else’s dog.

 Those of you on the top end of our 1 to 10 scale may want to jog, cycle, swim, dance or go to a gym for 30 to 60 minutes a day. That is all there is to a natural weight loss system. Just diet and exercise, and in 6 months time you could safely have lost 50 pounds. Keep it up and you will stay slim and can forget all about slow metabolism and having big bones.

See you soon,

14 November 2010

Photo. Leroycommunitychapel (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: diet and exercise, how to lose weight, lose weight, natural weight loss, natural weight loss system, walking fitness

Hello Everybody,

 Natural weight loss is the best way to lose weight long term. All it needs is a healthy diet and regular exercise. It does not need a detoxification regime, pills or fad diets based on such things as the eating habits of stone aged men who probably had a life expectancy of under twenty years. We know that a healthy diet makes us less fat and that regular exercise tones muscles, burns calories and makes us fit. But now we find that exercise does even more.

We all catch colds. They last for two weeks and we either soldier on, infecting everybody we meet, or take two days off work and infect everybody we meet when we return to work. But not everybody catches our cold. Some people have colds all winter and others stay comparatively healthy. Have you wondered why?

Professor David C. Nieman of the Appalachian State University, Department of Health, Leisure, and Exercise Science, has done some interesting research. The Professor is not quite what one would expect. He has run fifty eight marathons and ultra marathons, he was an acrobatic gymnast and coach for ten years. He knows a lot about exercise from personal experience. Recently he has studied a thousand people and found that staying active nearly halves the odds of catching cold viruses and, even if a cold is caught, it is likely to be less severe. The study was based on healthy volunteers who kept a record of their health over a three month period during autumn and winter. They were also asked to record how frequently they exercised enough to break a sweat.

Eating plenty of fruit seemed to reduce the frequency of colds. Which is a confirmation of the folk law that tells us to consume plenty of vitamin C. But being fit and active cuts the risk of catching a cold by nearly fifty percent. People who exercised and kept active felt unwell for about five days of the three month period. Those who did not exercise were unwell for nine days in the same period. Even when those who exercised were unwell they suffered less from their symptoms.

Professor Nieman thinks that periods of exercise cause a rise in the immune system cells circulating around the body which can attack the cold virus. These levels fall back a few hours after people have exercised. So it is desirable to exercise every day - twice a day if possible. A rather strange finding appears to be that how fit people perceive themselves to be has an effect. I have no idea how this can be measured, but that is what we are told.

As always with such research we should ask a few questions. Professor Nieman’s University is in Watauga County, North Carolina. A rural area with a population of 137 people per square mile. This seems like a healthy place to live. Was the research carried out on local people or maybe University students - who would be young and healthy? There is a mention that being older, male and married reduced the frequency of colds. So older people from somewhere must have been taking part. It would be interesting to see the results from a similar sized sample of subway-using volunteers from London or New York, where exposure to cold viruses is likely to be greater.

But despite asking questions about the research we do seem to be seeing a definite trend. Exercise, keep fit, and you will have fewer colds. Maybe the odds of avoiding one are not quite as good in London or New York as in Watauga County but no matter. One cold less each winter would be good news and with regular exercise there is a good chance that will happen. So keep up your natural weight loss program, keep up your exercise and you could get through winter fit, well, slim and cold free. That is really worth the effort.

See you soon,

7 November 2010

Photo. Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation.

Technorati Tags: beat common cold, healthy exercise, lose weight, natural weight loss, permanent weight loss, weight loss diet