The Senior Walking Fitness Blog

Hello Everybody,

You are often told you must exercise to lose weight. There is a lot of truth in this. Just look at an average truck driver to see the effect of little exercise and a poor diet. Britain has recently achieved the honour of being the most obese nation in Europe as a result of its lifestyle. Spending all day in coffee shops, their time interrupted only by pushing a pushchair to the nearest fast food outlet is the routine of many British women. The result is highly visible and now statistically confirmed. Nearly 24 percent of women are obese, followed closely by men at 22 percent, many of whom have similar sedentary lifestyles. Just across the English Channel the French are doing a lot better. They enjoy their food and are not fitness fanatics but only 13 percent of their women are obese and 12 percent of their men. I have rounded up the figures, but they are close enough. So there is a difference and we must ask why.  The secret, of course, is what the French eat and how much.

It is well known that to lose weight you must burn more calories than you eat. You don’t have to exercise to burn calories; you can use up 95 calories in an hour just sitting reading a book. The problem is you would have to do it 5 hours a day for 7 days to lose 1 pound. That is assuming you made no change to your present diet and you were not snacking while you read the book. Many people do spend long periods sitting still and put on weight, which means they are eating more calories than they burn.  Just to carry on with your present diet and cut down on your food consumption will probably not work. You become hungry and struggle on, but as you get more and more hungry you become more and more likely to give up and head for the nearest Big Mac.

It is not too difficult to lose weight without exercise with a fast weight loss diet and there are plenty available. That’s fine if you just want to lose a few pounds for a party.  But for long term weight loss exercise together with a healthy diet is really the best option.

If you want to lose weight long term without exercise, because you don’t like exercise, you must ask yourself how much you really want to lose weight. If there is a genuine reason not to exercise you must do your best to lose weight by diet alone. It is not impossible, the French seem to have no problems, but now we are discussing a change of lifestyle.

Many French eat healthy food, although not all French cooking is healthy cooking. But the real secret is portion size and taking time over their food. There is no tradition of super sized anything and fast food is avoided.  Breakfast may be just a coffee and croissant; other meals are eaten off small plates perhaps with a leisurely glass of wine. Eat like this and normal activity takes care of the exercise.

So eat healthy food, have several small meals a day rather than three big ones and drink plenty of water. You will then be well on the way to losing weight. Those who say you must exercise to lose weight are wrong, but if you can manage 30 minutes exercise each day you will lose weight faster and more easily. If not keep to a healthy diet and small portions and in time you will succeed.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

Cambridge UK

27 November 2011

Photo. Bernard Rose.

Technorati Tags: diet and exercise, diet without exercise, exercise and weight loss, french food, how to lose weight, lose weight

Hello Everybody,

The Dukan diet is one of the best known celebrity diets. But does the Dukan diet work? Perhaps we should ask why some diets are endorsed by celebrities at all. It seems to me that a free celebrity endorsement of anything is unlikely, so perhaps we should not put too much faith in their opinion. But if the diet works so be it and perhaps it is worth a try. Do not expect to end up looking like Carole Middleton or any of her friends. Unless you have a lot of money, a personal trainer, a good surgeon and in some cases a camera man skilled in the art of air brushing you are unlikely to achieve a celebrity body

But back to the Dukan diet. This was designed by French nutritionist Pierre Dukan and has become popular in the last few years. It is complex, but put simply it is in four phases. To begin with dieters eat nothing but protein for 2-10 days. This can give a weight loss of up to 7 pounds. In the next phase they add 28 types of vegetables to the diet and aim to lose 1 pound a week for as long as they need to achieve their desired weight. After that they move to a ‘consolidation phase’ which adds food to their diet with the intention of maintaining the weight they have achieved. The final phase is to adjust the diet again and include daily exercise to maintain health and fitness.

This does not sound too bad, apart from the excessive weight loss in the first 2-10 days. But it has massively annoyed the British Dietetic Association (BDA) which definitely does not think the Dukan diet works. The BDA is so annoyed that it has made the Dukan diet number one in its annual list of the five worst celebrity diets. It says, ‘This diet is so confusing, very rigid, full of French foods that most Brits would run a mile from, like rabbit and offal, and even Dr Dukan himself warns of the associated problems of lack of energy, constipation and bad breath.’ The BDA considers the diet has, ‘absolutely no solid science behind it at all’. Leaving aside the matter of rabbits – which the British have been eating since their introduction by the Romans, and also the British love of French food, this is not very encouraging.

The BDA carries on listing numerous reasons not to embark upon a Dukan diet. For them the Dukan diet is very bad news. In some respects they have a point. I worry most about the first 2-10 days. To lose 7 pounds in 2 days is silly but even to lose it in 10 days is still bad. It would require a daily calorie deficit of twice the average normal calorie requirement for a man and two and a half times for a woman. Your body would go into starvation mode and begin consuming muscle to survive; this lowers your metabolism and makes losing weight even harder. It is just the sort of thing I would advise against.

So it looks like the Dukan diet is not the best, although it may be a matter of opinion about it being the worst. Remember there are plenty of other weight loss diets out there. Do your research and try one you think might be for you. Do not lose weight too quickly and be careful about celebrity diets; to be fashionable is not always the way to go.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

Cambridge UK

20 November 2011

Photo. AZ Greyhound Rescue.

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Technorati Tags: best diet, best weight loss diet, celebrity diets, dukan diet, how to lose weight, lose weight, what is the best diet

Hello Everybody,

To find out how to lose four pounds in a week you must first know how many calories you are eating each day. There are plenty of calorie charts available online and you just keep a record of what you have eaten in a day and check the calories. Do this for two or three days to get an average. To lose four pounds in a week you will need to eat 2000 calories a day less than you now eat, but do make sure you are not eating under 1000 calories in a day.

Losing four pounds in a week is a big weight loss and whether you lose it by a healthy diet and exercise or by one of the numerous diets available do be careful. After you have lost your four pounds lose only a pound or so a week from then on. This is easy enough and having lost four pounds in a week losing one pound will feel like nothing at all.

To lose four pounds in a week you will just need to do what I usually advise but more so. Eat a healthy diet of fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, chicken or fish, low fat dairy products and whole grains. Be sure to eat small portions and check the calorie count of what you are eating. If you really find calorie counting a bore you could try pre-portioned meals which will tell you the calories in each meal. But I would not advise living entirely on pre-portioned meals for seven days. Try to eat fresh food as well.

You will need to exercise or you will never lose four pounds in a week. With a reduced diet you may not feel like exercise but do as much as you can – a minimum of 60 minutes a day. This can be split into 30 minutes morning and 30 minutes evening if it helps. The easiest way to exercise is to take a brisk walk around the block or in the country. Do anything else you enjoy, so long as it feels like exercise and you put the time in.

Avoid eating out. If you normally take lunch to work make sure it is healthy and does not include crisps or sweets. Drink a lot of water and avoid fizzy drinks.

Do this, count the calories and you should lose those four pounds, or close to it. Now that you have lost four pounds in a week take it easy. Do not be tempted to carry on and lose another four pounds in the next week. Your body won’t like it and you could feel unwell. You can lose more weight, but only lose a pound or so each week, a deficit of 500 calories a day with 30 minutes exercise. That is sustainable weight loss and it will add up over the weeks.  Losing a lot of weight fast is not easy and should be avoided if possible but it can be done. Good luck and do be careful.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

Cambridge UK

12 November 2011

Photo. Roving I (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: fast weight loss, lose 4 pounds, lose four pounds, lose pounds, weekly weight loss

Hello Everybody,

French women have a reputation for elegance and style second to none. But how do French women stay slim? In any French city you will see slim women of all ages. Of course not all French women are slim – but a lot are. A remarkable thing is that the French like their food and spend a lot of time eating and drinking. So how do French women stay slim?

 For them food is important. They don’t walk down the street with a sandwich in one hand and a bottle of coke in the other. They don’t sit at their computer all lunchtime with an apple and a packet of crisps. Eating is a serious business. These are some of the ways French women stay slim – you can do the same.

Take your time:   In France people sit down to eat. A lunch may be a leisurely affair. An evening meal can take an evening. Family, friends, colleagues are involved – as well as eating the French like to talk. Fast food is not an option.

Eat small portions:   French women do not eat supersized portions. There will be several courses in a meal but the portions will be small.

Eat like the French:  The secret of eating like the French is to eat fresh food. Markets are busy every day selling fresh produce for restaurants and the home and this is the essence of French cooking. The type of food eaten varies with region. In the south there is the very healthy Mediterranean diet of salads dressed in olive oil, tomatoes, fresh vegetables, lean meat, and fish. In the north more butter and sour cream is used. Everywhere you will find cheese in all its varieties and wine is often served with a meal. Try these typical meals. 

 Breakfast:   Drink coffee, black or with a little milk, or maybe fruit juice.  Eat a croissant or crusty bread with jam.  Breakfast should always be eaten.

Lunch:  This used to take two hours, now it is more likely to be one. Chicken or fish, a light salad and plenty of fruit would be typical, perhaps a cut baguette with a cheese and salad filling.  Wine may be drunk but it is more likely that a lunchtime drink will be fizzy water.

Dinner:  The big meal of the day with several courses. There are many possible variations but dinner might be of chicken, veal or steak with fresh salad and vegetables. There will be fruit and cheese and fresh bread. Wine will be consumed and, if with friends, the meal will carry on a long time.

So the answer to the question, ‘How do French women stay slim?’ is that they live in France. The lifestyle is on their side, but we can still learn from what they do. Eating fresh healthy food in small portions and taking time over meals is something we can practice anywhere. I did not mention exercise. French women walk or cycle a lot, but exercise is not a high priority. With a calorie intake right for what they do there is no need to worry about burning fat. It is all very easy and is just a matter of fresh food and small portions. There you have the secret of how French women stay slim.

See you soon,

Peter Stockwell

Cambridge UK

5 November 2011

Photo. Dami3n (Flickr)

Technorati Tags: eat like the French, French weight loss, healthy diet, mediterranean diet, slim French women