User's comments:
Breakfast:
Normally, I eat All Bran Flakes (Mon, Weds, Fri), muesli on Tuesdays and Thursdays and oats on Saturdays and Sundays. I eat my cereals with yoghurt or milk (low fat).
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Lunch:
At 12h45, it will be rice, boiled mixed vegetables or green beans and a portion of poultry.
Dinner:
At 18h30, I used to have 2 slices of brown bread or homemade scones.
Snacks:
I snack on raisins and 1 apple at 16h00. If I get hungry before my lunch, I normally snack on plain Provita (no more than 3 of them).
I exercise for 30 min., 5 times a week with urban rebounding.
I am gaining a lot of weight. I really need help because I’m now obese – I weighed 108kg this morning and my height is between 1,56 and 1,55m.
Expert's comments:
Thank you for your description. You are right to be concerned and congratulations on making a decision to implement the necessary changes to start living healthily.
I would like to suggest that you try not to focus on weight and weight loss per se, but rather concentrate on obtaining optimal health as both short and long-term goals. Weight loss and maintaining an acceptable goal weight is one of the aspects of being healthy and will come as a result of achieving a consistently healthy lifestyle.
So, where would you start in setting short-term attainable goals that are realistic for your height and build? Your body mass index (BMI) is a useful tool to assess your weight for height (kg/m2) and is a good guideline to assess your level of risk associated with various chronic diseases of lifestyle such as heart disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), type 2 diabetes, and high cholesterol.
Another extremely important parameter to consider is your waist circumference. This should ideally measure less than 88-90cm.
Your current BMI is 44kg/m2. This places you at extreme risk for the above-mentioned conditions. Ideally, you should aim to achieve a BMI of 25kg/m2, which will mean your weight should eventually be 60kg.
From a health point of view, weight loss of even 5-10% of your current weight is extremely beneficial, so start by aiming to lose about 5-10kg. Remember that losing weight sensibly, i.e. max. 0,5 to 1,5kg per week will ensure maintenance of weight loss over the long term.
It is important to remember that muscle mass is three times heavier than fat mass, so if you are exercising more frequently and building muscle mass, your weight may in fact seem to decrease very slightly at times. Losing centimetres is therefore a far better reflection of losing fat mass and should be measured in combination with your weight, waist circumference and percentage body fat.
If you wish to lose weight, the combination of dietary changes as well as exercise is the most effective way to achieve and then maintain weight loss. Exercising more than 4-5 times a week is necessary to ensure you are burning adequate energy compared to intake, to increase your metabolism, increase muscle mass (metabolically active tissue) and reduce fat.
In terms of your activity, I would suggest that you increase the length of activity to approximately 45-60min. a day. Perhaps you could take a brisk walk with a friend in addition to the urban rebounding. If you are unable to fit it into one session, divide your physical activity up throughout the day, e.g. 3 sessions of 15min.
Try to be more active with everyday activities, e.g. take the stairs instead of the lift, park further from the shop entrance, do household chores, do gardening etc.
By not missing a meal, starting the day with a wholesome breakfast and eating small frequent meals throughout the day, you are definitely on the right track to controlling blood sugar and energy levels and weight. Eating the correct foods often will help limit mid-morning or mid-afternoon dips, cravings, hunger pangs, fatigue and lapses in concentration.
Your breakfast choices are great – they consist of fibre-rich starch, some low-fat (or fat-free) protein and possibly fruit. I am just unclear as to which muesli you are eating. Be careful as toasted or roasted mueslis may be high in hidden and unwanted sugars and fats. Examples of waist-friendly mueslis, that are slow release and lower in fat, include Fineform muesli; Jungle Lifestyle muesli; Morning Harvest muesli; Nature’s Source range of low GI mueslis – Mixed Berries, Orange & Spices, Apple & Cinnamon.
Check your portions of each food group. Balance is again key – you need to eat enough for your body and activity levels without feeling over-full. Dish up as much as you think will satisfy you, but remember that your eyes may be larger than your stomach – rather underestimate than overestimate your needs. Enjoy meal times and the plate dished for you. Avoid going for second helpings.
Here is a helpful guide to visualise portion sizes without having to measure any of the food:
CARBOHYDRATES/ STARCH: Approximately the size of your fist; a tennis ball; 1 slice of bread
PROTEIN: The palm of your hand (no thicker than the ‘pinky joint’); 1-2 packs of cards
FRUIT: Size of your fist; a tennis ball
VEGETABLES: Unlimited
DAIRY: 1 cup of low-fat milk; 1 small tub of low-fat/fat-free yoghurt; matchbox block of cheese; 250-300ml drinking yoghurt
FAT: 1-2 level teaspoons of oil (canola/olive), ‘lite’ margarine, butter, peanut butter, regular mayonnaise; 1 tablespoon of reduced oil/‘lite’ mayonnaise and salad dressing; ¼ medium avocado; any spreads ‘thinly’ on breads/crackers; 1 small handful of nuts or seeds
You are currently eating one fruit a day with very few vegetables. Fruit and vegetables have incredible health properties; they provide vitamins, minerals and fibre and are fantastic fillers. You need to aim for at least “5-A-DAY” i.e. 2-3 fruits and 3-4 vegetables. Colour is cool, so try to include a variety of different vegetables and fruits in your day to provide the maximum amounts of vitamins and minerals.
I am unsure how you cook the chicken pieces for lunch. It is also unclear as to what you put on the bread and scones at night and whether or not you eat anything else if you don’t eat them any longer. Meals (and snacks, if possible) should be made up of fibre-rich carbohydrates (starches), moderate low-fat protein, vegetables and/or fruit and a small amount of fat.
For low-fat chicken, cook with skinless chicken pieces or remove the chicken skin before eating. Ideally, the chicken should be grilled, baked, poached, boiled, braaied or microwaved, using very little or no added oil.
Regarding your fat intake, try to aim for ‘lower-fat eating’ rather than no fat – overall fat intake should be limited, but not eliminated. Limit unhealthy fats, i.e. those fats obtained from animal products (saturated fat) and trans fatty acids (hard margarine, coffee creamers, coconut). Include more healthy fats, i.e. monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats from plant oils (canola oil, olive oil, avocado pear, peanut butter).
Here are some helpful hints for lowering your fat intake:
Choose low-fat or fat-free milk and dairy products, e.g. yoghurt, cottage cheese, evaporated milk. These options could replace cream in recipes.
Choose soft rather than hard margarines.
Wait until toast has cooled down before spreading margarine or butter and spread it thinly.
If you use fat, choose low-fat (“lite”) options for mayonnaise, salad dressing and margarine and use sparingly.
Never use two ‘fats’ to spread on your bread, i.e. margarine/ low-fat mayonnaise/ peanut butter/ avocado pear – spread thinly and use alone.
Remove all visible fat from meat before preparation. Avoid the skin of the chicken and ideally remove prior to cooking.
Aim to eat less red meat (2-3 times a week). Use lean meat options, e.g. lean mince, lean beef or lamb, ostrich, venison or soya mince. The fattiest meat is lamb, followed by beef, pork, chicken, ostrich and venison.
Eat fish (fresh or canned) 1-2 times a week.
Avoid processed meats – sausages, polony, salami.
Limit the addition of any form of extra fat during food preparation (e.g. margarine, butter, cream, mayonnaise, oil, cheese).
Use low-fat cooking methods: boil, steam, grill, braai over coals, bake in the oven, poach, stir-fry. Do not fry food.
If you do need to fry food, use very little oil (canola or olive oil) or try to prepare with no oil at all by means of ‘fat-free frying’ (see below).
Limit the amount of gravies and sauces.
Read food labels to assess fat content. A product is low fat if it contains < 3g fat/100g and fat free has < 0.5g fat/100g. Practically, choose foods that contain fat between 3 -10% and try to stick to about 10 - 13g fat/meal. This can be achieved by adding only one fat to a meal and following the above-mentioned cooking methods.
Fat-free frying:
When browning meat, chicken or even vegetables, beef, chicken or vegetable stock with water or vegetable juices can be used when you need to add liquid.
A non-stick frying pan is useful but not essential. There will be no difference in the flavour of the final dish although sautéing food without using oil or butter does take a little longer.
Half fill a tea cup with boiling water and add a teaspoon of stock powder. Stir until dissolved and then fill the cup to the top with red or white wine. If you don’t drink alcohol, vegetable juice or apple juice can be used instead.
Place chopped onion to sauté in a frying pan over high heat. Toss the onion with a wooden spoon as it begins to cook and when it starts to brown and stick to the pan, add a few teaspoons of the stock mixture to the pan (enough to cause a cloud of steam without making the onion simmer).
Continue tossing until the onion begins to stick again and then pour in the rest of the stock mixture, stirring until the brownish residue has lifted off the bottom of the pan.
Cover with a lid and leave for 5-10 minutes until the fluid has reduced and the onions will be soft, brown and slightly caramelised.
Add beef goulash cubes, vegetables or chicken strips as well as any other ingredients.
Ideas for healthy mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks include:
Fresh fruit or fruit salad. Low fat/ fat free yoghurt and mixed seeds can be added.
Dried fruit rolls, sticks and bars – e.g. SAD mebos sticks/ bars; Woolworths cranberry & almond bar, apricot & sesame seed bar; Special K bar; All Bran bar; Jungle oats Berry or Yoghurt bars
1 small muffin (banana, carrot, date & nut or bran) and a fruit
300ml drinking yoghurt (low fat/ fat free) and a fruit
Peanuts and raisins, or dried fruit and nut mix, with a fruit
A slice of wholegrain bread (low GI), Rice cakes, Corn Thins, Provitas or Digestive biscuits with peanut butter and/ or honey (spread thinly). Other toppings could include cottage cheese, cheese, Oxo, Bovril, Marmite, avocado pear, fish paste, jam (obviously adding tomato, lettuce and cucumber to the topping will increase the nutritional value).
Vegetable bites e.g. tomato wedges, cucumber or carrot sticks, celery sticks, baby tomatoes (Humus, fat free or low fat cottage cheese will add some taste variety)
Popcorn (made with minimal oil)
Biltong (no fat - ostrich, game meat, lean beef)
Remember to drink at least 1.5-2 litres (8-10 glasses) clean water a day. It helps to keep a full water bottle with you throughout the day.
It is a good idea to eat supper as early as possible as your metabolism slows down in the evening. Try to avoid eating anything after 8 pm.
Remember these summary points for implementing a balanced eating pattern, achieving weight loss and weight maintenance:
Be consistent and develop permanent healthy eating habits, including three meals spread throughout the day with small, healthy snacks between meals.
Include a wide variety of foods from all food groups (dairy, meat, fish, poultry and eggs, starches, fruit and vegetables, and fats) and don’t remove foods or food groups completely from your daily intake.
Listen to your body and train yourself to drink when thirsty, eat when hungry and stop when satisfied.
It should be practical and implementable for your individual situation and needs.
Always combine with increased physical activity and behavioural changes where necessary.
Practice moderation and set the tone for permanent lifestyle changes.
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