Losing weight
The secret to weight reduction
If you answered “YES” to all these questions then this advice about weight control is for you.
Why did I gain weight after my breast cancer treatment?
Some women gain weight during chemotherapy. The reasons are no known, but probably the chemo alters your metabolic rate. It also gives some women “the munchies” in their attempt to overcome nausea and an empty feeling in the stomach. One of the anti-nausea medications, dexamethasone, can cause weight gain. And perhaps chemo can alter the “satiety centre” in the brain, that tells your body when you have taken on enough energy.
Quite apart from the chemo effects, nearly all women gain weight after the menopause unless they are extremely careful. This is because after the menopause your metabolic rate declines. The metabolic rate is a kind of “setting” that each of us has, and it determines how many “miles we get to the gallon”. Whatever your individual setting is, your body requires much less energy after the menopause for achieving the same tasks. This explains why so many women will tell you “I eat very sensibly but I just keep putting on weight”.
There is no magic, unfortunately, no matter what bunk you read in women’s magazines about this or that amazing diet. It really is very simple: what you don’t burn up, you will put on as storage fat.
To lose weight you have to reduce your energy intake and increase your energy consumption.
It's a mind thing
You will not lose weight unless you are absolutely determined.
You need realistic goals, and renewable incentives.
What do I mean?
Well, first of all, think about why you really want to lose weight. Mostly you want to look better, and feel better. You want to fit into your old clothes. Don't kid yourself. Look at some recent photos. Get out that favourite ball-gown, and tell yourself, you are definitely going to fit into that for the ball next August, or for your niece's wedding in June or whatever. Have a hard, realistic goal like this. Keep trying on the dress once a month and feel yourself getting toward that goal. This is far better than weighing yourself, which is something I would resist. Fat can be redistributed, fluid changes can cause weight change, and at the end of the day the critical thing is getting rid of fat, and shrinking yourself!
If you don't really care much what you look like,(and I've never really met anyone like that!) think about the huge strain you are putting on your body if you are 20 kg over-weight. Would you carry a 20 kg suitcase around all day? Wouldn't your knees be caving in at the end of it? Imagine carrying a typical suitcase up several flights of stairs a day, and having it on your back for every minute of every day. Don't you want to be rid of that? Much of the suffering of arthritis in knees and hips is simply because of this extra burden we put on our poor bodies. They are not built to take all this weight. Likewise, the frighteningly common complaint of fatigue in menopausal women is sometimes at least in part to being overweight.
The importance of exercise
The only way to increase energy consumption is exercise and you need at least four sessions per week of around 45 mins of balanced aerobics and weights. It is an essential part of weight control because it builds muscle, which burns energy at a faster rate than fat, and it helps to control your satiety and appetite. It takes a lot of exercise, though to really reduce weight. It seems that the most lasting weight reduction is in people who exercise as well as diet.
But the most important changes have to be to the way you eat. For tips on exercise, click here.
Reducing energy intake
Here are some tips about reducing energy intake:
Shape is more important than weight.
Don’t weight yourself every five minutes. And don’t be surprised if your weight increases a little when you start exercising. Aim for a steady 1.5 kg weight loss per month. Rapid weight shifts are not only unhealthy, but will rebound on you.
Reduce “high glycaemic index” carbohydrates.
Low carbohydrate diets like the “Atkins” diet work. Atkins is a bit harsh in my view, and therefore people are bound to fail it after a while. But some of the principles are good.
A good book on the subject is “The Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index-The Groundbreaking Medical Discovery”, by Thomas M.S. Wolever M.D. Ph.D., Jennie Brand-Miller Ph.D., Kaye Foster-Powell, and Stephen Colagiuri M.D. Here are some of the main principles:
Get professional help
If you're serious about weight reduction, get some professional help. Ask your doctor to refer you to an experienced nutritionist. It will cost you about $100.00 for your first consultation, and about $60.00 for follow-up visits. You may only need 3-4 visits. You may get half of this back from your health fund. Is it worth a couple of theatre tickets to lose 20 kg??
Nutritionists will do the following:
- Are you aged between 35 and 70?
- Have you had treatment in the past for breast cancer?
- Have you gone through the menopause?
If you answered “YES” to all these questions then this advice about weight control is for you.
Why did I gain weight after my breast cancer treatment?
Some women gain weight during chemotherapy. The reasons are no known, but probably the chemo alters your metabolic rate. It also gives some women “the munchies” in their attempt to overcome nausea and an empty feeling in the stomach. One of the anti-nausea medications, dexamethasone, can cause weight gain. And perhaps chemo can alter the “satiety centre” in the brain, that tells your body when you have taken on enough energy.
Quite apart from the chemo effects, nearly all women gain weight after the menopause unless they are extremely careful. This is because after the menopause your metabolic rate declines. The metabolic rate is a kind of “setting” that each of us has, and it determines how many “miles we get to the gallon”. Whatever your individual setting is, your body requires much less energy after the menopause for achieving the same tasks. This explains why so many women will tell you “I eat very sensibly but I just keep putting on weight”.
There is no magic, unfortunately, no matter what bunk you read in women’s magazines about this or that amazing diet. It really is very simple: what you don’t burn up, you will put on as storage fat.
To lose weight you have to reduce your energy intake and increase your energy consumption.
It's a mind thing
You will not lose weight unless you are absolutely determined.
You need realistic goals, and renewable incentives.
What do I mean?
Well, first of all, think about why you really want to lose weight. Mostly you want to look better, and feel better. You want to fit into your old clothes. Don't kid yourself. Look at some recent photos. Get out that favourite ball-gown, and tell yourself, you are definitely going to fit into that for the ball next August, or for your niece's wedding in June or whatever. Have a hard, realistic goal like this. Keep trying on the dress once a month and feel yourself getting toward that goal. This is far better than weighing yourself, which is something I would resist. Fat can be redistributed, fluid changes can cause weight change, and at the end of the day the critical thing is getting rid of fat, and shrinking yourself!
If you don't really care much what you look like,(and I've never really met anyone like that!) think about the huge strain you are putting on your body if you are 20 kg over-weight. Would you carry a 20 kg suitcase around all day? Wouldn't your knees be caving in at the end of it? Imagine carrying a typical suitcase up several flights of stairs a day, and having it on your back for every minute of every day. Don't you want to be rid of that? Much of the suffering of arthritis in knees and hips is simply because of this extra burden we put on our poor bodies. They are not built to take all this weight. Likewise, the frighteningly common complaint of fatigue in menopausal women is sometimes at least in part to being overweight.
The importance of exercise
The only way to increase energy consumption is exercise and you need at least four sessions per week of around 45 mins of balanced aerobics and weights. It is an essential part of weight control because it builds muscle, which burns energy at a faster rate than fat, and it helps to control your satiety and appetite. It takes a lot of exercise, though to really reduce weight. It seems that the most lasting weight reduction is in people who exercise as well as diet.
But the most important changes have to be to the way you eat. For tips on exercise, click here.
Reducing energy intake
Here are some tips about reducing energy intake:
Shape is more important than weight.
Don’t weight yourself every five minutes. And don’t be surprised if your weight increases a little when you start exercising. Aim for a steady 1.5 kg weight loss per month. Rapid weight shifts are not only unhealthy, but will rebound on you.
Reduce “high glycaemic index” carbohydrates.
Low carbohydrate diets like the “Atkins” diet work. Atkins is a bit harsh in my view, and therefore people are bound to fail it after a while. But some of the principles are good.
A good book on the subject is “The Glucose Revolution: The Authoritative Guide to the Glycemic Index-The Groundbreaking Medical Discovery”, by Thomas M.S. Wolever M.D. Ph.D., Jennie Brand-Miller Ph.D., Kaye Foster-Powell, and Stephen Colagiuri M.D. Here are some of the main principles:
- Eat small amounts frequently – say every 3 hours.
- Cut out all refined carbohydrates – i.e. all snack foods, biscuits, white bread, pizza, white rice, potatoes.
- Snack on nuts and dried fruit.
- Cut your serving size of pasta in half and only have it once a week.
- Keep alcohol to an average of one standard drink a day.
- You should be a bit hungry before every meal, but don’t allow yourself to get ravenous. Snack on those nuts and fruit.
Get professional help
If you're serious about weight reduction, get some professional help. Ask your doctor to refer you to an experienced nutritionist. It will cost you about $100.00 for your first consultation, and about $60.00 for follow-up visits. You may only need 3-4 visits. You may get half of this back from your health fund. Is it worth a couple of theatre tickets to lose 20 kg??
Nutritionists will do the following:
- Take a detailed eating history and work out what you're doing wrong.
- Monitor your progress and motivate you.
- Deal with the reasons you over-eat - eaing behaviour is often quite unrelated to hunger, but with "comfort". Unless you address this, you will not succeed long term. Professional help can enable you to redirect bad eating motives.
- Educate you about good snacking, how to cope with eating out, what to do about alcohol, how to avoid hunger after exercise, and a hundred other things.