Easy as Pie

Losing weight and eating healthy is not always
Easy as Pie

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News staff

By now all the champagne corks have been popped, the confetti has long since been swept away and the noisemakers lie silent. After the last bars of “Auld Lang Syne” have been sung, many New Year’s resolutions are just waiting to be broken.

Almost two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese, so it should come as no surprise that many people crowd the gyms in January with the vision that this will be their year to get in shape. This renewed spirit starts to wane, however, right about this time of year. Many New Year’s resolutions simply run out of steam.

A major mistake many people make when trying to lose weight or eat healthier is changing their habits too drastically. According to Roberta Anding, lecturer in kinesiology at Rice and a dietitian at Texas Children’s Hospital, anyone who wants to live a healthier lifestyle should make changes that can be permanent. “You have to ask yourself, ‘Can I sustain this program for a long time?’” she said. “Everyone has to look at their individual weaknesses and create a plan for permanent changes.”

An action plan is part of Anding’s advice to anyone who wants to lose weight and keep it off. She suggests keeping healthy snacks around at all times. “If they don’t have a plan for the day, people end up grabbing something for convenience instead of nutrition,” she said. “Animal crackers may only have 100 calories but for the same amount of calories you could eat three apples.”

Anding said she encourages her patients to choose energy-dense foods instead of calorie-dense choices. “People who eat calorie-dense foods don’t actually eat that much in volume, but they can gain weight simply because of the types of food they’re choosing,” she said. “Energy-dense foods like fruits and vegetables are higher in volume and lower in calories.”

Another dieting downfall many people experience is focusing too much on either diet or exercise. Jill Campbell, nutritionist in the Wellness Center, said it’s important to work on both. “By focusing on one or the other (diet or exercise), it’s a setup for disaster,” she said. “Getting healthy is about taking both parts of the process and being equally committed to both.”

In fact, exercise is so important that the U.S. government included a section on activity in the recently revamped “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,” the federal government’s science-based advice to promote health and reduce risk of chronic diseases through nutrition and physical activity. A brochure with the new guidelines can be downloaded at <www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/pdf/brochure.pdf>.

The new guidelines suggest 30 minutes per day of physical activity to simply reduce the risk of disease, 60 minutes to manage body weight and prevent weight gain and 60-90 minutes to lose weight.

“The dietary guidelines needed to be revamped,” Campbell said. “It’s sound information based on science. It might sound strict to some people, but it shows the importance of healthy eating and physical activity.”

The guidelines also debunk the myth that calories don’t count, emphasizing the importance of making smart choices from every food group. “Excluding one entire food group does not work in the long run,” Campbell said. “It all goes back to taking in fewer calories than you expend.”

Anding said she encourages everyone to eat more fruits and vegetables. One way to do so is to use “the plate method.” Divide the plate in half at every meal and fill one half with vegetables or fruit. She estimates that this method can shave 150-200 calories off one meal.

“Not only do fruits and vegetables have the nutrients to keep you healthy and prevent disease, but they’re also low in calories and keep you satisfied longer because of the fiber [they contain],” Anding said.

Both Anding and Campbell acknowledge that maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be a challenge. Anding said she encourages those with fitness-related New Year’s resolutions to stay the course. It may be tough, but it pays off in the long run.

“We all want to believe that there’s a ‘magic bullet’ out there,” she said. “But slow and steady wins the race. If people choose a method they can sustain for a lifetime, the excess weight will come off and their health will be better off because of it.”