The best new year’s resolution for a healthier you
The easiest way to go about it
What would be a good new year’s resolution for a healthier me in 2019? I’m a 50-year-old office worker who is overweight but otherwise healthy.
If you are a smoker then the best New Year’s resolution you can adopt is to quit smoking. But evidently you don’t smoke, so what I suggest you adopt as a New Year’s resolution is to reduce to and maintain a healthy weight.
Overweight, whose extreme form is obesity, is now the single greatest contributor to chronic disease worldwide. If you are overweight, you have a two to threefold higher risk for coronary artery disease and hypertension and more than tenfold increase in the risk for type 2 diabetes compared with lean individuals. You also increase your chances of dying from cancers of the colon, breast, kidney, endometrium, and suffering from gall bladder disease, respiratory diseases, and sexual dysfunctions. Overall, if you are overweight, you increase your chances of dying prematurely by two to three times.
Excess weight will also impair your quality of life. It will stress your joints and result in osteoarthritis. It might also give you low back pain and predispose you to varicose veins.
When are you overweight?
BMI is currently the widely accepted gauge to determine whether a person is overweight or obese. You can compute for your BMI by dividing your weight (in kilograms) with the square of your height (in meters). A Filipino with a BMI of 18.5 to 22.9 is of normal weight, 23 to 24.9 is overweight or preobese, 25 to 29.9 is class I obese, and, 30 or higher, is class II obese.
Latest researches have indicated that the circumference of a person’s waist—which indirectly measures the amount of excess fat in and around the belly—is really a more sensitive gauge and determinant of the metabolic and cardiovascular complications of obesity than body mass index (BMI). Asia-Pacific Guidelines suggest a waist circumference of no more than 80 cm (31.5 inches) for women and no more than 90 cm (35.5 inches) for men. The waist circumference should be measured at the midpoint between the highest point of the hip bones and the lowest abdominal ribs.
Hence, you have a healthy body weight if your body mass index (BMI) is between 18.5 to 22.9 and your waist circumference, since you are a woman, is no more than 31.5 inches.
What you need to do to lose excess weight and maintain a desirable weight
If you wish to lose weight permanently, do not crash diet. Instead, shift to a maintenance diet and increase your physical activity level.
Your maintenance diet refers to the food regimen that will bring your weight down to your desirable level then keep it there.
How do you determine your maintenance diet? Very simple, first find out the percentage of body weight you want to eventually lose. For example, if you are 150 lbs. now and would like to go down to 120 lbs. you need to lose 30 lbs. or about 15 percent of your body weight. Hence, for every meal, set aside about 15 percent of what you used to take. If you are able to religiously do this, you will gradually lose weight and over a period of a several months you will go down to 120 lbs. Once you have attained your desirable body weight there is no need to change your diet, because you are already on your maintenance diet in the first place.
Incidentally, your diet should be a healthy one, which simply means one that contains a variety of food from all the food categories, with emphasis on fruits and vegetables, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, cereal and grain products, legumes and nuts, and fish, poultry, and lean meat.
To give some flexibility to your maintenance diet, you need to increase your physical activity, which means exercise. This will enable you to occasionally indulge in your favorite dessert. Being more physically active will increase your energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate. It will also keep your muscles and cardiovascular system in shape.
The exercise you need to do need not be in the form of a structured program in the gym or the tracks. You can simply adopt lifestyle changes such as taking the stairs instead of the elevator, doing household chores regularly, walking or biking in going to and from the neighborhood grocery instead of driving, etc. As long as your ac- tivities lead to palpable physical exertion and add up to more than 30 minutes per day.
Incidentally, your diet should be a healthy one, which simply means one that contains a variety of food from all the food categories, with emphasis on fruits and vegetables, fat-free and low-fat dairy products, cereal and grain products, legumes and nuts, and fish, poultry, and lean meat.