A little effort goes a long way

Not willpower, but 'habit change' is the new key to weight loss

Is this the equation for a new you? (istockphoto.com)

Health club locker rooms everywhere are bulging with extra bodies ready to start losing a few pounds. Every January, holiday indulgences and the passing of youth seem to converge in the mirror, prompting new resolve at the table and the gym.

By February, health club operators say, many are gone. "I see it every year," says Sean McBride, a personal trainer at the Weymouth Club. "It's kind of sad, really. . . . People come with good intentions."

Without even trying, anyone can gain between 1 1/2 and 2 pounds a year simply because as we age our bodies need fewer calories to sustain functions. Those extra calories become like cellphone rollover minutes: If you don't burn them, they follow you, generally right around the waistline. To the march of time, add extra helpings of winter holiday sweets, champagne cocktails, and pastry-wrapped hors d'oeuvres and, well, you know the story.

"You can't stay the weight you were in high school without some major shifts," says Susan B. Roberts, senior scientist at the Energy Metabolism Laboratory at Tufts University (see related story, facing page). Here's the good news: Trying to lose weight in 2009 doesn't have to be the same as the last time you tried. The Internet is full of inspirational as well as practical tools. "Habit change" and "planning" have replaced "willpower" as the buzzwords for success. And, some new research shows that we may actually get better at dieting as we age.

For starters, you need to know that to lose a pound, either eat 3,500 fewer calories per week or burn those additional calories by adding activities. That means shifting 500 calories off your plate each day, spending a lot more time on the treadmill or, more sensibly, a bit of both (see chart). Find small ways to drop 50 to 100 calories daily - say, skip the roll at the salad bar or have frozen yogurt for dessert - add a little more exercise, and you're on your way to a 500-calorie per day shift.

For some people, small changes at each meal can add up to real calorie savings. New York food writer Ed Levine is living proof. He has been chronicling his battle with weight loss in an inspirational blog (see related story, page 3).

Levine's method might be described as a "hunt and peck" approach to weight loss: Figure out how to drop a few dozen calories here and burn a few hundred there. While he wishes aloud that someone would invent a machine to calculate calories as they go into our mouths, Levine is like many people who'd rather eat their food without weighing, measuring, and counting.

Others need a more regimented program. Roberts's new book, "The Instinct Diet: Use Your Five Food Instincts to Lose Weight and Keep It Off," translates years of research and laboratory work with overweight volunteers at Tufts into an eight-week program designed to help readers re-teach their bodies how to control hunger without feeling deprived.

To survive, humans were equipped with five food instincts, writes Roberts: hunger, availability, calorie density, familiarity, and variety. By channeling those instincts toward healthier foods and habits, we can lose weight and keep it off.

"If you understand what pushes your buttons, it gets easier to eat right and lose weight," she says. Changing habits is more important than "finding the willpower" that characterized old-school dieting advice.

Roberts's plan centers on high-fiber foods that leave the body feeling fuller than many high-calorie foods, eating at regular intervals, and drinking low-calorie fluids. We've been urged for years to add more fiber to our diets and several cereal manufacturers have increased the fiber content of their products as a result. Roberts takes it further. You need two to three times more fiber than you eat now, she maintains, getting a bit with each meal: high-fiber cereal for breakfast, an apple with a handful of peanuts as a snack, a large bean salad for lunch, a generous side of broccoli added to lean steak for dinner. This approach satisfies your appetite for a variety of foods and keeps you from getting hungry between meals.

Dieting alone is generally not enough for most people to lose weight and keep it off over time. Cut back too much on calories and your body will adjust, learning to live more comfortably on fewer calories. Conversely, if you add too much exercise, your body will adjust again, learning to burn calories more efficiently so as not to take too many away from the available pool of energy.

Roberts and many nutritionists urge dieters to focus first on cutting calories with new food choices, then add exercise. Others suggest that an exercise routine gives a psychological boost, adding incentive to bypass the fatty blueberry muffin. The best advice is to have a plan that you think will work for you, then do your best to stick with it. "You have to make a decision about what you want for yourself," says Jen Turner, director of health and well-being at the Quincy branch of the South Shore YMCA. "Give yourself some time to adjust to this and give yourself a little leeway."

Turner says about 40 percent of those who join a health club will quit. Most will try to take on too much, too fast. Just going to a gym or club is a good first step, as long as you know that it will take about six weeks to feel as if a habit has been established.

McBride of the Weymouth Club agrees. "It's important to set a short-term goal: 'My goal is just getting there three times a week for the next six weeks,' not 'I'm going to lose X pounds in six weeks.' "

Both strongly urge newcomers to exercise to turn to a professional for help getting started so they learn how to do things safely.

"Bring a friend or two," McBride advises. "That way, you can split the cost and get other people on board with you."

You can also be accountable to each other. Knowing someone's watching could help tip the scale in your favor.