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-------------------------- Weight Loss - Those Last Ten Pounds
Title ----- Weight Loss
Those Last Ten Pounds
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Weight Loss - Fighting off those last 10 pounds can bring up mixed feelings. On one hand, you're happy and proud to be just a step away from weight you'd wanted to reach. On other hand, you face potentially depressing prospect of having to unload yet another 35,000 calories (otherwise known as 10 pounds).
Weight loss is all about changing behavior, and that is most true when you're fighting off those last 10 pounds.
"There is evidence that individual has to have a great desire to get to their goal weight, and that desire has to be backed up with real changes in behavior to maintain a healthy weight over time," says Catherine Fitzgerald, RD, a dietitian in weight-loss program at University of Michigan Health System.
Here are seven tips to help you through home stretch of your diet. And get support year-round when you sign up for Weight Control Newsletter.
Lift weights
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You can't beat muscle mass when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off, says Nancy Spaulding-Albright, RD, a nutritionist and dietitian at Sunrise Outpatient Center of HealthSouth hospital group. "Everyone knows muscle burns more calories, even at rest, than fat or other tissues," she says. If weight lifting isn't for you, try swimming, yoga, or Pilates. It's true that muscle weighs a bit more than fat, but it also burns more calories. In long run, you'll stay trimmer with muscle than without it.
Focus on better health, not fewer pounds
-------------------------- Sure, dropping weight will, by itself, improve your health. But if you want to stay motivated while you're losing weight and beyond, think long term. "Tell yourself, 'I want to live to see my grandchildren,' rather than 'I want to look good at my class reunion,'" says Spaulding-Albright. The approaching class reunion may motivate you to lose weight today, but it may also set you up to fail later. "Patients who can stay focused on better health tend to reach their weight goals and keep weight off over time," she says.
See a dietitian
-------------------------- When you sit down with a trained dietitian or nutritionist to look at your diet, "you may be amazed how many hidden calories you eat," says Fitzgerald. "I see patients who forget to add those half dozen tablespoons of sugar they put into their coffee each morning or don't realize how many calories their three-sodas-a-day habit adds up to. And those are kinds of calories, ones you don't even think about, that make weight loss harder." Contact your doctor or local hospital to get a list of dietitians or nutritionists in your area.
