{"id":144894,"date":"2019-01-04T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2019-01-04T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=144894"},"modified":"2019-01-04T08:29:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-04T13:29:04","slug":"year-lose-weight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2019\/01\/year-lose-weight\/","title":{"rendered":"Is This the Year You Lose the Weight?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Between your mirror, your doctor, honest family members, and how well your clothes fit, you probably don\u2019t need a seemingly arbitrary number like BMI to figure out whether you should drop a few pounds.<\/p>\n

And if you\u2019re like many Americans, you may have decided now\u2019s the time of year to do something about it. With the holiday treats out of sight and out of mind, it\u2019s time to get back into a routine.<\/p>\n

When using BMI (body mass index, a score derived from your height and weight) to measure, the trends are disturbing, says Dr. Varalakshmi Niranjan<\/a>, a primary care physician who sees patients in UConn Health\u2019s West Hartford office, 65 Kane St.<\/p>\n

A BMI of 19 to 24 is considered normal, 25 to 30 is considered overweight, and more than 30 is considered obese.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the U.S., 36 percent of adults are obese, and by 2030, 50 percent will be obese and another 30 percent will be overweight,\u201d Niranjan says. \u201cOne in five adolescents are overweight, one in six elementary school children are obese, and one in 12 preschool children are obese.\u201d<\/p>\n

Niranjan, who offers a physician-supervised weight-loss program, breaks down the most prevalent causes of weight gain:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Overeating\/portion control<\/strong> \u2013 What used to be considered large portion sizes are today considered normal.<\/li>\n
  2. Busy lifestyle<\/strong> \u2013 We\u2019re often too busy to be mindful of our eating habits.<\/li>\n
  3. Eating out more<\/strong> \u2013 (See #2) This means more processed foods, with added sugar and salt.<\/li>\n
  4. Lack of exercise<\/strong> \u2013 Advances in technology and transportation have removed a lot of incidental physical activity.<\/li>\n
  5. Sedentary lifestyle<\/strong> \u2013 (See #4) Screen time in many cases has become excessive, both at work and at play.<\/li>\n
  6. Sleep<\/strong> \u2013 Either too much, or (more likely) not enough.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But there is hope.<\/p>\n

    \u201cThese causes are largely within our control, at least to some degree,\u201d Niranjan says. \u201cTaking control goes beyond dieting for a few weeks to temporarily lose some weight. Taking control is how we build the foundation for lifestyle change.\u201d<\/p>\n

    She offers the following tips:<\/p>\n

    Fat is not always the enemy.<\/strong> It just depends on what types of fat. The \u201cgood fats\u201d are unsaturated fats such as those found in avocados, olive oil, nuts, and certain fish, plus eggs and certain dairy foods. \u201cA balanced diet with good fats prevents heart disease,\u201d Niranjan says. The trick here is keeping it a balanced<\/em> diet.<\/p>\n

    \u201cWhat is killing us is not the good fats but the sugar,\u201d<\/strong> Niranjan says. \u201cPeople go for the \u2018low fat\u2019 option, which is basically high in sugar. When they read food labels they should be looking for carbohydrates content and sugar content. If that is high then that product is not good.\u201d<\/p>\n

    Ideally, you\u2019ll want to choose foods with less than 10 grams of sugar per serving. The recommended limits for consumption of added sugar is 150 calories (about 9 teaspoons or 36 grams) per day for men, and 100 calories (6 teaspoons or 24 grams) per day for women.<\/p>\n

    Find time to exercise.<\/strong> Try to make getting that heart rate up a daily routine, at least three hours per week, give or take (the type, intensity, and duration of exercise will vary based on your age, fitness level, and overall health). \u201cIf you exercise for one hour, it still matters what you do the remaining 23 hours of the day,\u201d Niranjan says.<\/p>\n

    If you\u2019ve been sedentary for a while, start off with walking more, and consult your physician before ramping it up. And be sure to \u2026<\/p>\n

    \u2026 Set realistic goals.<\/strong> The best exercise routine is the one you\u2019ll actually do. Same goes for modifications to your diet. If you set out to, starting tomorrow, run five miles every day and eliminate all grains and sugars from your diet, you\u2019re setting yourself up for failure. Remember, you\u2019re changing your lifestyle<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Try to make it fun.<\/strong> Reward yourself \u2013 just not with food. Be flexible. Try to get family or friends to join you, or let them know what you\u2019re trying to do so they can be a support system (and hold you accountable). Remind yourself that the results won\u2019t be instant, and that gradual results are easier (and often healthier) to sustain anyway.<\/p>\n

    \u201cYou can treat yourself<\/strong> occasionally, but not every day,\u201d Niranjan says.<\/p>\n

    Pay attention to what you\u2019re doing<\/strong>, identify strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, learn from failures, and build off successes. Don\u2019t feel the need to change everything all at once. You\u2019re in it for the long haul, and there\u2019ll be plenty of time to make changes along the way.<\/p>\n

    Most importantly, make a commitment to these behaviors. <\/strong>By now, most of us know what we should and shouldn\u2019t do, it\u2019s just a matter of staying motivated.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    With the holiday treats out of sight and out of mind, it\u2019s time to get back into a routine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":144895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2010],"class_list":["post-144894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-31 06:04:28","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/111"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":144896,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144894\/revisions\/144896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/144895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144894"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=144894"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=144894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}