Don't Worry Blog: Lifestyle

Complete lifestyle change. Help! Is this really the only way to lose weight?

The idea that you can only lose weight with radical lifestyle change is pretty unhelpful. What does it mean anyway.
read article 382

Why do you want to lose weight anyway?

There is a lot of social pressure on us to be thin, and as a result we tend to have very negative attitudes towards our bodies.
read article 225

Keep taking the medicine

If there were a medicine that helped you feel good about yourself and greatly reduced your risk of cardiovascular disease, would you take it regularly?

This medicine is exercise. The Surgeon General in America says this: "I want to encourage you to eat more nutritiously, exercise regularly, and maintain healthier lifestyles."

What could you do to increase your level of exercise? I am not talking here about obsessive joggers or wearing pink shiny gymwear, but just adding a few more steps a day. 2,000 more steps a day could stop you gaining weight. How much walking is that? Probably the gap between 2 bus-stops (not in the countryside though - that can be miles!)

Get a pedometer and check your current activity level in steps. Then see what you could do to boost that by just 2,000 steps. To boost your motivation, try hypnosis.

How society affects our self-image

There is huge social pressure on women in particular to be slim, even though we come in all shapes and sizes.
read article 263

Exercise during pregnancy

Exercise for health and wellbeing is a most excellent idea, promoting suppleness, strength and stamina. But what about when you are pregnant?
read article 320

Men and women put on weight for different reasons

Researchers have studied the explanations we give for gaining weight, and it shows that men and women give different causes.
read article 275

Sit less and lose weight

A study by University of Massachusetts Amherst researcher Barry Braun compared a group of volunteers who sat all day (they even used wheelchairs to visit the bathroom) to a group that didn't sit down at all. The difference in energy expenditure, he told The New York Times, was hundreds of calories – but the level of appetite hormones and hunger in the two groups remained identical. This is significant, because after a very hard workout, you feel hungry. And hundreds of calories a day - let's say 200 - means half a pound weight loss each week.

So how can we use this insight? Sit less. Stand rather than sit at work if you can. Fidget, get up and down if you are watching the telly. Even unvigorous movement uses up those calories.

The truth about exercise

Many of us take up exercise to help us lose weight, but on its own it doesn't work. It takes 50 mins running to burn off a Mars bar.
read article 340

Fat ladies dancing

Do you remember the Roly Polys? They were Les Dawson's dance group. Most of them were overweight, one certainly obese, but they danced really well.
read article 318

What we do at the weekend can affect our weight

Your eating pattern is one of the first things that I ask about when I meet with a new weight loss client.
read article 308

How do we get fat?

Is it eating too much or exercising too little? Well, it is probably more complicated than that.
read article 299

Social factors make it harder for women to manage their weight

Apart from greater social pressure in the Western world to be thin, social pressures reduce women's opportunity to control their weight.
read article 296

Reasons for exercising

The reasons men and women give for taking exercise have been shown to be different.
read article 284

Snowbesity

According to the Scotsman yesterday, there are more Christmas pounds this year due to most of us staying in because of the snow.
read article 268

No time to exercise? Start fidgeting; sitting still is bad for you!

Throughout the day, move about and fidget as much as possible. Seek out opportunities to make more effort. Walk whenever possible. Be inefficient.
read article 241

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