Weight Loss Today
Biggest Loser Ashley Johnston promotes Rite Aid weight plan
She set the record for the most weight loss by a woman on the NBC-TV show “The Biggest Loser.” Now Ashley Johnston, the runner-up on season 9, is teaming with Rite Aid to promote the drugstore chain’s Rite Weight Plan.
One appealing feature is the cost: It’s free.
Here’s what it includes: a 12-page guide containing weight-loss tips and techniques; access to a medical weight-control program called Lindora for help losing up to 10 percent of your body weight in 10 weeks; online seminars, weight tracking tools and supportive daily e-mails. The website also includes recipes, healthy snack suggestions, a body mass index calculator and tools to decipher food labels.
In addition, pharmacists at the stores can answer questions about diet trends, drug therapy for weight loss, myths and medications used to control weight-related diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, arthritis and stroke.
Pharmacist Shauna Morat, of the Rite Aid at 1820 Teall Ave. in Syracuse, says some people who resolve to lose weight this time of year struggle with popular myths about dieting.
One of the most popular: The less you eat, the better.
While portion control is important, Morat says, “that doesn’t mean if you skip a whole meal that you are controlling your portions.” That can backfire, she says, by messing up your body’s metabolism, which can cause you to gain weight.
Another popular myth: Low-fat means it’s good for you.
Morat cautions to read food labels closely. “Many that are marked ‘low-fat’ may be high in sugars, and calories.”
She reminds us that the average woman needs about 1,200 calories per day; the average man, about 1,500.
Through Jan. 22, enter a sweepstakes at www.riteaid.com/weight for a chance to win a trip for two to The Biggest Loser Ranch in Los Angeles, where the reality show is filmed. Johnston lost 183 pounds on the show last year, dropping 48.93 percent of her weight. She placed second behind a man who lost 50.19 percent of his body weight, going from 526 pounds to 262 pounds.
100-pound weight loss
Adam Reitz, a teacher at Liberty High School, gets ready for his evening run on the steps of the school. Adam has lost over 100 pounds in the last three years simply by running and watching his eating habits. He runs every day, mornings before work and evenings, no matter what the weather conditions. (Douglas Kilpatrick, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL / December 20, 2010)
When Adam Reitz doesn’t feel like waking up at 3:30 a.m. for his daily run, he reaches out for his phone and looks at the picture that changed his life.
Most days he doesn’t need to reach for the phone. The image of himself 100 pounds heavier is engraved in his mind, as are the feelings associated with that picture.
It was three years ago and two months before his wedding. He had just returned from a trip to Hawaii with his students and colleagues from Liberty High School in Bethlehem. The school nurse had taken the picture and left it in his mailbox for him to remember their trip. It was a pleasant image of him posing with his now-wife, Tara, who is also a teacher at Liberty.
Wayne L. Westcott: How do TV weight-loss shows work?
You may have watched television shows that feature people who have lost large amounts of weight in relatively short periods of time. For example, contestants are frequently reported to lose about 60 pounds of body weight in 12 weeks.
Let’s take a look at the math and physiological changes necessary to attain such a huge weight loss, at a rate of 5 pounds per week.
Most Americans have enough stored fat to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week, which requires cutting 3,500 to 7,000 calories per week. Some very heavy adults may be able to lose 3 to 4 pounds of fat per week, which requires cutting 10,500 to 14,000 calories per week. But it would be almost impossible for someone to lose 5 pounds of fat per week, which requires slashing 17,500 calories.
What would it take for someone to achieve a 17,500-calorie deficit within a week? If a person normally eats 2,500 calories a day, a total food fast would produce a 17,500 weekly calorie deficit. Or, if a person continued to eat normally, he or she could burn 17,500 extra calories by running 175 miles a week (25 miles each day). Obviously, both scenarios are unlikely.
If a person loses 5 pounds a week, then the weight isn’t totally fat. A significant percentage of the weight loss is muscle, composed of about 75 percent water and 25 percent protein.
Losing muscle, which is always unwise and unhealthy, inevitably results in metabolic rate reduction and a rapid regain of fat weight. Research confirms that those who lose body weight rapidly will regain the lost weight almost as quickly. In fact, physiologically, there is no alternative. Ask veteran dieters how many times they have lost and then regained large amounts of weight. Almost all of the people who participate in our weight-loss program have previously succeeded and failed with at least a half of a dozen diet plans.
So what is the secret to losing fat and keeping it off? The same secret that makes you look better, feel better and function better. Namely, a purposeful exercise program that restores muscle, recharges the resting metabolic rate and reduces fat.
It is essential to understand that as we age, we lose about 6 pounds of muscle every decade, unless we do strength training. As a result, our resting metabolism decreases about 3 percent per decade. Unless we eat less food, our lower metabolism leads to increased fat stores, averaging about 16 pounds per decade.
The 6-pound muscle loss combined with the 16-pound fat gain shows up as a 10-pound-per-decade weight gain on the bathroom scale. However, it really represents a 22-pound-per-decade, undesirable change in body composition, personal appearance and physical function because of 6 pounds less muscle and 16 pounds more fat.
The solution to this problem is not just dieting. Dieting can reduce fat, but it routinely results in muscle loss and metabolic rate reduction. Likewise, the solution is not endurance exercise alone. Endurance exercise like walking, jogging, cycling and stepping can reduce fat, but it does not replace muscle or recharge resting metabolism. The solution is a sensible combination of strength exercise, endurance exercise and nutrition, with or without calorie restriction.
Consider the results of almost 3,000 participants in our fitness research program. After 10 weeks of performing 20 minutes of strength exercise and 20 minutes of endurance exercise two or three days a week, the participants averaged a 3-pound muscle gain and a 4-pound fat loss, along with reductions in systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
In another study, we divided about 100 overweight women into two groups for the purpose of fat loss and cellulite reduction. Both groups performed our basic exercise program, but one group followed a modestly reduced calorie plan of 1,600 calories per day.
After eight weeks of training, all of the women made excellent improvements in body composition and personal appearance. However, those who combined exercise and diet lost twice as much fat weight (11 pounds versus 5 pounds) and twice as many inches off their hip measurement (2 inches versus 1 inch) than those who only exercised.
My first recommendation to reverse the negative effects of the aging process is a basic fitness program that includes both strength training and endurance exercises. In addition to improving musculoskeletal fitness, strength training replaces muscle, recharges metabolism and reduces fat by burning extra calories during the exercise session and throughout the day. In addition to improving cardiovascular fitness, endurance exercise reduces fat by burning extra calories during the exercise session.
My second recommendation is a sound nutrition program that includes enough protein for muscle and bone building and a reasonable reduction in caloric intake. That is, a diet that provides enough energy for your activity sessions and keeps your metabolism from slowing, which is always counterproductive.
Wayne L. Westcott, Ph.D., teaches exercise science at Quincy College in Massachusetts and consults for the South Shore YMCA. He has written 24 books on physical fitness, and has been a featured speaker at Harvard Medical School’s International Conference on Practical Approaches to the Treatment of Obesity.