Healthy Weight

The following will help you prepare for making changes to improve your health.

See your doctor

If you have any medical conditions or you are not physically active, see your doctor before you begin to exercise. Your doctor may want to check your blood pressure and blood cholesterol, triglycerides, and blood sugar levels. If you have heart problems, are at high risk for heart problems, or have joint problems, your doctor may want you to have some additional testing before you begin an exercise program.

Change your thinking

Instead of focusing on weight loss programs, which are rarely successful over the long term, change your focus to improving your health. Focus on other health aspects you can improve, such as raising your fitness level and reducing your blood pressure, reducing your blood sugar if you have diabetes, and reducing your cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Becoming active and improving your eating habits are the two major ways to improve your health.

Heredity plays a role in your body type and your weight. Avoid comparing yourself to others. Healthy bodies come in all shapes and sizes.

Learn to celebrate your body for what it is and the fitness and health you can achieve. Use measures other than weight or clothing size to track your progress in reaching your health goals. Realize that our culture overemphasizes extreme thinness, which makes people feel bad when they cannot achieve such an unrealistic body size.

Set goals you can reach

Focus on small, cumulative changes in your physical activity and eating habits that will lead to long-term healthy changes. Your goals should be specific, within your reach, and flexible.

Tips for setting goals:

• Write down your goals. This gives you a clear idea of what you want to achieve. Also, reading your goals can serve as a helpful reminder.
• Make your goals specific. A specific goal can help you measure your progress.
• Focus on achieving one goal at a time. This can keep you from feeling overwhelmed.
• Set goals other than weight loss, such as improving your eating habits, increasing your physical activity, or lowering your blood pressure.

Tips for setting activity goals:

• Fit in physical activity whenever you have time. Your physical activity does not need to be done all at once. If you do not have time to walk for 30 minutes, instead try to fit in 10 minutes of walking 3 times a day.
• Keep track of the number of steps you take each day with a step counter or pedometer, which you can buy at a sporting goods store. Wearing a step counter may motivate you to be more physically active. Write down your daily step count on a calendar to track your progress.
• Find creative ways to add physical activity to your day. Park your car at the far end of the parking lot when you go to the mall or grocery store. If you ride the bus, get off one stop before you usually do and walk the rest of the way. When you watch TV, walk in place or do jumping jacks during the commercial breaks. Instead of e-mailing a coworker, get up and walk to his or her desk.

For more information on walking, see:

Fitness: Walking for wellness.

For more information on using a pedometer, see:

Fitness: Using a pedometer or step counter.

Tips for setting healthy eating goals:

• Add foods to your diet instead of taking something away. For example, try adding more fruits and vegetables to your meals. Taking things out of your diet (for example, all desserts or sweets) may leave you feeling deprived, which may make it harder for your to stick with the change.
• Make a list of foods you already like and find ways to make them healthier. For example, if you like pizza, make pizza at home with low-fat mozzarella cheese and lots of fresh vegetables. Or, order a vegetarian pizza with half of the regular amount of cheese.

Measure improvements in your health

If weight loss is one of your goals to improve your health, it is not necessary to lose all your excess weight to improve your health. Research shows that improvements in health can be achieved by losing as little as 5% to 10% of your weight.⁴

Losing weight slowly will help keep the weight off in the long run. A reasonable rate of weight loss is about 1 lb (0.5 kg) to 2 lb (1 kg) a week. People who try to lose weight at a faster rate are more likely to regain the weight they have lost. Very fast weight loss also may harm your body.

Blood tests are one way to measure improvements in your health. Before you lose weight or make lifestyle changes, ask your doctor to check your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and blood sugar. Then have them checked again after you have lost 5% to 10% of your weight or made lifestyle changes. Testing your:

• Blood sugar levels can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are helping to control your diabetes.
• Cholesterol and triglyceride levels can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are decreasing your risk for heart disease.
• Blood pressure can tell you whether your lifestyle changes or weight loss are decreasing your risk for heart disease and stroke.

Another way to measure improvements in health is to look for changes in your fitness level. For example, are you able to walk longer and on more days than when you started? Can you climb a flight of stairs without getting as tired or out of breath? Do you have better strength and muscle tone? Do you have more energy?