At Goal
Maintaining Your Goal Weight
Getting to goal and staying at goal are two different prospects. There are a number of weight loss surgery patients who get to their goal weight, only to see it quietly slip away over time.When we study the difference between these patients, a number of themes are striking. One of them is the use of exercise. A number of patients will engage in some fitness routine as they are losing weight, get to goal, and then stop. Does this mean that it is the lack of a work-out routine that allowed weight regain? Yes and no.
Here are the facts from our study: 77% of patients who get to goal and stay there have an exercise routine. Of those who got to goal, then lost their way, less than 10% have a fitness routine.
But there are some startling facts about the patients who have an exercise routine—many of them are using that routine not to lose weight, but to relieve stress. Many find that stress relief through a fitness regimen is far better than stress relief through food. Here are a few simple facts:
- Few people have the time to exercise enough to lose weight. While those dials that count calories on the various machines are inaccurate and unforgiving, the simple fact remains that improving fitness does have lasting effects. The main one is the ability to withstand a stressful situation.
- The portion size of food remains the key to weight loss – reducing the portion of food allows more weight loss than the amount of exercise an average individual can perform. My favorite example: the hamburgers (not a great food) I ate as a child were 290 calories less than the burger I buy today. For me to exercise that difference requires 2.5 hours of weights (not just looking at everyone else in the gym).
So, fitness provides many tools for those who want to lose weight and maintain that weight loss. It increases muscle mass that burns more calories, provides a way to relieve stress not using food, and makes one feel better.
| Terry Simpson, MD, FACS is a weight loss surgeon in Phoenix and has authored several books. For more information check out Dr. Simpson's profile and website www.drsimpson.net. Click here for the PDF version of this article from its appearance in OH Magazine. |
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