January 4, 2008 by Kavit Haria

How to cut the fat and feel good

Photo from Mr TGT

Over the last few days, as I’ve kept an eye on the Kenyan post-elections violence I also happened to watch and read about ‘globesity’ - a phenomenon that health secretary Alan Johnson says makes the UK’s obesity crisis just as important as the climate change crisis.

According to a report by the BBC says that the people of the UK are most attached to fast food with the US following in second place. Even more striking is the risk that in just the next generation, children are likely to die before their parents if what they eat and drink is not controlled. Although some people are born overweight, most are not and if their eating habits are not healthy from the start, it is going to be increasingly difficult to keep them off junk food in later life and this will increase in extreme risk.

2007 was probably one of the worst years of obesity that I’ve heard and read about in the UK. More shows than ever following obese kids and what they eat were shown on British television. I remember what was in the news this time last year: a child was going to be taken from his mother because he was extremely obese.

No matter how much one has gone into making obesity known to the public, I don’t think it is having the intended effect of showing people how big a risk it actually is. The consequences for obese people who either don’t do anything about it or don’t know that they’re overweight is dire. Vicki Swindon of Fat Is The New Black sums it up well in this BBC report: “It’s got to a stage now where it’s actually hard to get any useful messages across because people have heard so much, often contradictory, information, that they just think: obesity blah blah blah”.

Some have argued that there is no link between children eating fast food and their obesity, but studies have proven otherwise. Fast food just like sugars and fats contain a lot of ‘empty calories’ and one study shows that children of all ages who eat at fast food places eat too many empty calories and this unhealthy intake adds extra unneeded “junk” cells into the body, increasing the weight.

Think about it. An overweight may stop off at a fast food place twice a week each time taking in about 250 empty calories. Multiply that by 52 weeks and you get an extra few pounds of empty calories within a year. Sure, they may exercise and lose some of it but if they’re overweight, it’s unlikely they do much exercise and most of it just builds up over time. 

Here are a few points to helping you and your kids get back to looking and feeling great:

- Make more time for your health. One of the reason people get onto junk food habits is because of the busy lifestyles they lead which means they just don’t have time to prepare a healthy meal. Decide to make some time for yourself each day whether it starts with an extra ten or twenty minutes and fix yourself a healthy meal and salad.

- Keep a food journal. If you’re going to change, you’ll need to want to do it from within. One of the best ways to do this is to keep a food journal and become really aware what you eat. Write down what you eat and drink at every meal time and in between. When you do this and look back on it after a few days, you’ll see how much empty calories you take in and then can consciously decide which ones to cut out from your lifestyle.

- Decide to eat less. It’s often easier said than done, but deciding to eat only a little bit each meal rather than eating till your absolutely full is a great way to allow yourself to cut out unneeded calories and still have lots of energy. When you eat till you’re full, you use up all your energy in getting the food digested as best as possible and become very tired. When you eat only a small amount of healthy food and stop yourself from overeating till you’re stuffed you allow yourself extra energy to keep going.

- Take a walk every day. Find a walking buddy from your local neighbourhood - whether it’s your partner or a close neighbour - and commit to walking for at least 15 minutes each day. This could be first thing when you wake up in the morning or after your dinner at night. Whatever you choose, make sure you do it and walking with someone else makes you accountable.

-  Cut the fizzy. Stop drinking fizzy sugar-rich drinks. Drink lots more water and allow your cells to wake up again from their squashed lifestyles. Cells need lots of oxygen to replenish themselves and fizzy drinks doesn’t give you that - they just disrupt your digestion.

- Eat a salad. Salad is water-rich and will help wash down your food. Even if you still continue to eat junk food, have a big healthy salad to help wash down the food and aid your digestion.

- Fad diets don’t work. These are diets that provide lose-weight-fast option and are best avoided as they are difficult to follow in the long term and sometimes require complete restriction in the early days.

What tips can you share to cut the fat? 

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Posted to: Exercise and Fitness, Health and Wellness, Weight Loss

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