Weight Loss

The nutritionist from the today show was answering Emails this morning and happened to mention something I found interesting.

According to her women should diet and keep their calories between 1200-1600 a day. PLUS exercise for an hour everyday.

She never mentioned eating back calories or lifting weights to maintain our lean mass.

Doesnt this go against whats been preached on these forums?!?!

What are your thoughts on this?

Remember that the intended audience is the average American who still tries to use fad diets to get results and never exercises.  I'd lay odds that she gave dumbed down advice that the producers thought people could readily understand and would make viewers get that fluffy happy feeling.

Okay, so I hate the Today show.  I'd trust the people here for advice over a tv doc.

i agree with blakthorn, but also, as much as losing weight is a science, there are tons of differing opinions, even here on cc. the trick is finding what works for you and going with that. all anyone else can offer are basically suggestions.

Original Post by blakthorn:

Okay, so I hate the Today show. 

The Today show has more fluff in it than my dryer.  Fortunately, I rarely have to subject myself to it.

Sounds like she was offering a potted version of 'eat less & exercise more' aimed at the averagely overweight person.  I think when instructions get more complicated that's when people either glaze over with boredom or get totally confused and do nothing.   Ideas like 'eating back calories', 'cycling calories' and 'deficits' certainly produce plenty of confused posts on this website!!  And with all the recent conflicting information about what's healthy and what isn't (low-carb, low-fat, the Subway Diet, clean eating)  maybe it's time for a simpler message.   Her recommendation would be quite effective for most people. 

Did she say not to lift weights? Did she mention "weight loss" while saying what weight was actually lost? Did she specifically say that lean mass would not be lost, just fat?

I'm going to guess no on all points. Not saying to do something is not the same as saying not to do something. Sure you can lose weight, and even fat without weight lifting, but you'll lose muscle too, which has a two fold effect. You don't look as good as you would if you just lost fat, and your metabolism is less than if you just lost fat. I'm going to guess she just avoided the topic for simplicity and her target audience.

No comment on the eating back calories thing, that's debated around here, and I think is commanly misuderstood as to the reasoning behind it.

It sounds fair to me... it wouldn't apply to someone super-heavy who burns a LOT more calories just holding themselves up, or to an athlete, but the average-sized woman (and at 200 pounds I'm including myself in that category) should lose weight that way - bear in mind she said exercise for ONE hour a day, not two or three... one hour of swimming or bicycling burns about 500 calories, one hour of walking about 300 - eat 1500 calories and burn off 500 and you should have a nice healthy deficit at the end of the day. It's pretty much the formula for my diet.

I guess it would apply to "average type women". I did just this last year, started at 238....ate 1500 calorie and exercised 30-60 minutes. I lost a lot of weight but ended up putting my body into conservation mode. NOw my metabolism is slowly repairing from all the abuse. LOL.

Most women who exercise for an hour or more need way more than she suggested. Especially if they lift weights.  

Guess it just bugs me that she was giving this advice when it really only applys to a small amount of women.

Most of the women she was talking to do NOT go to the gym every week and lift weights - they've never even thought about it. They don't get any regular exercise at all... What percentage of the population do you think are gym bunnies and/or serious exercisers? A much smaller one than the percentage who are sitting on their rears on the couch watching television and eating cheetos...

I think the nutritionist gave the audience low numbers knowing that they would overeat anyhow and probably eat more calories than that. An educated person here on CC would log everything, whereas an audience member or average American may not log fruit because it is "so low" in calories. Although a banana only has about 100 calories, eat an extra 3-4 of those and you could put on weight if it becomes a habit.

 People who only estimate portion sizes and exercise tend to underestimate calorie intake by 40-100% and overestimate expenditure by about the same.

 Humans suck at this, it's why we get overweight in the first place ;)

Along the same lines, yesterday on Good Morning America, they had a short piece on the key to losing weight. And the answer is... keeping a food diary and being accountable for what you're eating. I can't remember if they mentioned how many calories one should eat, but I don't think so. I guess we at CC are on the right track according to GMA!

I just saw an article on msn yesterday (wish I could find it again to post it) but it had said that according to recent studies those that kept a food journal of all that they ate (like here on CC)  lost 50% more weight then those that didnt...  so i'd say we're on the right track  :)