A tiered approach to 'lifestyle change'.
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stumblinthrulife
Posts: 2,558 Member
Here we go again - someone who has had moderate success preaching to everyone else. But bear with me, because I do believe this could help people. If you don't agree with me, feel free to state as much - it's a free country.
So why do people fail? I think one major source of failure is simply trying to do too much, too quickly.
I see people every day trying to cut out everything they think is 'bad for them' on day one, and move to a 'clean' or 'paleo' or 'vegan' or 'insert-lifestyle-here' diet. It's hard. Really hard. They can't have their favorite foods anymore. They are forcing down pounds of veges a day they may not even like. They are fighting cravings for food they love all the time. And when they fail, they have nothing to fall back on. They have no idea how to live a moderately healthy lifestyle - the only ways they have learned to eat are 'perfect' or 'bad'. They slide back to how they were eating before they started.
Some people can do it. Some people can go from a pizza-based diet to a kale-based diet without blinking and happily stay there for the rest of their lives. That's great if that's their goal. This plan isn't for those people.
If you aren't one of those lucky people, if you are struggling, or have failed in the past with drastic diet change, I humbly suggest that you consider the following 'levels' of lifestyle change -
Level 0: Status quo
This is how you're currently eating. You know it's hurting you, you know you need to change.
Level 1: Calorie limiting
First and foremost, just start eating less. Eat whatever you want, but log everything - even if it's pizza breakfast, lunch and dinner. Reduce your calories to your maintenance levels, and then below. You'll start losing weight. That's half the battle. You've got started. Keep at it for a few months to solidify this way of eating in your mind. If you are worried about vitamins and minerals - take a multi-vitamin and put it out of your mind. You didn't die from vitamin deficiency when you were on 5,000 calories of pizza a day, and you won't die from it on 2,000 calories of pizza a day. We're on a slow process here, because you already know the fast track doesn't work for you.
Level 2: Macronutrients
Now shift focus to macronutrients. Keep your calories low to keep losing weight. But now start looking at your protein and fat intake. Aim for a gram of protein for every pound of lean mass ('guesstimate' around 1/2 to 2/3 of your weight if you are obese, 3/4 if you are overweight). Go for about 1/3 of your total mass in pounds, in grams of fat. Carbs will be the rest. You can go over if you want, so long as it's in your calories. So a 240 pound guy will be looking at about 160g of protein and about 80g of fat. Now you're losing weight, and reducing lean mass loss. As a nice side effect, I bet you're feeling more full on the same amount of calories. Again, keep at it for a while. Program this way of eating into your mind.
Level 3: Exercise
You weren't going to avoid this. People will argue over strength vs. cardio, but I'm putting cardio first simply because it's more accessible.
3a. Get a bit more cardio exercise in every week. Walk some. Maybe do a C25k program. Play tennis, soccer, basketball with your kids. Do whatever you want - just move more. Consider a pedometer if seeing it quantified will help (I know it helped me). Now you're losing weight, strengthening your heart and lowering your cholesterol.
3b. Do some strength training. People on MFP love the free weights, and for pure strength and muscle gain they are hard to beat. But I don't think they are entirely necessary, and again it smacks of that 'all or fail' attitude we are trying to avoid. Calisthenics, TRX suspension training, pilates, plyometrics, anything that has your muscles working against some form of resistance. Now you're losing weight, strengthening your heart, lowering your cholesterol, getting stronger and really minimizing that lost muscle mass.
If you fail here, go back to level 2 and regroup. Perhaps take another charge at exercise in a few months - it'll be easier once you've lost weight, and you may find it sticks. In the meantime, still jump to the next step. If the worst comes to the worst and you simply cannot exercise, all is not lost. Not everyone exercises. It doesn't mean you can't improve your health through changing your eating.
Level 4. Micro-nutrients If your diet is still 100% pizza and burgers (i.e. minimal/no vegetables or fruit at all), start offsetting some of it with more fruit and veg. Note I say some of it. You don't need to eat like a rabbit to get your 'five-a-day'. Hit your micro-nutrient goals every day, while still hitting your calories and macro-nutrients. Frozen, tinned, bagged or fresh out the ground - at this point it does not matter. Getting more fruit and veg will improve your health and get your doctor off your back. Plus they are tastier than mult-vits.
At this point, in my opinion, you have made it. I won't say that there are no benefits at all to step 5, but I personally I consider it entirely optional. It won't hurt anyone that also follows the other steps, but the benefit is marginal in comparison to everything else.
Level 5: Lifestyle diets Go 'organic' or 'clean' or 'keto' or 'paleo' or whatever lifestyle choice you want to make. You've built your foundation, and you feel you want more. Great - go for it! But remember that you are climbing to the fifth floor of the tower, and failing here, doesn't mean you can't just jump down to the fourth floor and live a healthy productive life right there.
So there you have it. Nothing ground breaking, I grant you. But it's the tiered thinking I wanted to encourage - the idea of isolating any perceived failure to one level. Just because you fail a level, doesn't mean you have to go back to 0, and it doesn't mean you can't try that level again some day, starting from a much better position than before.
So why do people fail? I think one major source of failure is simply trying to do too much, too quickly.
I see people every day trying to cut out everything they think is 'bad for them' on day one, and move to a 'clean' or 'paleo' or 'vegan' or 'insert-lifestyle-here' diet. It's hard. Really hard. They can't have their favorite foods anymore. They are forcing down pounds of veges a day they may not even like. They are fighting cravings for food they love all the time. And when they fail, they have nothing to fall back on. They have no idea how to live a moderately healthy lifestyle - the only ways they have learned to eat are 'perfect' or 'bad'. They slide back to how they were eating before they started.
Some people can do it. Some people can go from a pizza-based diet to a kale-based diet without blinking and happily stay there for the rest of their lives. That's great if that's their goal. This plan isn't for those people.
If you aren't one of those lucky people, if you are struggling, or have failed in the past with drastic diet change, I humbly suggest that you consider the following 'levels' of lifestyle change -
Level 0: Status quo
This is how you're currently eating. You know it's hurting you, you know you need to change.
Level 1: Calorie limiting
First and foremost, just start eating less. Eat whatever you want, but log everything - even if it's pizza breakfast, lunch and dinner. Reduce your calories to your maintenance levels, and then below. You'll start losing weight. That's half the battle. You've got started. Keep at it for a few months to solidify this way of eating in your mind. If you are worried about vitamins and minerals - take a multi-vitamin and put it out of your mind. You didn't die from vitamin deficiency when you were on 5,000 calories of pizza a day, and you won't die from it on 2,000 calories of pizza a day. We're on a slow process here, because you already know the fast track doesn't work for you.
Level 2: Macronutrients
Now shift focus to macronutrients. Keep your calories low to keep losing weight. But now start looking at your protein and fat intake. Aim for a gram of protein for every pound of lean mass ('guesstimate' around 1/2 to 2/3 of your weight if you are obese, 3/4 if you are overweight). Go for about 1/3 of your total mass in pounds, in grams of fat. Carbs will be the rest. You can go over if you want, so long as it's in your calories. So a 240 pound guy will be looking at about 160g of protein and about 80g of fat. Now you're losing weight, and reducing lean mass loss. As a nice side effect, I bet you're feeling more full on the same amount of calories. Again, keep at it for a while. Program this way of eating into your mind.
Level 3: Exercise
You weren't going to avoid this. People will argue over strength vs. cardio, but I'm putting cardio first simply because it's more accessible.
3a. Get a bit more cardio exercise in every week. Walk some. Maybe do a C25k program. Play tennis, soccer, basketball with your kids. Do whatever you want - just move more. Consider a pedometer if seeing it quantified will help (I know it helped me). Now you're losing weight, strengthening your heart and lowering your cholesterol.
3b. Do some strength training. People on MFP love the free weights, and for pure strength and muscle gain they are hard to beat. But I don't think they are entirely necessary, and again it smacks of that 'all or fail' attitude we are trying to avoid. Calisthenics, TRX suspension training, pilates, plyometrics, anything that has your muscles working against some form of resistance. Now you're losing weight, strengthening your heart, lowering your cholesterol, getting stronger and really minimizing that lost muscle mass.
If you fail here, go back to level 2 and regroup. Perhaps take another charge at exercise in a few months - it'll be easier once you've lost weight, and you may find it sticks. In the meantime, still jump to the next step. If the worst comes to the worst and you simply cannot exercise, all is not lost. Not everyone exercises. It doesn't mean you can't improve your health through changing your eating.
Level 4. Micro-nutrients If your diet is still 100% pizza and burgers (i.e. minimal/no vegetables or fruit at all), start offsetting some of it with more fruit and veg. Note I say some of it. You don't need to eat like a rabbit to get your 'five-a-day'. Hit your micro-nutrient goals every day, while still hitting your calories and macro-nutrients. Frozen, tinned, bagged or fresh out the ground - at this point it does not matter. Getting more fruit and veg will improve your health and get your doctor off your back. Plus they are tastier than mult-vits.
At this point, in my opinion, you have made it. I won't say that there are no benefits at all to step 5, but I personally I consider it entirely optional. It won't hurt anyone that also follows the other steps, but the benefit is marginal in comparison to everything else.
Level 5: Lifestyle diets Go 'organic' or 'clean' or 'keto' or 'paleo' or whatever lifestyle choice you want to make. You've built your foundation, and you feel you want more. Great - go for it! But remember that you are climbing to the fifth floor of the tower, and failing here, doesn't mean you can't just jump down to the fourth floor and live a healthy productive life right there.
So there you have it. Nothing ground breaking, I grant you. But it's the tiered thinking I wanted to encourage - the idea of isolating any perceived failure to one level. Just because you fail a level, doesn't mean you have to go back to 0, and it doesn't mean you can't try that level again some day, starting from a much better position than before.
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Replies
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Bravo! People ask me all the time "what are you doing to lose weight?" I tell them nothing more than making sure that I use more calories than I eat. They don't believe it can be that simple (not easy, but certainly simple). Then I tell them the layers of changes: macros, exercise, micros... and they say that's too hard. No, just start at calories and everything else will come. Really!
Personally, I think you've quite aptly summed up the formula for successfully changing to a healthier lifestyle.0 -
Interesting - but I think too hard. Cutting calories eating junk food is going to be very hard as junk food is calorie dense and not "filling". Without a good amount of protein - those cheese pizzas are going to be unsatisfying and I probably not last long. Weight watchers does this - eat whatever you want no matter how bad it is - and try to live on a certain amount of food- it worked when I was 21, never worked since.
However, I think changing your food and losing before you start to exercise may work - I didn't do it that way - but I think it is not a bad approach. You certainly see more gains in strength doing weight training without a ton of extra weight - but even heavy you can see them and cardio is great for the heart. So I agree with most but not all your recommendations.0 -
Love your levels. I kinda skipped 3 and am going back to it now. I went 1,2,4 and now am at 3. I needed to do this in steps and I think many others will agree it is the only way to stick with it.0
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Interesting - but I think too hard. Cutting calories eating junk food is going to be very hard as junk food is calorie dense and not "filling". Without a good amount of protein - those cheese pizzas are going to be unsatisfying and I probably not last long. Weight watchers does this - eat whatever you want no matter how bad it is - and try to live on a certain amount of food- it worked when I was 21, never worked since.
However, I think changing your food and losing before you start to exercise may work - I didn't do it that way - but I think it is not a bad approach. You certainly see more gains in strength doing weight training without a ton of extra weight - but even heavy you can see them and cardio is great for the heart. So I agree with most but not all your recommendations.
You know, we could debate the exact order ad nauseum, and frankly the same order might not work for everyone.
The idea I'm putting forward is simply to build gradually, so that at each potential point of failure you fall back to a healthier position than you were in before, and not straight back to your old habits.
Too many people on MFP have an all or nothing attitude that sets people up to fail.0 -
In to give a high five for taking the time to write out a reasonable approach for people.0
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I think this is such a great approach. Hopefully new people will see this and try it - they will have a much better chance of success than the all or nothing approach. Thanks for taking the time to post this.0
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I think this is such a great approach. Hopefully new people will see this and try it - they will have a much better chance of success than the all or nothing approach. Thanks for taking the time to post this.0
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I really enjoyed reading your post. It is very similar to what I have done, maybe not in the same order, or to the extreme of being on a diet of junk food, but similar. I started cutting calories, but not taking my favorites out of my diet. I still haven't. Moderation is the key. I don't want to go through life not being able to enjoy ice cream! I then added the exercise piece, and have worked up to exercising 5-6 times/week. I do a mix of cardio and strength. I have just recently started to focus mord on macro and micro nutrients. It can be an eye opening experience! I haven't decided if I will do any sort of "lifestyle diet" because I want whatever I do to be sustainable for the long haul.
Thanks for posting and I hope that others will find it to be useful in their endeavors to lose weight and become healthier.0 -
Great post. Thank you!0
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