Women?s weight loss challenges are both emotional and biological. Throughout life, women are more prone to the effects of stress. They?re more prone to sleep difficulties and depression. All this, of course, heightens the lure of emotional overeating. At the same time, women experience thyroid problems and hormonal disturbances that affect appetite and weight. They build muscle less easily than men, and so get less of the metabolic boost that muscle brings. With age, physical, especially hormonal, changes make losing weight harder still. Constant dieting can feel ever more stressful and defeating when these issues interfere.
The good news is that all of this does not spell ?impossible?. On the contrary, understanding this maze of interference highlights some solutions. Simply focusing on cutting calories or food groups, in other words, may not address enough of the complex pieces of the puzzle. Indeed, while cuts play a part, what gets added may make the bigger difference overall. What to add? Think of three key ingredients: vegetables, exercise, and stress management.
We all know that vegetables are important. Recently, though, the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reported a study of the factors that helped middle-age and older women keep weight off. Cutting the usual culprits?sugary drinks, for example?emerged as a notable factor. Just as important, though, was eating more vegetables and fruits. And as the researchers helpfully point out, this represents a potentially significant long-term change that doesn?t require an ongoing battle with willpower and self-denial. It?s something one can do, rather than something one has to struggle to not do. Eating more vegetables, furthermore, can become a habit that eventually makes other changes easier, such as eating fewer sweets, perhaps, or ordering more vegetables when restaurant dining. Over time, these changes add up and matter.
Exercise, of course, can feel to some like more of the ?gotta-diet? burden. Shift how you think about it, though, and see it as another something you can add, and you?ve got an offset to the metabolic slowdown of age. You?ve got help fostering the muscle that men build more easily. You?ve got health benefits way beyond potential weight loss. Further, as New York Times columnist Jane Brody wrote recently (in ?Changing America?s Anthem on Exercise?), it can improve well-being and happiness right here and now?no need to wait for health to improve down the road. And that helps with stress and cravings (see below). Targeting exercise as an ?add in?, then, can return a sense of choice and control while a lifelong wholesome habit takes root.
The third addition, stress management, addresses women?s greater vulnerability to emotional overeating and cravings. Add one stress-reducing something to life?whether it?s daily walks, more time with friends, yoga, massage, or therapy?and you?ve bolstered your ability to cope without junk food. Widen the stress reduction spotlight further, and you might focus on getting more sleep, or on saying ?no? to some family or work demands. These, too, can help reduce the overeating pull and make it easier to choose wisely on one?s own behalf.
The common theme here is of that stepping away from a self-depriving focus and into one of positive action. These kinds of positive actions fall in the realm of the possible and doable. So they?re therefore more likely to boost optimism and self-confidence. And that can only help in keeping them up for the long run.
References/Further Reading:
http://www.realage.com/womens-health/weight-loss-tips-for-women
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/08/30/160113054/boomer-wome...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/why-the-tyranny-of-everything...
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/27/changing-our-tune-on-exe...
http://www.eatsanely.com/blog
Source: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/thin-within/201210/women-and-weight
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