7 THINGS TO CONSIDER BEFORE STARTING A WEIGHT-LOSS PROGRAM

There was a time when the bigger you were, or the bigger your tummy, the more opulent you appeared and the more respect you commanded (the Yoruba would say 'ikun lagba'). Now, being overweight is beginning to attract stigmatization (a dangerous trend) and everyone is becoming weight conscious. The popularity of 'selfies' and the social media has made looking good a priority in many people's life. Females are now obsessed with nice curves and flat tummies and males think about bulging chest muscles and 6 abs. Awareness of the health and economic cost of being overweight has also increased. The issue of maintaining a healthy weight has therefore come to the fore of people's personal lives. So if you are thinking about losing weight, and being successful at it, you need to know the answers to these seven questions.

1. Why are you thinking about losing weight?

photo credit: theguardian.com

There is hardly a bad reason for wanting to lose weight (except you are trying to pass an impression of suffering and hunger), so whatever your reason, clarify it in your mind and do not be apologetic about it. Maybe you just want to look good, maybe you want to model, maybe you want to do it for your spouse, maybe it is based on advice from your doctor for a health condition, whatever the reason, make sure it is strong enough to drive you because you will need the strength. I will be writing on the benefits of staying within your optimal weight in later posts, so, stay tuned. The point I'm trying to make here is: know your reasons, set your goals and stay focused.

2. What is your current health condition?

You do not just go online, read about how to lose weight, and start carrying it out without counsel from your doctor especially if you have a chronic condition. I want to believe the reason why you are starting a weight loss program in the first place is because you are over-weight as confirmed by a medical practitioner, so, first of all, you have to find out if you are fit enough for a vigorous routine, and if not, how you should start. Generally, whether fit or not,it is always advisable to start slow, and graduate upward. I, for instance,  started with going for walks, then jogging, and going to the gym, I only started dieting when I realized I was making very little progress (I'll share my experience later). I have still not graduated to running, either on the street or on the treadmill, but the results are already amazing ( my before and after pics after 3 months below). Let us know your own story in the comments section so that we can learn from one another.

3. What are the available options out there?

There are a lot of options for losing weight, and a lot of products are coming out daily, promising miracles. I will like to classify the weight loss methods into four:

a. Dieting/nutritional
b. Exercise/increased activity
c. Medications
d. Surgery/artificially assisted

Now, for the best results, you need to combine at least two of the above methods.

credit: healthydietingtips.org

a. Dieting/Nutritional: This generally entails cutting down on calories. It is safe when done properly, but you need to consult your doctor before starting, especially if you are diabetic or obese. You should have a good knowledge about what dieting entails too. Many people take dieting to mean starving, and end up developing acid peptic diseases, and malnutrition.

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This is improper, counter-productive and a recipe for failure and rebound weight gain. Dieting as I have said earlier is all about reducing calorie intake, and eating healthier diets. By dieting alone, for the least disciplined of us, you can lose 2kg in a month. It also comes with the added benefits of feeling healthier, improving the body's immune system, and lowering the amount of toxins in the system.

b. Exercise/Increased activity: This is my personal favourite as it comes with the added benefits of improved cardiovascular and respiratory functions, enhancement of endurance, and improving the general feeling of fitness.

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Contrary to popular belief, you do not need to stress yourself to gain the benefits of exercise, leave that to professional athletes. Simple, graduated and sustained exercise will do the magic for you. The initial muscle aches you get when you start are physiologic and should not discourage you, but when you start having light headedness, breathlessness, fainting spells, or palpitations, then you need to cut yourself some slack. Exercise has been made more exciting with the advent of mobile apps that help you count the calories you have burnt so that you can keep track of your calorie balance.

c. Medications: I will be a little cautious here. There are a lot of drugs being produced with promises of significant weight loss in a short duration of time. I have not used any of these, nor am I close to someone that has. What I know is that many of them work by detoxification and reduction of appetite and cravings. I saw one recently that works by increasing collagen synthesis in the body and improves body tone. My professional advice is this, read thoroughly through the leaflet and online before you start. What I have tried however, are some home-made cocktails like the lemon/ginger detox drink, and I actually got results, but not immediately, as the company-made products promise. If you have any personal experience with any of these products, you can share with us in the comments section.

d. Surgery/Artificially assisted: Maybe I should not lump these together, but I do not want to be guilty of over-categorization. By artificially-assisted here, I mean the use of compression garments. They are designed after corsets of old but are now made using Lycra and Spandex.

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They are are said to cause weight loss by increasing your rate of sweating, by acting as a micro massage, by compression and by serving as an athletic support and thereby encouraging and enhancing exercise. We will find time to scrutinize these claims on a future date.
Surgery is usually a last resort. Of course it is not for everyone and rate of success depends on the type of surgery. It is usually recommended for people with BMI of 40 and above; people who are obese with associated problems like sleep apnoea and heart diseases; people who have failed after trying other means; and for those who do not fall into the above categories but understand the risk perfectly and still demand for it.

photo credit: yourweightlossaid.com

There are different types of surgery, but basically, they cause weight loss by restriction of diet, malabsorption of consumed food, or blocking of hunger signals from getting to the brain.





4. What do you expect?
It is important to note here that you did not gain weight in a day, so you should not expect to lose it in a day. I do not intend to discourage you, but you should know the truth before starting. You need commitment. You need discipline. You need focus. Times will come when you will feel like giving yourself a break, when you will miss that cup of ice cream, or that bottle of soda. You will need to fight such cravings. Research has also shown that of those who were successful in losing the amount of weight they planned, only 2-20% are able to maintain it.

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So set your mind to it that it may be a life-long thing. If you are lucky, your body will adapt to your new lifestyle completely and it will become effortless staying in shape, if you are not, then you need to seek for motivation and encouragement where you can find it. For me, I hanged a favourite shirt that has become tight on the wall and tried it on fortnightly.

5. What are calories?

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To be successful in losing weight, you need to understand how the weight got there in the first place. The human body is composed mostly of water, then you have the solid components: bones, muscle, fat etc. Now the fat is the the major culprit for unwanted weight gain, and it comes from the excess energy we consume. I could start defining calories scientifically, but what it represents is a unit of energy we derive from the food we consume. Some people designate it as Calorie or kilocalorie (kcal), it is the same thing. Some, however, use kilojoule (kJ), which is derived by multiplying Calorie by 4.12. Fats give the highest amount of calorie: 9 per gram of fat consumed, carbohydrates and proteins give four each, but considering the amount of energy burnt to digest proteins, and the amount of carbohydrates you need to consume to feel full compared to proteins, added to the fact that carbohydrates release energy in the shortest period of the three, the emphasis is always on reduction of carbohydrates.

What is BMI?
BMI means Body/Mass Index. It is calculated by dividing your weight in kilograms by the square of your height in metres. It is a standardized formula for objectively categorizing people based on their weight, and knowing those at risk for weight-related illnesses. To be able to track your weight loss, you need to have access to a good weighing scale and know your height too. The table below shows the categorizations based on BMI. There is also a concept known as BMI prime, but we'll leave that for the medical practitioners and nutritionists.

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From the table above however, you will see, that the goal should be to have a BMI of between 18.5-25. If you are underweight too, you should be looking towards bringing your BMI up to within this range. We will find time to talk about underweight people too in some later posts.

7. What is BMR
This is a little academic, but it would not hurt to know what it means especially if you want to grab some understanding of the weight gain/loss process. Basal Metabolic Rate means the basic amount of energy your body needs to keep all organs fully functional. It is the amount of energy your body expends when you sit still and do absolutely nothing at all. This is different from your daily dietary requirement which is the amount of energy you need to consume to carry out your daily activities and puts into consideration factors like your age, sex, activity level and of course your BMI. You can find various specific calculators online but generally, the table below should guide you to your daily dietary requirement. 

Gender	Age (years)	Sedentary	Moderately Active	Active
Child	2-3	1,000	1,000-1,400	1,000-1,400
Female	4-8 9-13 14-18 19-30 31-50 51+	1,200 1,600 1,800 2,000 1,800 1,600	1,400-1,600 1,600-2,000 2,000 2,000-2,200 2,000 1,800	1,400-1,800 1,800-2,200 2,400 2,400 2,200 2,000-2,200
Male	4-8 9-13 14-18 19-30 31-50 51+	1,400 1,800 2,200 2,400 2,200 2,000	1,400-1,600 1,800-2,200 2,400-2,800 2,600-2,800 2,400-2,600 2,200-2,400	1,600-2,000 2,000-2,600 2,800-3,200 3,000 2,800-3,000 2,400-2,800

Sedentary here means just your daily routine and office work. Moderately active means your daily work plus a little exercise of about an hour a day or light menial work. Active means you expend a lot of energy maybe as an athlete, a military man, or heavy worker. If you do not feel comfortable using this generalized table, I will teach you how to calculate your own daily requirements to achieve your target weight. If you eat above your daily requirement, you will gain weight, if you eat below it, you will lose weight. It is as simple as that.


Now that we have tried to answer these questions, let the weight modification begin!