As a healthcare practitioner in the field of physical medicine and rehabilitation, Dr. Perry Herman knows the importance of achieving and maintaining a healthy weight. It’s well known that being overweight gives you a higher probability of getting certain illnesses, and depending on how overweight you are, it can also affect your vitality and even mobility. The following are 10 tips our physiatry practice would like to share with you for managing your weight.
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Be Smart by Following a SMART Plan
Setting goals is critical to accomplishing any planned course of action, and this is certainly no less true for losing weight. Don’t just set any goals, though. Make sure these goals fit the acronym SMART or, in other words, that they are “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound.” You also need to make sure to set small enough goals that you don’t take too long in accomplishing them so you give yourself the motivation to continue.
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Stay Active
Health practitioners have long recommended a dual approach of diet and exercise to bring about lasting weight loss. Even if the exercise portion of this plan is merely a vigorous walk around the block each day, it’s critical to do this even after reaching weight-loss goals in order to maintain them. As an added bonus, regular physical activity will also make you feel better in terms of your mood and overall health.
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Develop a Personalized Diet
As a physiatrist, Dr. Herman realizes that a good diet is a critical lifestyle habit that is the foundation of weight loss and health in general. At our practice, we impress upon you the importance of coming up with a diet that’s personal to you. The best dietary recommendations aren’t going to help if you end up not following them. Eating healthy foods while reducing calorie intake is critical, and any diet that you’re able to stick with that accomplishes this is best because consistency is the most important criteria of any good diet.
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Don’t Try to Go It Alone
Weight Watchers is one example of a well-known weight loss program, and peer support is a critical part of their formula. Everything is harder alone. Friends who are also interested in losing weight or staying in good shape are helpful for drawing strength from when you feel like giving up. There are also weight loss apps that include peer support, so it doesn’t even need to be local friends to give you that helping hand.
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Integrate Meal Replacements
The use of meal replacements, such as protein shakes or a smoothie, can be a useful addition to any weight loss plan. Meal replacements can help you control your daily calorie intake, which is why many who integrate them into their diet experience better weight loss results.
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Track Your Results
This step sounds pretty basic, but it’s also incredibly important. It’s kind of hard to stay motivated to follow a diet and exercise plan if you don’t even know what it’s doing for you. Fortunately, we have our smartphones, and there are a plethora of apps that help you track a myriad health and fitness statistics from calorie counters to those that track specific physical activity stats.
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Focus on Gut Health
The saying is that “you are what you eat,” but a more accurate version would be “you are what you absorb.” We all have a host of friendly gut bacteria that help us digest and absorb the food we eat, and it’s been shown that people who take steps to address the health of this part of their body experience enhanced weight control.
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Use a Tape Measure in Addition to the Scale
Getting on the scale regularly is important, but don’t solely rely on that. Take out the tape measure periodically as well because if you’re exercising regularly, you’ll be gaining muscle as well as losing fat, and the tape measure will show this better.
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You’ll Reap Noticeable Rewards From Small Weight Reductions
You’ll be happy to learn that even relatively small reductions in weight can provide you with clinically measurable benefits in terms of disease prevention.
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Be in This for the Long Term
Weight management needs to be a life-long commitment if you care about your health and wellness. At the practice of Dr. Perry Herman, we believe diet and exercise are a core part of weight management and overall health. While helping patients who suffer from neck, back, joint or tissue pain, we’ve found that lifestyle modification can be critical in this treatment area. We are here in the Plainsboro, New Jersey area to help you deal with pain issues through non-invasive methods and to help you maintain overall wellness and function in ways that will benefit you throughout your life.
