New Year's Resolutions: Weight Loss Goals and Setting Yourself Up for Success
New Year’s Resolutions: Weight Loss Goals and Setting Yourself Up for Success
It’s that time of year again, the time in which your emails, social media pages, and news feeds become flooded with “new year, new you” recommendations on how to lose weight, get fit, and find your “dream body.” Advertisements will be flooding the market on what specific diet is best, what one exercise will get you those abs, and what supplement/pill you HAVE to try in order to lose weight. This all sounds great, but most of the time these recommendations are unrealistic, give false claims, and are short-term solutions rather than long-term lifestyle tips. As you read through the rest of this blog, I hope you find resources for your health journey, new goals, and sustainable lifestyle suggestions.
Many people decide to set the goal of losing weight as the new year begins, which can be a great intention. This goal can also be difficult for people because of the confusion and misinformation surrounding weight-loss. Losing weight, in very simple terms, occurs by consuming fewer calories than you burn over a period of time. There are many ways to accomplish this, outside of trying to “out exercise” your eating habits.
Physical activity is one fantastic way to efficiently lose fat and have a positive impact on numerous aspects of your health. People tend to gravitate to one method of exercise when beginning new goals; some lean more towards aerobic exercise, such as running, cycling, swimming, and/or walking, and others lean towards anaerobic exercise such as weight training, plyometric drills, and/or HIIT workouts. Which is more impactful for weight loss? Both! Combined aerobic training and anaerobic training, specifically weight training, can result in total fat loss
and lean muscle mass gain (2). Muscle tissue is a caloric hog, meaning it requires a lot of energy to maintain, therefore increases in muscle tissue may lead to increases in a person’s resting metabolism over time (1), and aerobic exercise utilizes a lot of energy while being performed, which can help create a caloric deficit for weight loss. A great way to be physically active in a safe, social, and accountable way is through small group fitness classes and one-on-one personal training.
Diet is another major factor that plays a role in weight management. When I say “diet,” I do not mean a 10-day detox, pyramid scheme challenge, or severe caloric restriction. Research actually shows that the previously mentioned methods of weight loss, while effective in the short term, can lead to increased stress responses, poor psychological relationships with food (binge eating, rebound weight gain), and weight plateaus (3, 4, 5). Restrictive regimens have been shown to lead to a mere 20% long-term success rate (3). In this blog, diet refers to foods that are habitually consumed. The nutritional aspect can be difficult because every body responds to diets differently. I wish I had an easy answer for “this diet is best,” but it will be an experiment for you to find a plan/routine that fits your lifestyle and nutritional needs. Personally, I follow a paleo blueprint for meals, but am not strictly paleo and add variety to my plans. My most used nutritional resource is an app called Mealime; this app allows you to filter recipes based on food allergies, likes and dislikes, and styles such as paleo, Mediterranean, etc. Once you select your meals, you can send the ingredients to a grocery store app to be picked up at a time convenient for you. If you are very routine-based and like to track your food, MYFITNESSPAL is an app that allows you to scan barcodes, input recipes to be reused later for tracking, and view your daily nutritional content breakdown. If you are not sure where to even start with a nutritional plan, I recommend finding a registered dietician that can guide you through a diet and help you make changes to safely and effectively meet your specific needs.
Sleep is an important factor in meeting your goals and maintaining a healthy weight. The majority of Americans do not get adequate amounts of sleep, often due to careers and technology devices (cell phones, televisions, video games) that impact the sleep cycle (6). It is recommended that most adults get around 8 hours of sleep each night (8), and currently ~35% of Americans are not meeting these hours (9)! Reduced amounts of sleep can lead to low energy during the day, subsequently reducing activity levels. Some studies have also shown that reduced sleep can influence the hormones that control hunger and appetite, leading to increased feelings of hunger, resulting in increased caloric intake (6, 7).
All of the methods above are fantastic for achieving weight loss, as well as other health-related goals, but without creating intention around a goal, it becomes easy to not commit and give excuses as to why the goal was unsuccessful (10). One way to best accomplish a goal is by making it a “SMART” goal. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant/realistic, and timely. Below, I am going to give some examples of vague goals, and turn them into SMART goals so you can get an idea of how to best set up your goals. Most of the pieces of the SMART acronym are self-explanatory, but “attainable and relevant” are aspects that often get overlooked. While setting goals, it is necessary to challenge yourself and push the envelope towards success, but keeping a goal attainable for your current status is an important factor towards keeping a positive mindset and actually being able to succeed. Relevance of the goal is another part that can be brushed off, so try to relate goals to something
you truly value and find a way to reach a goal through methods/activities that interest you. As you set larger goals, maybe ones for the end of the year, map out smaller goals along the way as tracking points. Smaller goals can be confidence boosters along the way, and give you an idea of your progress, allowing for the chance to modify your plan in order to succeed by the year’s end.
1. Vague: I want to lift more so I can be stronger.
a. SMART: I want to increase my squat weight by 5% in the next 12 weeks, and will
follow a program 3 days/week in the gym in order to achieve this.
i. Smaller goal: By February 1st, I want to be comfortably squatting 60% of
my current PR.
2. Vague: I want to increase my flexibility this year.
a. SMART: I want to be able to touch my toes by February 1st, and will take 10 minutes 6 days/week to dedicate to stretching and mobility.
3. Vague: I want to eat healthier this year.
a. SMART: For the month of January, I will implement 1 serving of vegetables into
my breakfast routine.
As the new year begins, I hope you find helpful take-always from this blog, and are excited to set goals that are fulfilling and inspiring to you.
Dr. Kylar
“In pursuit of optimizing your physical health, don’t forget that your mental health matters, too. Keep a pulse on how your everyday health behaviors impact your quality of life and overall enjoyment of the process.” - Sohee Lee
Resources:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1046/j.1467-789X.2002.00057.x?casa_t oken=5LD1Kl-gxEUAAAAA%3AVczgLWY1a5bjdimAI5H0xfKJQL6SSj1DGkOBJ S3umUacweR-U36IvcCcdLtHeKWPwDhhTUZt2-R_LDhw
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.01370.2011
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jhn.12286?casa_token=5tv_iCUmv CsAAAAA%3ARqJrhLrlPqTLTRfKvwKzOGqARKZlN4_P9kQLHF5Iw-hr6lUOmnZ
RpEZqUIFOsLnbpvcdqHm5Ri6Ys9A6
https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201332
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2895000/
https://academic.oup.com/aje/article/164/10/947/162270
https://www.pnas.org/content/110/14/5695.full
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep-works/how-much-sleep-do-we-really-
need
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/p0215-enough-sleep.html
10. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5b0b8f55365f02045e1ecaa5/t/5b14d2157 58d46f9851858d1/1528091160453/Lunenburg%2C+Fred+C.+Goal-Setting+The oryof+Motivation+IJMBA+V15+N1+2011.pdf