Weight loss! Always a hot topic and often a New Year’s goal! Dan my clinic manager has told me this has been the go to conversation in clinic for lots of our lovely clients over the past week or two since all the Christmas festivities.

 

We see lots of people in clinic with back, hip and knee pain struggling to fully get better because they are having a constant battle with losing weight which they know is having an impact on their pain. They know they need to be more active to help their joints but can’t as they are in too much pain because they are too heavy and so they are stuck on the equivalent of the hamster’s wheel.

 

We often see clients who are frustrated by the lack of continued progress. They tell us they have a good start and then either something in life gets in the way and throws them off track or they hit a road block as they can’t shift past a certain weight.

 

The impact that losing just a few lbs can have on protecting vital joints such as knee, hip and lower back is so huge, that I felt it I must write an article about how to give it your best shot if you are determined to lose weight.

 

There’s lots of confusion and even myths about the best ways to avoid becoming or being overweight and struggling to shed it!

 

So, about becoming overweight/fat (or whatever you want to call it) … the general rule is this: it’s affected 80% by what you eat, and only 20% is affected by the exercise you do.

 

The key to weight loss is to achieve negative energy balance, or in other words taking in less calories than you burn. Now this doesn’t mean reaching for that lettuce leaf for dinner but means to shed just one pound in a week you need to burn 750 calories a week through exercise and cut an additional 3,000 calories a week through changing your diet. So, a total of 3,750 calories need to be lost a week to see a loss in weight.

 

To lose weight simply by exercise alone is not going to work as it takes a stack of activity to create the kind of values you need to lose weight with exercise alone and when I say a ton on activity we are talking running 7-10 miles a day to lose even just one pound!

 

So, for our back, hip and knee pain clients or even the average Joe on the street who has no aches or pains this kind of exercise routine is not achievable or sustainable.

 

And if looking slim and trim is your goal or you want to lose weight to help ease that knee, hip or back pain, this is just one of many facts that you need to know about losing weight.

 

Another is the daily average calorie intake you’re allowed to consume before you will get fat (or fatter), which is approximately 2500kcal for men, 2000kcal for a woman. Go over that limit for a few too many days on the trot and you will put on weight! Simple as that.

 

If you want to lose weight, you’re also going to need two more things. One is discipline and the other is an understanding that whatever diet you choose – and remember that you are choosing your own diet with every decision over what YOU choose to consume  and you must be able to keep it up for more than a week (the latter being why most people fall off their diets).

 

So here we are in February 2018 and we are still getting wintery showers meaning comfort eating combined with dark nights and sitting on the couch are a recipe for disaster if you are desperately trying to lose weight and get active (we hear it all the time… “I will start to exercise once the evenings get lighter”).

 

Was losing weight a New Year’s resolution for you? If so how’s it going? Are you still being good and making healthy choices for your diet and exercise? Or have you fallen off the wagon already?

 

Here’s the thing: if you are ever going to go on a diet or are currently on one, sustainability is vital! You should always be asking yourself: will I be able to keep this diet up for a long time?

 

That’s the one and only thing you should be focusing on when considering a diet. What you need to remember is short-term pleasure will only bring false hope. So, for those of you who lose big in a few weeks on some fad diet, the results are likely to be short lived as those diets are not a way to eat healthy for life.

 

Think of this: how many times have you achieved your target weight only then to have the disappointment of the weight coming back, just a few weeks after going back to your old eating habits? you know “that one burger and chips won’t cause a problem” kind of thinking.

 

Another thing to consider is the whole just eat less idea. Why is this bad? Well to put it simply when you start eating less the body tends to resist weight loss because it thinks it is starving! It responds by clinging on to any calories it can get hold of instead of burning them. The result…. you guessed it you actually gain weight as the body needs these calories so you have enough energy to function properly, you know for those simple things in life called breathing, walking and talking.

 

Simply eating less is definitely not the answer and is a reason many people hit that plateau.

 

So, to sum up the best way to successfully lose weight and keep it off is a combination of diet and exercise.

 

Good luck!

If you are struggling with Back Pain and want any tips for easing it, here’s a special free report with 9 top tips to help you keep active with less back pain. Just click the link to get your free copy:  http://www.wdcphysiotherapy.co.uk/physiotherapy/back-pain/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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About Wendy McCloud

Wendy is the founder of The South East’s Leading Specialist Private Physiotherapy Practice for People in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, who want to keep healthy and active.

Wendy’s background includes working as an Extended Scope Practitioner Physiotherapist working as part of Mr. Ali Al-Sabti’s Orthopaedic Consultant’s team specialising in Shoulder Pain.

Wendy has treated royalty for Shoulder pain through referrals from her close links with a top Orthopaedic Shoulder Surgeons. More recently Wendy has been the sole choice physiotherapist for all Essex based referrals from London Shoulder surgeon Mr. Matthew Sala.

Wendy worked in National Level Rugby Union for 11 years, working with players who achieved county honours and representative honours for various countries such as England, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. Wendy resigned from her position as Head Physiotherapist at Southend RFC in June 2011 to open WDC which has become the fastest growing clinic in the South East of England.

WDC is now a large multi-therapist speciality practice in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

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