Lifestyle modification is the path to weight management by means of:

• Dietary Intake
• Behavior Therapy
• Physical Activity
• Sleep Patterns

There are no “quick fixes” for weight loss. The core of weight management is a lifetime commitment. To often, diets or weight loss programs take place for a specific time period. The same applies to physical activity. The visits to the gym “to get in shape” tend to take place only for a short amount of time with a specific goal in mind. Weight Management is a lifetime commitment to health.

• Dietary Intervention – it’s about the kilocalorie or as it’s more commonly known, the calorie. The basic principle of a calorie is that it’s a unit of energy. This unit of energy cannot be created or destroyed. The calories that you eat will either be stored in your body or expended for fuel in a body’s metabolism – on a cellular level, activities during the day, and exercise. So how does one gain weight? By consuming more energy (calories) than one expends or burns. When there is a negative balance there is weight loss from three body sources: water, fat and muscle. The goal of the weight loss program is to lose fat while maintaining muscle mass.
• Behavior Modification – there are many approaches to behavior modification techniques to help with weight loss for the long term (Costain & Croaker 2005): A key to behavioral changes is the willingness to change. Also, factors, such as, accurate self-monitoring of food consumption, realistic goals, stimulus control or how to avoid triggers and deal with cravings, positive thinking, relapse management and good support from family and health team.
• Physical Activity – there are several exercise plans and physical activity models to weight control that are supported by evidence. Two approaches are recognized for a reasonable approach to weight loss. These are the 10,000 steps program (School of Human Studies, University of Queensland, Austrailia, June 2006) or the “accumulated time” approach. The Queensland method is simply to take 10,000 steps per day. This is measured by a device that counts steps like a pedometer or the Sensewear® Armband. The accumulated method is the fact that energy expenditure is a cumulative phenomenon which includes activities of daily living like shopping, cleaning or making dinner, stair climbing and more vigorous activity like faster paced walking, using the elliptical or cycling to name a few. There is evidence to suggest that to achieve weight management goals, one should gradually progress to 60 minutes per day of accumulated exercise. The optimal dose per week of accumulated exercise should be 200 – 300 minutes per week or 3.5 – 5.0 hours according to the ACSM. According to Jakicic and Gallagher, this gradual increase in volume per week helps decrease food consumption which facilitates weight loss.
  It is important to note that resistance exercises are highly recommended for enhanced muscular strength and muscle endurance. With too little muscle mass and increased fat tissue, our metabolic rate slows. A study done at Tufts University, Campbell et al., 1994, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (60: 167 – 171), in a 12 week program of 4 strength exercises executed 3 times per week, added 3 lbs. of muscle mass, lost 4 lbs of fat weight, increased metabolism 7% and increased energy expenditure 15%. Weight training is associated with consistent increase in lean weight, a convincing argument for weight lifting.
• Sleep Patterns – Studies published in The Journal of the American Medical Association and The Lancet suggest that sleep loss may increase hunger and affect the body’s metabolism, which may make it more difficult to maintain or lose weight. Sleep loss appears to do two things: 1. make you feel hungry even if you are full. Sleep loss has been shown to affect the secretion of cortisol, a stress hormone that regulates hunger and 2. increased fat storage due to the interference of the body’s ability to metabolize carbohydrates, which leads to high levels of blood sugar. Excess blood sugar promotes the overproduction of insulin, which can lead to the storage of body fat and insulin resistance.

FirstHealth of Andover is offering Solutions to manage weight loss. Sensewear® Body Monitoring System™ addresses the four necessary parameters to lose weight and gain control of your health. Sensewear® is able to give you a comprehensive view of daily total energy expenditure, both moderate and vigorous activity, calories consumed by logging in foods and sleep duration.

Using the Sensewear® Armband or Body Monitoring System™, the software is able to record these three parameters – Caloric Intake, Physical Activity and Sleep Duration to help with Behavior Modification. This allows you and a healthcare professional to review the information from the data recorded from the Sensewear® and make the appropriate decisions in weight management.

Sensewear® is a convenient and comprehensive way to adopt new behavior to manage your health.


- Donna Schneider, BS, CES, CPT