The world famous Mayo Clinic recently published a diet book that can help people achieve healthy weight loss. Based on both scientific research and clinical work with thousands of overweight and obese people, the result is a realistic weight loss program that has proven to be effective. Consisting of the Mayo Clinic Diet Book and an optional Mayo Clinic Diet Journal, the program offers detailed step by step guidance that is both highly educational and, if followed, can be life changing for people needing to lose weight.
The Health Consequences of Obesity
Being an adult who is overweight (BMI of 25-29.9) or obese (BMI of 30+) increases the risk for many serious health conditions, including:
- heart disease
- stroke
- breast, colon, and endometrial cancer
- type 2 diabetes
- high blood pressure
- liver disease
- gallbladder disease
- sleep apnea
- respiratory problems
- osteoarthritis
- gynecological problems
Losing weight permanently requires motivation, determination and a realistic plan. Focusing hard on the health consequences above should help supply motivation and determination.
The Mayo Clinic Diet Part One – Fast Weight Loss
Part one of the book is called “Lose It!” and is designed to produce a quick weight loss of six to ten pounds in the first two weeks. There are five easy chapters in this first part, or Lose It section, with three of them addressing habits as summarized below.
“Add 5 Habits” addresses habits that are foundational for healthy weight loss:
- eating a healthy breakfast (but not too much) every day
- eating three or more daily servings of fruit and four or more daily servings of vegetables (critically important)
- eating whole grains instead of refined grains
- eating healthy fats like olive oil, vegetable oils and nuts
- moving – walking or exercising for 30 minutes or more each day
“Break 5 Habits” identifies unhealthy habits that need to be broken for successful, permanent weight loss:
- no TV while eating and only as much TV time as time spent exercising
- no sugar other than fruits. This means no candy, cookies, sweets, desserts, table sugar, etc.
- no snacks except fruits and vegetables
- only moderate amounts of meat and only low-fat or skim dairy products
- no eating in restaurants unless the food fits the program
“Adopt 5 Bonus Habits” lists optional but recommended “bonus“ habits for weight loss:
- Keep records of food; write down everything eaten and drunk.
- Keep records of physical activity, by type, duration and intensity.
- Move even more – increase walking or exercising to 60 minutes a day.
- Eat only “real food” – avoid processed and prepared food and eat fresh or healthy canned or frozen foods.
- Make and write daily goals – making a goal each day that is achievable helps keep motivation high.
Each of these enabling habits is explained in detail in the book and a number of tips are provided on how to approach each one of the habits to be formed or broken.
The Mayo Clinic Diet Part Two – Living a New Lifestyle
Part two of the Mayo Clinic Diet book is called “Live It!” and consists of five chapters designed to help people set their weight loss goals and learn patterns of eating that will help them meet their goals. It also teaches the basis for estimating the number of calories in food with just a glance by understanding what a serving is for various food groups.
The Live It section also goes into detail on burning calories and notes that the only people who can keep weight off after losing 30 pounds or more are those who continue to exercise an hour or more each day for years afterwards. The lesson is to never stop exercising or walking.
A sustainable rate of weight loss after the first two weeks is one to two pounds per week. Once a person reaches his or her weight loss goal there is no slacking off with the Mayo Clinic program. The actions that lead to weight loss are the same that maintain a healthy weight:
- good, healthy eating habits
- eliminating habits that make a person fat
- purposeful physical activity every day
The Mayo Clinic Diet Part Three – Tools and Resources
Part three is called “All the Extra Stuff” and is composed of eight chapters that contain helpful weight loss tools and resources. From finding what one’s healthy weight range should be and understanding more about nutrition and weight control to learning about the Mayo Clinic Healthy Weight (Food) Pyramid and how to change behaviors, part three is a gold mine of helpful information for people who are serious about losing weight.
The book also contains unnumbered sections at the end that contain:
- an Action Guide to address weight-loss barriers (really excellent)
- pyramid servings at a glance
- recipes for weight loss
Available separately, the Mayo Clinic Diet Journal enables a person to record their daily eating behavior and physical activity in detail for the two weeks of the quick start “Lose It” period and for eight weeks of the “Live It” program. This journal also has weekly reviews of progress on multiple dimensions (servings by food group, amount of physical activity, weight lost). The journal also includes meal planners and recipes as well as daily goals, daily records of foods consumed and the number of servings of the major food groups. This journal is well worth it.
The Mayo Clinic Diet Delivers Permanent Weight Loss
By focusing on habit formation and changing unhealthy eating behaviors the Mayo Clinic Diet enables people to make significant changes in their lifestyles that produce first, realistic and healthy weight loss and then, sustainable methods to keep that weight from being regained. In addition to fostering healthy eating patterns the Mayo Clinic weight loss program also emphasizes the need for increased levels of physical activity including daily exercise to achieve and maintain permanent weight loss. This program is realistic and effective for adults who are serious about achieving permanent weight loss.
Sources:
- The Mayo Clinic Diet, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2010
- The Mayo Clinic Diet Journal, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, 2010
- cdc.gov, "Health Consequences of Overweight and Obesity," (accessed April 2, 2010)
Robert McKelvie - My experience in business and pursuit of learning over the years enables me to share some of my knowledge via the web.
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