If you’re trying to lose weight, UI assistant professor of internal medicine Khurram Qadir offers several helpful hints.

First, calculate your Body Mass Index (BMI=weight in kilograms/height in meters squared) by going to Google and typing in “BMI calculator.” Links to various websites where you can easily compute your BMI will appear. Or, ask your doctor to calculate your BMI at your next visit. If your BMI is 25 or greater, you’re at risk for health problems.

Permanent weight loss comes only from a comprehensive lifestyle change that involves all areas of life—home, work, and social aspects, says Qadir. He recommends that you:

• Adopt a diet that you enjoy and want to follow for the rest of your life.
• Focus on your food at meal times, not the television or other distractions.
• Ask yourself at the end of a meal: “How do I feel?” If you feel “full” or “stuffed,” you have eaten more than you should have. Eat less next time so that you feel “light, right, and satisfied.”
• Clear your home of unhealthy snacks and stock up with healthy ones.
• Develop an exercise plan at the same time you develop a diet plan.
• Aim for your weekly exercise program to achieve around 180 to 200 minutes of moderately brisk exercise, such as walking.
• Eat breakfast!
• Keep a food diary to track what you eat, both in the short and long run.
• Remember that it’s the calorie that counts, not merely the fat. However, do watch the fat.
• Prepare a specific, sensible amount of food per person when cooking a meal.
• Incorporate more everyday activity into your life. Use stairs instead of elevators, walk instead of drive, park your car farther than usual from your destination, or take a walk break instead of a coffee break.
  
• Shun fad diets. They generally cause more harm than good.
• Eat only when hungry.
• Start a meal with a medium salad, made most of greens. Don’t use a creamy dressing. Pick a vinaigrette of your choice or make one.
• Chew your food thoroughly. Enjoy the flavor and sense the texture.
• Split an entrée with someone or order a small salad with an appetizer for your meal when you eat out.
• Find a new hobby that keeps you on the move if you tend to eat when bored.
• Buy a simple pedometer (Digimax or Accusplit) and try to achieve 10,000 steps per day.

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