Losing weight is easier when you've got an experienced
support team. That's the concept behind the Duke Diet, which focuses on smart,
healthy, straight-forward strategies for losing weight and keeping the pounds
off. Celebrity fashion stylist Kithe Brewster came to the center to work toward
his goal of losing 60 pounds in 6 months by following the Duke Diet.
The diet, which was developed over 40 years by the experts
at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center in Durham, N.C., sets itself apart from
other weight-loss plans with its team approach, offering clients the
opportunity to stay at the center for several days or weeks so they have
immediate access to nutritionists, exercise physiologists, medical doctors, and
psychologists to help them change their eating and exercise habits.
Watch Stylist Kithe Brewster Lose 60 Lbs in 6 Months
But you don't need to travel to the Duke Diet center to take
advantage of the program. We asked the center's experts to share their top 10
tips for achieving weight loss success — from scheduling meals to getting a
grip on emotional eating. Here's what they told us:
1. Eat More — But Choose Wisely
You already know that fruits and vegetables are good for
you. That's because they're not only packed with disease-fighting nutrients,
but they're also great for losing weight and maintaining weight loss. Fruits
and vegetables contain fiber and water, which fill you up so you eat less at
each meal. Duke Diet nutritionists recommend loading half of your plate with
fruits and vegetables at lunch and dinner to leave less room for unhealthy
foods.
"Seeing a full plate also helps you feel more satisfied
on a low-calorie diet," says Christine B. Tenekjian, a Duke Diet &
Fitness Center dietitian. "When people come to our program, they're afraid
of being hungry, but more often they say, 'This is more food than I usually
eat.'" Tenekjian recommends having at minimum of two to four servings of
fruits and vegetables each day and making sure your plate contains 50 percent
produce. Ideally, the rest of your plate's real estate should be filled with 25
percent healthy protein — fish, lean beef or white meat chicken, or a
plant-based protein such as tofu — and 25 percent should come from
carefully-chosen, fiber-rich starches, such as beans and other legumes.
2. Schedule Your Meals
Many people who come to the Duke Center have stopped
listening to their hunger cues long ago and instead eat because they're upset,
bored, or just saw a commercial for a tempting food, says Tenekjian. "As a
society, we've really lost the ability to recognize our hunger signals,"
she notes. "Until the people who come here become cognizant of that, we
ask them to eat on a schedule — small meals every three to four hours — when
they go home." Those who are most successful at losing weight and keeping
it off tend to eat five to six small meals a day or about every three to four
hours, according to Tenekjian.
3. Keep a Food Journal
Jotting down what you eat — in a journal, on your iPhone, or
in an Excel spreadsheet on your computer — helps you stay aware of whether your
meals are balanced, how frequently you're eating, and how many calories you're
consuming. "If people come back to the center because they're regained the
weight," says Tenekjian, "it's often because they stopped monitoring
what they've been eating."
Dieting Without Dropping Pounds?
4. Get a Grip on Emotional Eating
To help halt emotional eating, says Sofia Rydin-Gray, Ph.D.,
assistant director of behavioral health and lifestyle coaching at Duke, first
suss out why you're reaching for that pint of ice cream in the first place. She
suggests asking yourself the following questions before eating.
Am I hungry?
How am I feeling?
What do I really need?
What can I do instead?
"Some clients add questions, such as, 'How long will
have to exercise if I eat this?' Or, 'How many calories will I have
burn?'" says Rydin-Gray. "One client put a note on the fridge that
says: 'What you're looking for isn't in here.'"
5. Allow Yourself a Daily Indulgence
Duke Diet participants stick with a 1,200- to 1,800-calorie
diet each day, but that doesn't mean they're deprived of sweets. The diet
allows for a planned treat — chocolate, alcohol, cookies, potato chips — that's
no more than 10 percent of the person's daily caloric intake. So if a person is
on a 1,500-calorie-a-day diet, he can have a 150-calorie treat every day as
part of his total daily calories. The catch? "You have to find a treat
that doesn't turn into a trigger food," says Tenekjian. If you can't eat
just one chocolate chip cookie, then that shouldn't be your treat. "You
have to find something that tastes good and satisfies your craving for
something sinful, but doesn't turn into something completely out of
control," she says.
6. Don't Beat Yourself Up
If you caved in and ate nachos and frozen margaritas at
happy hour with your friends, don't blame yourself for blowing your weight loss
plan. "It's impossible to ruin your diet in one day," says Tenekjian.
"Don't try to make up for it with excessive exercising or fasting the next
day." Rather than adopting an all-or-nothing mentality, she suggests just
getting back on your normal plan and journaling about your feelings and why you
think you fell off the weight-loss wagon.
If You're Going to Splurge, At Least Do It Right.
7. Walk Your Way to a Lower Weight
Most people who come to the Duke Diet center have not been
exercising regularly, says Gerald K. Endress, a clinical exercise physiologist
and fitness director at the center. He recommends using a pedometer as an easy
way to rev up your activity level. "If you're just starting out, figure
out how many steps you take each day as a baseline," he suggests.
"Then try to work your way up to 8,000 to 10,000 steps a day. That's a
great strategy for getting people going, and having that feedback from the
pedometer is important."
8. Rise, Shine, and Work Out
Making exercise a priority is a challenge for most people,
but it's non-negotiable when it comes to weight loss. Ryden-Gray recommends
exercising first thing in the morning so other commitments — work, dinner plans
— don't get in the way. "Some people cannot be successful if they don't
exercise in the morning since it's often hard to fit it in at the end of the
day," she says.
9. Make Working Out Easy
Using your own body or minimal equipment allows you to work
out anywhere — at home, on vacation, on a work trip. Endress recommends squats,
wall pushups, triceps dips from a chair, abdominal crunches, and calf raises.
Do one to two sets of 8 to 12 repetitions two to three times a week. "If
you prefer to workout at home or you travel a lot, I also recommend resistance
bands — you can pack and travel with those," he says.
There Are Plenty of Exercises You Can Do Anytime
10. Find More Than One Way to Stay Motivated
You might think setting a weight-loss goal is all the
motivation you need, but Rydin-Gray encourages clients to come up with a
variety ways to stay on track. "You want different things to motivate you,
especially down the road once you've lost weight or more importantly, when
you've reached a plateau," she says. "If your motivation is weight
loss and you haven't been losing weight, you're at a loss." Rydin-Gray
In order to mimic that "caveman" experience, do some heavy lifting. Sets of 8, 12, 15 or even 20 reps are good for stimulating your metabolism. But heavier sets of 4-6 reps give your body the message that if it doesn't keep the muscle, it'll be crushed.