Take a Walk and Drink Some Water: Easy Steps Toward a Healthier Weight

With a nearly four-fold increase in the rate of obesity since the 1960s, it is almost impossible to turn on the television, listen to the radio or access the Internet without coming across a news story related to the failing health of Americans in the world of fast food and mass consumption. With 17 percent (12.7 million) of children and adolescents (aged 2 to 19 years) and approximately one-third of the adult population (35 percent or 76.8 million) being defined as obese, and recent evidence linking this disturbing trend with higher rates of heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes, the ongoing search for manageable strategies designed to help individuals lose weight seems never-ending.

As a physician whose career is focused on the treatment of obese children and adolescents, it seems crystal clear that we as a medical community need to do a much better job at educating patients and their families on simple -- and more importantly -- "realistic" ways to incorporate healthier behaviors designed to achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Although this task seems simple at face value, educating the public can be a daunting task when taking into consideration the 24-hour-a-day "food nation" culture at hand. In addition to the constant barrage of unhealthy food choices we face every day, the decision to assume a healthier lifestyle can quickly become confusing.

An example of the challenges faced when attempting to improve one's weight and overall health is immediately obvious when considering consumer marketing strategies designed to entice people to join a gym or purchase expensive exercise equipment or nutritional supplements that often fail to deliver on the promise of better health. The end result is both confusing and discouraging and increases the likelihood of overlooking simple weight-loss strategies that often have a profound effects. My recommendations for patients I see are simple: Take a walk, and drink water!

While getting a membership to a gym is never bad advice, it can be both an expensive (i.e. most fitness clubs require a minimum of an annual contract costing several hundred dollars) and time-consuming endeavor. Don't get me wrong -- I belong to a gym and believe strongly that if you have the money and time to commit to this level of exercise, you are better off in general. That said, however, it might be surprising to would-be gym members that many regional and national health club chains utilize a marketing strategy that is specifically aimed at attracting new members that ultimately never show up a few months after joining. In other words, think carefully about purchasing a gym membership and consider other activities that might be more realistic with your lifestyle and deliver similar results in terms of achieving a weight-loss goal.

My favorite recommendation is to tell my patients to take a walk around the block. Walking seems to be one of the most underrated activities and, according to a recent study published by the Louisiana State University, deserves strong consideration as a means of getting regular exercise. After examining a group of otherwise sedentary and over weight middle-aged females, the investigators noted that even a moderate amount of walking at a leisurely pace every week over a 6-month time period was associated with a number of positive health benefits, including reduction in body fat and improved cardiovascular risk. The take-away message is that simply walking around the block is a great alternative to more strenuous and/or expensive activities that are less likely to be continued in the long term.

In addition to getting out of the house for a lap or two around the neighborhood, one of the easiest things that can be done to quickly shed extra pounds is to stop drinking anything and everything with sugar in it. Again, as a sugar-crazed nation we are faced with confusing and often misleading information about which drinks are and are not healthy. The most obvious example of this is the message that a glass of orange juice is both healthy and nutritious and should be part of everyone's "complete breakfast." Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth. In a statement published earlier this week in the American Heart Association's journal Circulation, researchers from Tufts University report a link between the consumption of sugary drinks and an estimated 184,000 annual deaths worldwide. While I am not suggesting that an occasional glass of juice is a bad choice, fruit juices and soda should not be a standard item lining the shelves of our refrigerators. Deciding to limit these type of liquid calories to "once in a while" rather than keeping them a routinely consumed beverage can result is significant weight reduction. While low-calorie sweeteners and diet beverages may be helpful alternatives, recent research suggests that individuals who consume such products may be at higher risk of consuming more calories elsewhere in their diet. Again, all this information is generally confusing. As an alternative to having to figure out what you should and shouldn't drink, water is cheap, always available and has absolutely zero calories.

Bottom line: Figuring out how to lose weight is not an easy thing to do. What works well for some people may not be ideal for others. In a world that offers many options to achieve better health, the simplest and least costly recommendations may be best. Take regular walks, and ditch the surgery drinks. You will be happy you did.