Guest Post: Dr. Bell

I am excited to share with you the first “guest post” of what I hope will be many on my blog!! I am so grateful to Dr. Bell, Medical Director of Great Lakes Weight and Wellness, Melissa Thomas, Program Coordinator and all other staff at GLWW for their help.  I do not believe I would have gotten to this point without their program, and am so appreciative of their on-going support!   The following are some helpful tips from Dr. Bell:

Hello Katie:
 
I’m happy to send along some information which I hope will be of use to you and your audience.

Weight loss is tough to do, as you know, and in order to do it and get permanent results -you need to change the lifestyle. That’s really hard to do, as a lot of our eating is based on psychological and emotional reasons. However, calorie counting is a very effective way to keep track of what and how much one is eating. It is helpful to “audit” your calorie intake using just the same skills as you would apply to your checkbook- something that is not difficult to do, but it does take time and some effort. Below is a list of tips/instructions I commonly give to my patients, some of whom have lost over 110 pounds just by keeping track and being mindful:
 
 
Reduced Calorie Diet:
1. Food journal: Keep an accurate record of everything that goes between your teeth- large or small, solid or liquid. If you do not know how to record the value of something, don’t eat it! This is your body’s energy checkbook. It needs to be as accurate as possible to be of benefit to you.
2. Get a good calorie counter. We recommend the “Calorie King-Calorie, Fat and Carbohydrate Counter.” It can be purchased or ordered from any bookstore, but it also has a sophisticated web site which has a number of other tools as well.
3. Use your calorie counter to calculate the number of calories in everything you eat, both per meal and daily.
4. As a starting point, aim for 1500 calories/day for men, 1200 calories/day for women, as suggested by Dr. Bell.
 
Helpful Tips:
1. Less carbs = less hunger. The less carbohydrates you eat, the less hungry you will be, and your weight loss will be both easier and faster.
2. As you lose weight your body will be more efficient, and your rate of weight loss will slow down. You will need to further reduce your intake of calories and/or increase your exercise to maximize your weight loss.