| Sex | Age 18–39 years | Age 40–59 years | Age 60+ years |
| Males | 8%–20% | 11%–22% | 13%–25% |
| Females | 21%–33% | 23%–34% | 24%–36% |
Source: European Congress of Obesity, 1999
WHAT FAT-LOSS TARGET SHOULD WE AIM FOR?
Changing body fat does take time but the benefits you see will be long-term. A two-to-four percent decrease in body fat over a ten-week period is a sensible and realistic target. Although this may not sound a lot, in real terms this will represent a two-to-four percent decrease in the amount of fat your body is actually carrying with you day in and day out.
RECORDING YOUR PROGRESS
It is good to keep a record of how much body fat you are losing each week so you can see how much progress you are making. Here is what you do:
Weigh yourself and establish your percentage body fat (either with a body fat monitor or with skin fold calipers), or if this is not possible then record your weight and tape measurements only.
Using a tape measure, establish your waist measurement (measure around narrowest part of midriff), your belly button measurement (measure around midriff over belly button) and hip measurement.
Record these measurements at the same time each week.
MEASURING YOURSELF
Body Blitz Progress Chart
FACTORS DETERMINING YOUR SUCCESS
YOUR WILLPOWER
The strength of your willpower is an important factor in how successful you will be at realizing your weight and body fat goals. Generally an individual’s willpower is at its weakest towards the end of the day – perhaps we feel tired or our blood sugars are low. This means that we tend to have less control of our actions at this time and are more likely to overeat or eat all the inappropriate foods. If you are constantly tired and struggling with your weight, you may well be building up extra calories at the end of the day that do not get burnt off. Here are a few questions for you to think about:
1. When am I most physically active?
– between seven a.m. to six p.m.
– after six p.m. to bedtime
2. When do I consume the majority of my food?
– between seven a.m. to six p.m.
– after six p.m. to bedtime
3. When is my willpower at its strongest?
– first thing in the morning
– midday
– mid-afternoon
– evening
Invariably what happens is there is a mismatch between when we need to receive energy from our food and when we are expending energy through our everyday activities. The chart below shows that generally we expend most energy between seven a.m. in the morning and six p.m. in the evening. However, we actually receive the vast majority of our energy from food after six p.m. when we are less active. While some studies suggest that it makes no difference whether your calories from food are consumed during the day or all at night, what these studies fail to take into account is our own personal willpower. At the end of the day when we are tired, especially when we have not eaten much during the day, willpower will be low and we will be much more likely to overeat. This means long-term there is a situation where at the end of each day there is actually a build of excess calories which we are not burning off prior to going to bed – and these calories are being laid down in the fat cells as additional body fat. The Body Blitz Plan will show you how to make the right food choices at the right time of the day, so you receive energy when you need it and you don’t end up with a build up of excess calories before you go to bed.
YOUR ATTITUDE TO FOOD
What we were introduced to as a child defines our relationship with food in later life. If you ate a lot of sugar and sweet things as you were growing up and your diet did not include a variety of tastes, it is likely you now crave calorie-dense sweet foods rather than savoury foods. Maybe your mother used to say to you, ‘You must finish everything on your plate?’, and now you always finish everything on your plate thinking it is rude to leave even a morsel. Or alternatively you had a mother who actively encouraged you not to eat certain foods or not to overeat as it would only make you fat. Or maybe you had a mother who was always on a diet and never ate the same food as the rest of the family. Our mums are great but we need to be aware of how their attitude to food impacts our attitude to food in later life. These attitudes have had a long time to be grooved and they will take a long time to diminish. The Body Blitz Plan will help you reevaluate your relationship with food, showing you how to draw up a sensible eating plan that will help you realize your weight and body fat goals as well as providing a positive health message for your children.
YOUR MOTIVATION
What is your motivation to lose weight? Is it to squeeze into that little black dress for a certain event or is it about looking better for a significant A.N. Other. Whatever your motivation you need to identify it and shift it from an external motivation such as an important event to an internal one such as wanting to feel more in control of your eating habits, have more energy and feel better about yourself. All of which translates into a strategy that you can incorporate and build on to achieve your long-term weight and body fat goals. Think about this: what we weigh in seven years will not be determined by what we do for the next seven hours or the next seven days but by how well we eat and how physically active we are over the next seven years. Establishing a strategy and following an action plan that you can keep to will be crucial – the Body Blitz Plan will show you how to do this. Seeing results is a huge motivation and with a little effort that motivation can be your driving force.
YOUR FRIENDS
Early on in your Body Blitz Plan you need to establish who are going to be saboteurs and supporters of your efforts. Within your circle of friends and family there will be individuals who will encourage you and help you with your efforts. It is also likely there will be individuals who either intentionally or unintentionally try to hinder your efforts – this may be because your efforts and seeing you look and feel better makes them feel less comfortable or they are just genuinely unaware of their intentions. Identifying who are your diet friends or foes will help you to apply the Body Blitz