Gaining weight after retirement

I have retired from work about 6 months ago. I now work out three times a
week for exercise but seem to still gain weight. About 6 pounds since
January. I guess I got a lot more exercise at work than I thought. I don't
know what to do except cut out all between meal eating or work out everyday,
neither which seems agreeable. Any suggestions? I need to loose about 15
pounds.

"W. Wells" wrote in message
. com...
I have retired from work about 6 months ago. I now work out three times a
week for exercise but seem to still gain weight. About 6 pounds since
January. I guess I got a lot more exercise at work than I thought. I don't
know what to do except cut out all between meal eating or work out
everyday,
neither which seems agreeable. Any suggestions? I need to loose about 15
pounds.


Your only options are to consume a few less calories each day, or burn a few
more calories each day, or, do a little of both.

Cutting out between meal eating would help, as would a careful study of the
kinds of foods you're currently eating. Seemingly healthy snacks like
"trail mix" are loaded with calories - if you can't control the intake of
them, get rid of them altogether. If you drink sugared drinks, stop - they
contain a bunch of empty calories, and most of us would have a lot easier
time managing our weight if they were banned.

As for exercise - 3 times per week is not really enough for weight loss.
Ideally, you would want to burn around 3500 calories per week doing
exercise. For most of us, this is around 7 hours of fairly vigorous effort
(check out www.caloriesperhour.com, or my WeightWare program, for
personalized estimates).

Basically, you're looking to create a daily deficit of 250-500 calories per
day. This should result in 1/2 - 1 lb of weight loss per week. It doesn't
matter if you achieve your deficit by eating less, or by exercising more.

If neither of these seem "agreeable" to you, then you'll need to work on
your motivational issues before you can begin to lose weight. There are no
magic bullets, secret diet formulas, or pills that will work.

--
GG
http://www.WeightWare.com
Computer-Assisted Weight Management

W. Wells wrote:

I have retired from work about 6 months ago. I now work out three times a
week for exercise but seem to still gain weight. About 6 pounds since
January. I guess I got a lot more exercise at work than I thought. I don't
know what to do except cut out all between meal eating or work out everyday,
neither which seems agreeable. Any suggestions? I need to loose about 15
pounds.


If it's only about 15 lb you need to lose - and assuming you are not
still gaining - the gradual approach might be best for you. If you just
make little changes a part of your daily lifestyle you can lose this
weight easily over a year, without even feeling like you are dieting.

Just remember the simple rule that 3500 calories is equivalent to 1 lb
of weight lost or gained. So 15 lb means 52,500 calories. Sounds like a
lot? But that's just 144 calories a day.

Surely you can look at what you are currently eating and cut back just
144 calories from what you usually eat!

Consider:

1 level (not heaping) tablespoon of butter, margarine or oil is already
100 calories right there. So if you just reduce your added fat intake a
bit that might be all you need to do.

Do you drink beer or wine or alcohol? Those are pretty caloric too. Try
a low calorie version or cut back just a tad.

What about sugary drinks? If you substitute with sugar-free drinks
you'll save loads of calories.

Do you like tuna fish? Switching from a can packed with oil to a can
packed with water can save you a couple of hundred calories right there.

If you are not in a hurry, it should not be hard!

doug

do the WW program so you are better able to monitor eating and activity, it
will really help, Lee
W. Wells wrote in message
. com...
I have retired from work about 6 months ago. I now work out three times a
week for exercise but seem to still gain weight. About 6 pounds since
January. I guess I got a lot more exercise at work than I thought. I don't
know what to do except cut out all between meal eating or work out
everyday,
neither which seems agreeable. Any suggestions? I need to loose about 15
pounds.