Managing Menopause - Weight Management

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Weight Management

About Dr Rick Kausman

Dr Kausman is The Jean Hailes Medical Centre weight management and eating behaviour consultant and the Australian pioneer of the person-centred approach to healthy weight management. Dr Kausman is a Director of the Butterfly Foundation and the principal of the Melbourne Weight Management Clinic. He is also the author of the award-winning book If Not Dieting, Then What? and is the creator of the healthy eating, healthy weight management website www.ifnotdieting.com

Behaviour change key to successful weight management

Many people have tried, or are in the process of trying, to lose weight by following a short-term weight loss diet. But Australian and World research shows that weight reducing diets and restrictive eating plans do not help people achieve their goal to lose weight and keep it off.

Eating behaviour and weight management are complex issues and there are many different factors that can contribute to an individual becoming above their most healthy weight. These variables include genetics, metabolism, age, gender, how well people are able to recognise when they are hungry or full, attitudes, beliefs, habits, self-esteem and the amount of physical activity they are able to do.

Traditionally, the goal for health professionals in supporting people who are over their most comfortable weight has been to make weight loss the primary goal and to offer advice about eating less and exercising more. Increasingly, it is obvious from the figures throughout the Western world that this message, given on both an individual and a population level, clearly has not had the desired effect.

A much more positive approach to healthy weight management is focusing on changing our behaviours as the primary goal rather than focusing on weight. This then allows the weight change to come as a result of changes in our behaviour. It involves working on the reasons why the individual person has become above their most healthy weight. And importantly, it includes working on realistic behaviour change and accepting what cannot be changed.

During a study into the effectiveness of this program participants were surveyed before, during and 12 months after completing the weight management program. Results showed that the majority of participants lost weight during the program and maintained that weight loss 12 months after completing the program.

Dr Kausman's 10 top tips for healthy weight management

1.	Focus on achievable, sustainable, behavioural goals Having the right goals are essential. Even if we are above our most healthy weight and our aim is to lose weight, it is vital to focus on goals to do with our attitudes, habits and behaviours. Allow the change in weight to come as a result of that.
2.	Practise a positive attitude towards food When people eat ‘bad’ food, they often feel guilty. Often this can make people eat more of that type of food, even when they no longer feel like it. Try to look at food as being ‘morally neutral’. Try to think, and talk, about food as ‘everyday’ (rather than ‘good’) and ‘sometimes’ (rather than ‘bad’) food.
3.	Do your best to eat slowly and enjoy While this takes some practice, by slowing down our speed of eating, we often feel far more satisfied with significantly less food.
4.	Non-hungry eating We can all eat food when we are not really feeling physically hungry. It is quite normal to do some non-hungry eating, but when we do too much, it can tip our eating out of balance. Try to check in with your body before you eat to see if you are really physically hungry or not.
5.	Do your best to not get too hungry It is so easy to get caught up in the busy-ness and the business of life, that we can ignore our body signals that are telling us that we are getting progressively hungrier. If this happens, it is very hard to eat slowly, and we can easily eat more food than we really want.
6.	Plan ahead to have some food on hand We sometimes don’t have access to a wide choice of foods. Because we are often very busy, we can leave decisions about what we are going to eat until the last minute. In this situation, it is easy to go for whatever food is most readily available (even when we don’t really feel like this type of food). If you regularly find yourself in this situation, plan ahead to have some food on hand. Take a range of foods that you enjoy eating with you for the day ahead.
7.	Fine-tune fat content without deprivation It is definitely healthy to consume some fat (particularly the ones found in fish and other seafood, olive oil, nuts, seeds and avocado), and it is healthy to have some fat on our bodies. However, many people consume more fat than their bodies need. If this is the case, it is helpful to find some ways of decreasing the overall fat content. You might like to think of this as fine-tuning the fat content in a non-deprivational way.
8.	Nurture yourself If we keep giving without looking after our own needs, we may become resentful, frustrated and depressed. As well as giving of ourselves to our families, our friends, our work etc., we need to make sure we are doing things for ourselves. It is very important to nurture ourselves.
9.	Don’t confuse the thin ‘ideal’ message with healthy weight messages Health and vitality come in all shapes and sizes, and it is important to be the healthiest weight we can achieve and maintain, rather than focus on being thin at any cost. By looking after ourselves, and our bodies, in the best way we can, our weight/size will evolve to the healthiest level possible.
10.	Look for opportunities to move Physical activity has long been known to produce beneficial effects. A number of recent research studies are now showing that small amounts of physical activity are cumulative throughout the day, and whatever physical activity we can do is worthwhile.

Common reasons for non-hungry eating

Not giving ourselves enough time to listen to what our body signals are telling us
Confusing thirst with hunger
Letting ourselves get too hungry
Not sure when to stop eating
Filling up, but not feeling satisfied
‘Just in case I get hungry later’
The clock says it’s breakfast/lunch/dinner time: ‘meal-time’ eating
Almost any emotion or feeling can trigger non-hungry eating
Meeting certain needs
The food tastes great
Feeling bored or tired
Worrying that we might offend someone if we don’t eat
Our parents always told us to finish everything on our plate
We’re bombarded with advertising and marketing
Eating as a reward
Eating out of habit
Eating because it’s there
It brings back memories
Eating quickly
To solve a problem, fill a gap or put off doing something
Any combination of the above and others