Losing Weight–Tips from a Doctor’s Journey

Losing weight is hard. There will be stops, starts and setbacks all along the way. Dr. Joseph Berg shares what he has learned through his own weight loss journey and describes a few simple strategies that helped him drop the pounds.

Most people struggle to stay motivated and Dr. Berg did too. “It can be a challenge when you do not see huge changes right away. What helped me stay motivated was making small, incremental changes that I knew I could maintain over time.”

Tip #1

Examine what you’re doing in your daily life. Make small goals that can be maintained. When you can stick with it, you will feel successful.

Ultimately, weight loss is a math problem. You must burn more calories than you take in. The challenge is doing that every day and sticking to it. That
is why small changes lead to higher success over the long term. Consider downloading a calorie tracking app to help you learn the calorie value of the foods you are eating. Making big, drastic changes to your daily eating habits may result in dramatic weight loss, but data shows most people gain that
weight back. It is more important to make small changes that you can stick to.

Tip #2

The first step is to make yourself aware of what you eat and when you eat. Dr. Berg wrote down what he ate everyday for a few weeks.

Dr. Berg comments, “If you see that every evening you’re having a large glass of milk and a cookie, you might want to simply change that one habit rather than changing what you eat at every meal.”

Doing the math will help you see that a glass of milk is 180 calories. The cookie is 200 calories. That’s almost 400 calories every day. Quitting that habit alone will help you lose almost a half a pound in a week.

Tip #3

Make snacks harder to get. Studies have shown that people eat more from an open bowl of candy than they do from a candy dish with a cover on it. They eat even less if the candy dish is kept in a desk drawer.

Tip #4

Make the decision not to eat while you are engaged in another activity.
In other words,

• don’t eat and drive
• don’t eat while you make a meal
• don’t eat and watch TV
• don’t eat while working on the computer, etc.

Tip #5

Get started today. Don’t put it off any longer.

Dr. Berg gets personal on his podcast when he shares examples of small changes that helped him lose weight. He also weighs in with his thoughts on
popular diets, like Paleo, Keto and Atkins.

Find Dr. Berg’s podcast at UplandHillsHealth.org/podcasts or on most popular podcast apps. Search for Upland Hills Health Inspire Health Podcasts.