Move More to Keep It Off

Neighbors Marianne and Chris belong to the same health club. Chris is forty-three years old, married, and the father of three kids. Last winter he tore a ligament in his knee playing basketball with his buddies. While convalescing, he put on about 15 pounds. He attributes the gain to the fact that he couldn’t exercise and he never changed his eating habits—he continued drinking a few beers at night while munching on nuts and chips. Now that his doctor has told him he can resume his former level of activity,
Chris has been going to his club at least four times a week. He spends most of the time lift- ing weights and using the new elliptical trainer that’s equipped with heart-rate monitors and variable-incline settings. Even though Chris attends the club regularly, he’s been able to drop only a few pounds over the past several months.

Marianne, forty-one years old, is a good friend of Chris’s. Marianne Went through a painful divorce about a year ago and has put on 25 pounds. She blames the gain on her new late-night love affair with chocolate chip ice cream and the fact that she’s working long hours and has little time to exercise. To help shed some of the excess pounds, she’s been watching what she eats,

cutting back on the ice cream, eat- ing more fruits and vegetables, and trimming her portion sizes. So far Marianne has lost about 10 pounds over the past 3 months, but she feels her progress has been too slow.

As Chris is leaving the weight room, he bumps into Marianne, who is coming out of a step class. They exchange greetings. Chris mentions that he hasn’t seen Marianne at the club before, and they get into a dis- cussion about their weight-loss efforts.

He says, “When I first started exercising, I lost some weight, but now I’m at a standstill. I think I need to up the intensity of my train- ing sessions.”

Marianne agrees that exercise is important but confesses that she comes to the club only sporadically. She says, “I really want to work out more, but I have to travel constantly for my job, so when I’m home, I want to be with the kids—I feel guilty coming here! I’ve been on a diet, but I think I’m going to have to try something else, like fasting, to speed up the weight loss.”